* Republican US Representatives have responded to Senate President Don Harmon’s letter asking for tens of billions of dollars in federal assistance, including $10 billion for pensions. Here’s the meat of it…
Your letter sets forth the fundamental structural problems in Illinois, and we believe these problems will only be exacerbated without long term solutions: “In a normal year the size of those [pension] payments crowds out funding for services and programs. Clearly this will not be a normal year and that crowding out effect will be exacerbated by significant revenue losses.”
We agree that this is happening but believe that it reflects a fundamental problem with State policy: The promises made in the past, and still today, are inhibiting Illinois’ growth and prosperity for the future. Even in the best economic climate, with some of the highest taxes in the nation, Illinois could not afford its obligations. This pandemic has not caused a pension crisis, it has further illuminated the one that already existed.’
Similarly, the sole justification for your requested $9.6 billion for Illinois municipalities is: “Those [revenue] losses will dramatically impact municipalities’ abilities to fund retirement systems” for municipal workers. While we honor and celebrate the service of our first responders, their service in this crisis will not convince representatives of other states to pay for pension plans that Illinois has mismanaged.
It is imperative that Illinois’ State and local leadership step up and address the preexisting financial mismanagement that makes our State and localities particularly vulnerable to the fiscal impacts of this pandemic. We will work with you to provide more federal resources, but we need the State to address the longstanding issues exacerbated by this crisis:
• Illinois must reform its pension system to reduce long-term liabilities and make the system more equitable to the people of Illinois before federal money is used to support the pension system.
• Illinois must reduce State and local spending and make the government more flexible and responsive to the people.
• Illinois must reduce spending mandates on local governments in order to provide the same flexibility the State is seeking for the use of federal dollars.
• Illinois must withdraw the Graduated Income Tax increase to protect Illinois jobs that are already at risk from the pandemic and to stem the exodus of people and opportunity from our great State.
* The governor started his press conference by looking at hospitalization history. On April 6, Illinois hospitals had 3680 COVID-19 patients….
On April 10, that number had risen to 4020. On April 14, that number had risen to 4283. And as of April 19, we had 4599 Illinoisans in the hospital with COVID-19. That’s a net increase of 316 from April 14.
For context, early modeling in mid March, showed that without social distancing we would have exceeded our hospital capacity by more than 25,000 beds by April 6.
And to be clear we are still seeing too many Illinoisans hospitalized with this virus, but because Illinoisans have come together by social distancing learning at home and staying at home, we’ve so far prevented our worst case scenarios.
Please pardon all transcription errors.
* ICUs…
On April 6, COVID patients occupied 43% of our 2700 ICU beds. On April 10, that number was 40% of 2900 ICU beds. Remember our institutions have worked to expand their bed capacity, which is why our overall bed number keeps increasing.
On April 14, COVID patients occupied 40% of the nearly 3000 ICU beds. And that brings us to today. Of the 4599 Illinoisans in the hospital with COVID-19 right now, 1239 of them are in the ICU, occupying 40% of our now 3100 beds.
* Ventilators…
Of the 4599 Illinoisans in the hospital now, 757 are on ventilators. That means 23% of our total ventilator inventory is currently in use by COVID-19 patients, continuing a downward trend from 25%.
On April 14, 27%. On April 10, 29%. On April 6, and I’ll add that 23% of our total ventilator supply is about 10 percentage points lower than it would have been had Illinois not acquired about 1000 ventilators since March 23. When we had about 2200 ventilators statewide today. We’re up to 3200 ventilators.
Again, had we not established mitigation measures by now we would have needed thousands more ventilators beyond our existing capacity.
So real progress has been made. And while we never know the exact impacts of the efforts. All of you have made to protect your communities, all the projections indicate that you have saved thousands of lives.
* Peak? No…
But as you’ve seen our case numbers in our hospitalizations are still rising, even if that rise is slower now, our curve is bending the right way.
With the current mitigation strategies in place we may not have reached our peak yet, but your actions are helping to keep that peak as low as possible.
* Nursing homes…
On February 28, in my first public update dedicated specifically to the coronavirus, I highlighted that the data from other countries clearly showed that COVID-19 tends to cause more serious illness in elderly populations. And on March 4, five days before we initiated our disaster Proclamation, we established guidelines to maximize preparations at our nursing homes veterans homes and long term care facilities, long before the first nursing home case appeared in Illinois, the state implemented strict measures around restricting visitors at the long term care facilities that we operate such as the veterans homes at DHS facilities. And we collaborated with [inaudible] associations to have the facilities that we regulate implement similar strict guidelines.
He went on to detail more of the history of what they’d done.
* With increasing supplies of testing supplies, the administration has expanded testing…
First, let’s discuss facilities without known COVID-19 outbreaks. We’re working to test all residents and all staff at those homes. We’re prioritizing testing current long term care facilities that are home to our populations where COVID infection is more likely to lead to higher severity cases, especially among black and brown communities. This testing at non COVID facilities will allow us to identify early the presence of COVID-19 in a facility and isolate those cases before widespread transmission.
With support from the Illinois National Guard and the Illinois Department of Transportation, our teams delivered tests to our first two homes over the weekend. And we’ll do the same for an additional 10 facilities today, with more to come.
Second, in facilities with known COVID-19 cases, we continue to operate under the assumption that our resident displaying symptoms of COVID-19 has COVID-19, and should be isolated accordingly and receive the appropriate care.
One change, however, is that we’ve altered our protocol related to staff. In prior weeks we’ve advised that staff be given pre-shift wellness checks, including taking temperatures. We will now be ramping up testing on all staff who work at these facilities, all staff, allowing us to determine who is coming in and out of an infected home, possibly asymptomatic and should instead be at home in isolation. This will be critical to our work to prevent further spread at these facilities.
* Warns nursing home operators…
I briefly want to address concerns about long term care facilities not adhering to proper COVID-19 response protocols. Thus far facilities seemed to have been responsive to IDPH guidance and compliance with IDPH teams on the ground. Just like our other health care workers staff at these facilities are frontline workers dedicating their days and nights to caring for seniors and doing all that they can to ensure a safe and healthy home for their residents. We as a state are deeply grateful for their service.
That said, we will not hesitate to hold any bad actors at the management level accountable. These private facilities are home to some of our most vulnerable Illinoisans, and we expect owners and managers responsible for their care to take every action at their disposal to keep them safe.
* Dr. Ezike…
Again the testing is just one of the elements of our plan, as the governor explained. Along with the testing we also provide education and stakeholder engagement. Again this is a partnership with the owners and staff at the nursing homes and the long term care facilities.
We’re also working closely with the local health departments, the local health departments are the first public health entities that come in contact and assist at the long term care facilities. IDPH also assists all of those entities by providing weekly webinars, and also twice weekly calls monitoring and surveillance, obviously is very important and that’s the primary role of the state. We have the identification of the positive cases through our electronic lab reports that come to us. And also we have an outbreak reporting system.
The third element is for local health departments and long term care facilities to implement our infection control guidance and as the governor mentioned before we ever had a case, we worked to come up with a very intense set of guidances, including the pre-shift assessments, in signage, making sure that visitors were restricted. And so making sure that local health departments can request technical assistance from IDPH we have that ongoing. And again, as mentioned, we have a team of infection control preventionist, as well as infectious disease doctors that are able to be deployed.
We also have enhanced engagement as another another part of our plan. And this involves identifying when there are persistent problems. This could be dealt with with more on site monitoring and also more visits from our infectious disease doctors or infection control specialists.
And then finally there’s another arm to this, which is resident reengagement. And that just has to deal with how we manage residents that are coming, who were at long term care facilities that went to a hospital, and then are trying to be returned to long term care facilities.
* Dr. Ezike also explained “the challenges with reporting data in real time for these facility outbreaks”…
To start, obviously, data is coming in to our systems hourly. So, the facility is probably the best place to get the most up to date data. But we are pulling data from two different electronic reporting systems, one is the … the national electronic disease surveillance system. And the second is our outbreak reporting system. So the local health departments and hospitals will put data into those into those electronic systems and it’s from there that we can aggregate the data and be able to share the data that’s been put into our system. To help preserve the integrity of the data as much as possible when trying to report in real time, IDPH posts data as was reported from the day before so there would be a lag. And because data is continually being updated, we are going to have the data up on our website, and we will update it once a week. And of course, the information that we pull out had to have been submitted, so lag from from the local health department, we can only report obviously what we’ve been given.
So I know it sounds like a straightforward, but it’s a little complex. We’re dealing with multiple reporting systems and a lot of players who have to put the information in. But we at IDPH are doing all that we can to make sure that we share all the information that we can while also being responsible and trying to protect individuals privacy rights. We know that this is a different time, and some of the requests go further than what we have ever done in the past and so we have to try to navigate that line and not veer too much and not also compromise the privacy of the individuals.
* On to questions for the governor. How accurate are those nursing home numbers?…
Dr. Ezike: They’re as accurate as the information that’s put into it. We’re not in the nursing homes collecting the data, we are receiving the data from outside inputs. And so that’s what we’re putting out. The data is as good as the data that went in.
* Some nursing homes are saying no thank you we can’t have you back, even if you’ve recovered…
We are working through that. That’s been an issue where we’re working to identify the ways that nursing home residents, long term care facility residents can get back to their home, if you will. And so trying to figure out the right time when it’s safe for them to come back, when it’s deemed that they’re no longer infectious. We’re working between the hospitals and the facilities to be able to identify that time and get people safely back to their permanent residence.
* Governor were you on the call today with Vice President Pence. How did that go and what was the main focus of that call?…
The main focus of that call was about testing. The White House’s reiterating … the coronavirus Task Force is reiterating that states have testing capacity. And I’ve said this before, but you know testing capacity is a function of how many machines do you have and if you ran them 24 seven. What output, could you get?
The problem is there’s a big difference between testing capacity and getting testing results, and what’s the big difference all those things in between that you need, like swabs, and viral transport medium and RNA extractor reagent. And then you’ve got to run those machines with lab techs, and if you’re going to run them 24 seven, that’s three shifts.
So, what they really have said is hey you’ve got plenty of machines out there, go to it. And what all … the other governors who spoke, republican and democrats, really said the same thing which is, we all need swabs, we all need VTM. We all need RNA extractor and reagent.
* There was a shipment that didn’t arrive that you had ordered. What about that, are there is some criticism from the White House, that they say you have not been truthful about the resources from the feds. And yet you spent 174 million on getting, and obviously not just that one shipment but did you have to go that far, and that expensive to get what you need…
Yes. And the reason is because the White House has not delivered what it has said it would deliver. Let me explain what they are taking credit for.
You may have heard of this thing that they’re calling the air bridge. It’s really just an airplane that they’re bringing from China on a regular basis. Bringing goods to the United States PPE. Which sounds terrific, except for one thing.
When they land at O’Hare Airport, those goods don’t come to the state, or to the cities. They go to distributors, some of it goes to the White House or the federal government, and they keep it, but some of it, much of it goes to the distributors, the profit making private businesses distributors who are getting the government to deliver to them, their goods from China, because they can’t get them out of China, and then they get to decide where those goods go.
So what they’re taking credit for, the White House, is that the distributors have customers in Illinois that they’re sending goods to, because those customers ordered those items of PPE. So that’s a far cry from delivering to the states so that we can distribute to for example, a nursing home that has an outbreak. That’s not what’s happening. What they’re doing is delivering to for profit businesses that are selling for profit to their prior customers who have ordered things from them.
* Univision: How much testing do we need to say okay it’s time to reopen the economy?…
Look, there’s not an exact number, but I would tell you this, that you need a lot more testing than we have today.
And the reason I say it that way, I’m saying not an exact number because you can debate this question. I would argue that as we start to think about it, remember you need a lot of other preconditions even according to the White House model of how to move into phase one of what they’re calling reopening. You have to get past the peak you know you have to have 14 days of numbers going down right all those conditions.
But on the testing front, I would ask you this question: What would make you feel comfortable going back into your place of work. How much testing [of] other people work with you, near you? How much what would you need to feel comfortable as you go to work every day knowing that everybody in your workplace goes home, and they go to, the grocery store and they go to wherever it is they go visit their grandmother and so on? And then they come back to work the next day. And so I would suggest to you that, no, we don’t need to test everybody every day in every workplace, but it’s a lot more than just one test for each person because you would need to test. I’ll give you an example of a nursing home you would want to test the people who work there every day.
* WGN: We’ve received many calls and emails from viewers concerned about their employment claims haven’t been processed and can’t get through they are also, if they want an update, and where it all stands. Some are concerned about bills getting paid. So what’s the latest on the backlog?…
Well hundreds of thousands more claims have been processed since the last time that we gave you an update and our plan is a little later this week to give everybody a full accounting of where we are, but we’ve got the pace of processing up significantly from where it was, again, easier for people to get processed online than they can on the phone. But again we’ve increased the number of people answering phones, the number of phone lines and brought in outside help to do that. We’ll give you an update on that in just a couple days.
* WCIA: Dozens of grocery store workers have died from coronavirus despite temperature checks, capacity restrictions. So far, supermarkets have resisted banning customers from coming inside. What is your advice?…
Well, I’m not the doctor who can provide the advice. But I will tell you that it is of grave concern to me when people are gathering in close proximity, anywhere, and that is happening, most obviously anyway at grocery stores. And so we have a number of very good actors honestly out there who are doing the right thing, putting markers on the floors about staying six feet apart, they’re asking people to wear masks when they come in even maybe requiring it.
And there are also actors out there who are not doing that. And that has led me to think hard about whether we should require people to wear masks when they go to public places like that, because if you’re not wearing a mask and you’re not keeping socially distance. I mean those two things together, lead to people getting sick.
* You’ve been thinking about that for a while when are you going to decide?…
Well we’re trying to put it together with the other things that we want to change about our stay at home order.
But we also want to make sure that it’s understood properly, that this shouldn’t stop somebody from taking a walk in their local park if it’s open. You know that’s not the idea you know, we don’t want to stop people from going outside and enjoying the outdoors, without a mask if they’re not going to be in a public place with others. But when you’re in a public place with others or you think you are going to be, you should carry a mask wear a mask with you.
* WIND: In Missouri, for instance, the state is slowly opening May 4 with different phases for different counties. Might that be the case here? The governor there is saying okay, the mayors of St. Louis and Kansas City, they’re going to extend their stay at home order. Is that something you and Mayor Lightfoot might consider county by county rather than an entire state order?…
Well, Mayor Lightfoot doesn’t have any do with the other counties or other cities but. But I would say that as we make decisions about changing the stay at home order, or how we can even after the peak, how we might phase in people getting back to work or people reopening things.
I absolutely think that we need to look at where the capacity exists for example, if the hospital capacity in a certain area is quite large and very available. Even with coronavirus in existence, then that might be a place where you could do more, than some other place, but what’s most important though is keeping people safe and healthy. And so we’re trying to get, think about, there’s a lot of distances, you can imagine, between people’s homes in rural areas of Illinois. And so, you know, the idea of people going outside and wearing a mask, you know, on a property of theirs that might be 100 acres or 10 acres you know is much different than the prospect of somebody you know on the north side of the west side of Chicago, or going outside and walking on the sidewalk with hundreds of other people.
* Is a county by county idea something you are considering?…
Or region by region. I think the important thing is that that we want to keep people safe and and also give them the ability to do as much as possible without spreading the virus. And so those are the complications. None of this is done on a whim. All of this is done listening to the people who understand the virus and know how it gets transmitted. Even they’re learning as you know this is so new that some of the guidance that they’ve given to us who are, you know, less informed, right, the experts giving advice, have been learning along the way and giving more and more advice. You’ve seen CDC, for example, evolve the way they advise us. And so we’re trying to follow that advice and look at how best to give people the most freedom, while also making sure people are healthy.
* With 10 days left in that order might be here this week on whether it will be lifted changed altered whatever your plan is?
Again, a lot of this has to do with looking at every aspect of the order and seeing all the things that we might change we’re looking at it working on it every day. I promise you that I will be out here, you know, and tell you as soon as I can.
* The number of test results reported today is a little over 5000. When will we see that number go up permanently as a result of all the testing capacity increases you announced on Thursday? Have all of the Abbott rapid test machines been delivered to health centers, prisons and DHS sites and are they up and running? What about reports that Abbott test results have false negatives?…
[Instead of tests] let’s just use the word specimens, and testing results.
So, as you know you need those other items that I talked about earlier, in order to actually get a test result, you need the machine and all the items that it takes to get the specimen into the machine, and of course to take the specimen. So, my optimism about testing has been that we’ve been able to obtain sufficient or, you know, quantities anyway I wouldn’t call them, you know, abundant, but we’ve been able to obtain more quantities of each of those items and we have those. And then you’ve got to distribute those to everybody who needs them and make sure that they’re running tests. So all of that is a process that really has never before been run by the state of Illinois. That’s usually run by commercial labs or run by individual hospitals […]
My staff knows that I’ve been pushing to make sure that all of these sites are doing as much testing as possible and that we get those tests run. So my hope is again I don’t want to promise any timeframe. But my hope is in the very near future, you will start to see thousands more than you’re seeing now, but you will see that if you’ll do a trend line and I do watch the trend line, every day it’s gonna bounce around, but the trend line has been heading up.
* Rock River Times: Should people who believe they have COVID-19 and recovered be actively seeking to be tested for the coronavirus antibody or should they wait for more widespread testing to become available?…
It is hard even if you wanted to seek it out it is hard to find them. Because, first of all, not all the tests are very accurate. And second of all, it’s not widely available so I would say, you should wait to be tested. If you know someplace that is providing an accurate test, you should certainly try to go get it.
But even on the white house call today with the Vice President Pence, the discussion was had about serology and these antibody tests, and even they admitted that much of it is not yet proven.
* We’re starting to see schools’ specific budget projections from other states about the impact of COVID-19. Is there an estimate yet for what districts could be planning for next school year in terms of funding?…
No.
* WMAY: Have you given any thoughts where you want to see spending cuts in the FYI 21 budget to make up for the revenue shortfall?…
We’re working on the budget for sure and obviously in consultation with legislators budgeteers … so we’ll be coming out with whenever it is that we can organize for the state legislature to meet, we’ll be coming out with some proposals.
* Center Square: For clarity, what specific metric and target, or goal, are you using to determine when the state’s economy can reopen?…
I think there are aspects of the plan that Dr. Fauci and Dr Birx and the White House put out that are worth looking at, for example. The discussion about when does phase one as they refer to it, begin. And that is past the peak, 14 days of numbers going down so I think that’s probably a pretty good metric.
And it gives you an idea if you think you know about. If we haven’t had quite hit the peak yet. And we don’t really know by the way when you hit the peak until you start to go down. And so that I think is the, the marker that everybody should be looking for.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,151 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 59 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 male 70s
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 male 40s, 2 females 50s, 1 male 50s, 6 males 60s, 4 females 70s, 6 males 70s, 3 females 80s, 10 males 80s, 2 females 90s, 2 females 100+
DuPage County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
Jackson County: 1 male 80s
Jasper County: 1 female 80s
Kane County: 1 male 80s
Lake County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s, 1 unknown 50s, 1female 60s, 2 males 70s, 1 male 90s
Livingston County: 1 female 80s
Macon County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 90s
Madison County: 2 males 80s
Will County: 1 male 80s
Cass and White counties are now reporting cases. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 31,508 cases, including 1,349 deaths, in 95 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
* In case you were wondering, as I did on Saturday when I ventured forth into the world…
The governor ordered that all persons or entities covered by the Illinois Flag Display Act are to fly the United States and Illinois flags at half-staff to honor those who have lost their lives in Illinois due to COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/j4yaGhAvkJ
* I’ve been saying this for over two months, but I guess I’ll say it again: The federal government needs to get its act together…
The Food and Drug Administration has allowed about 90 companies, many based in China, to sell [antibody] tests that have not gotten government vetting, saying the pandemic warrants an urgent response. But the agency has since warned that some of those businesses are making false claims about their products; health officials, like their counterparts overseas, have found others deeply flawed.
Tests of “frankly dubious quality” have flooded the U.S. market, said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Many of them, akin to home pregnancy tests, are easy to take and promise rapid results.
And the federal guidance that does exist is so confusing that health care providers are administering certain tests unaware that they may not be authorized to do so. Some are misusing antibody test results to diagnose the disease, not realizing that they can miss the early stages of infection.
Barring a vaccine, widespread testing and treatment is the only way out of this stay at home stuff.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will not interfere with doctors prescribing hydroxychloroquine, a drug individuals with autoimmune diseases say they’re having a harder time getting ahold of since it’s been cited by officials, including President Donald Trump, as a potential way to ward off the new coronavirus.
There is no study proving hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ, is an effective way to prevent COVID-19; clinical trials are underway.
The Lupus Society of Illinois has asked Pritzker in a petition to prohibit pharmacies from dispensing HCQ and the brand-name version of the medicine, Plaquenil, “for either presumptive (COVID-19) positive patients or prophylactic use.” […]
[Pritzker] said that determinations about how drugs are used “are decisions that are typically made by doctors.”
That’s as it should be, whether or not you agree with the all the loud touting of hydroxychloroquine.
* If you’re a legislator advocating for reopening state parks, and part of your pitch is there’s plenty of room for social distancing at said parks, perhaps when you make a video you should, you know, stand more than a couple of feet apart…
* As I’ve told you before, the governor’s office sends an email every night to legislators answering their questions. Yesterday’s had a surprise…
Q: Are people allowed to go boating in small groups of 10 people of less?
A: Boating is a recreational activity in which groups of people are gathered in small spaces. Boating is not an essential activity under the Stay at Home Executive Order 10 and as extended by Executive Order 18. Only minimum business operations are permitted at boatyards and marinas.
I stored my pontoon for the winter at the place I bought it from, but I neglected to have it taken out of storage and delivered to my house before the stay at home order was issued. That place is now locked up.
But, apparently, even if I could get it home I couldn’t use it.
Sigh.
I’m told this particular provision could be altered in the governor’s revised order, which is expected later this month. I still gotta figure out how to get my boat, though.
More than a dozen residents have tested positive for COVID-19 at a nursing home in Newton and one has died.
Newton Care Center reported Sunday it has 18 confirmed COVID-19 residents. The Illinois Department of Public Health website reported the same day the death of a confirmed COVID-19 resident at the facility.
Newton is in Jasper County, in southeastern Illinois. More info is here.
* Press release…
At the request of the local government, the State of Illinois has activated a pre-staged alternate housing facility in Jefferson County to meet the identified needs of COVID-19. Jefferson County authorities have indicated a recent spike in positive cases of COVID-19, including more than 17-cases linked to a long-term care facility, will require additional resources to help slow the spread of the virus.
The purpose of an alternate housing facility is to provide a place where people can go to safely isolate or quarantine in order to not expose others in their home. These facilities will allow individuals to remain close to home, near family and his/her healthcare provider of record. However, it is important to note, these facilities are not designed to provide medical care for individuals.
* The Tribune has set up a handy nursing home search page using new state data. Click here. However, that nursing home in Jasper County is only showing 2 cases and one death. There’s apparently a reporting lag.
In releasing the latest data, Illinois officials said they planned to boost testing and shore up staffing at nursing homes, while also defending their initial efforts to try to stem the virus.
Before the weekend, the state had told nursing homes they didn’t need to test anyone else once someone has tested positive at a facility. There are other ways residents and staff can — and have — gotten tested, explaining the multiple cases reported at so many facilities.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said the state will now be sending more test supplies to the facilities to catch infections earlier and curb the spread, including “aggressive testing of staff.”
Her agency later told the Tribune it will prioritize testing residents and staff in homes without any known cases to more quickly isolate those found with the virus. For homes already with known cases, the agency will test staff to see who can continue to care for residents, while treating symptomatic residents as if they have the virus, even if not tested yet.
These state directives have been strongly condemned by the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Dr. Sabine von Preyss, chief medical officer for Avalon Health Care Group and president of the society’s Washington state chapter, says that a distinction must be made between nursing homes that have suffered COVID-19 outbreaks and those that are still virus-free.
“The question is, should we be forced to introduce a disease with such deadly potential into a population that has been sheltered?” says von Preyss. “And my experience tells me that would be ill-advised.”
Also, it won’t even help overcrowded hospitals, says Dr. Michael Wasserman, who heads the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.
“If you push folks out of the hospitals to make space and you push them into nursing homes a couple weeks later,” Wasserman says, “for every one of those you send to the nursing home, you may get 20 back in the hospital.”
Monday, Apr 20, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Black residents of Illinois were seven times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession in Illinois before the State regulated purchase and possession at the beginning of this year. In fact, Illinois had the third highest rate of bias in cannabis arrests in the United States, surpassed only by Montana and Kentucky. The ACLU of Illinois noted these figures today in calling for continued vigilance to assure that remaining enforcement of cannabis in Illinois not carry on this legacy of discrimination.
The data about Illinois’ enforcement is contained in a new national report on cannabis issued by the American Civil Liberties Union. The new report, A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform details cannabis possession arrests from 2010 to 2018 and updates our unprecedented national report published in 2013, The War on Marijuana in Black and White.
“The legacy of rank bias in how we enforced cannabis laws in Illinois is clear,” said Ben Ruddell, Criminal Justice Policy Director, ACLU of Illinois. “We should redouble our efforts to ensure that this sort of racially disproportionate policing does not continue under the new State law, especially in those parts of the state where the track record is so abysmal.”
Racial disparities in a number of Illinois counties were even more jarring. Black people were 43 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession in Tazwell County; it was 24 times more likely in Peoria County and nearly 20 times more likely in Whiteside County.
Across the U.S., law enforcement made more than 6.1 million cannabis-related arrests from 2010 to 2018, and nationally in 2018, law enforcement made more cannabis arrests than for all violent crimes combined. Despite legalization in a number of states, it is not clear that cannabis arrests are trending downward nationally. National arrest rates have actually risen in the past few years, with almost 100,000 more arrests in 2018 than 2015.
“A big reason for our legislation was to address racial disparities in the way cannabis laws were enforced,” said State Representative Kelly Cassidy, lead sponsor of the cannabis legalization law in Illinois. “This data shows how badly we needed to take that step. But our work is not done. We need to ensure that laws around cannabis or other drugs are not enforced with this same sort of bias.”
Emphasis added. The full report is here. Adams County was almost as bad as Peoria County.
Harmon has proposed that about a quarter of the new money for Illinois, $10 billion, be used to bail out our state government’s cash-strapped retirement systems — a problem not even remotely related to COVID-19.
How Harmon thought to justify this “ask” — let alone put it in writing to be picked up in publications including the New York Times, Forbes and our own Sun-Times — is beyond us.
Illinois’ $138 billion unfunded pension liability has been years — make that decades — in the making. Springfield lawmakers since before the Beatles have been expanding employee retirement benefits without putting aside enough money to pay for them.
At best, Harmon’s pension ask is politically clueless.
At worst, it will serve to explode efforts at bipartisanship in Washington as our nation struggles to recover from the pandemic. You can almost see congressional Republicans waving Harmon’s letter in the air and saying: “See, we told you. Blue states like Illinois are just being greedy. They want us to bail them out of problems of their own making, created over decades. Why should we help them?”
* I’ve seen just one supportive commentary and it was in Politico Illinois…
The criticism seems harsh given the state’s pension debt is $100 billion-plus and Illinois is only halfway through a 50-year payment plan — $10 billion is roughly one year’s full payment to the pension systems.
On top of that, Illinois’ revenue will be down, expenditures will be up, and its stock market holdings are probably taking a beating. So is anyone all that surprised by a hail Mary pass?
Dick Durbin represents one of the most bankrupt states in America and the most bankrupt city, Chicago, in America behind those closed doors. They are demanding straight cash bailouts for states and cities that have been fiscally irresponsible for years.
There is a certain strain of wonky politicians who try to “start conversations” without first pausing to ask themselves if publicly sharing those ideas could hurt their own causes.
Illinois created this problem. It’s Illinois’ responsibility to solve it, not the federal government’s. This letter could even hurt all other states’ attempts to convince Congress and the president to back an aid package.
* I asked Harmon’s spokesperson yesterday if the Senate President stands by his letter. “Yes,” was the answer.
So, I’m curious what you think.
* The Question: Should Senate President Harmon retract his pension bailout request? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
Sam Toia, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, said local restaurants and employees have been hit hard by the COVID-19 restrictions.
“Restaurants are down 80% in sales,” Toia said.
I’m growing more frustrated with businesses that are open to the public and are obviously not adequately protecting their workers and their customers. At the very least, the workers should be wearing masks.
I have never been a germophobe, but I can’t currently watch TV shows without cringing at the lack of social distancing. And it particularly bothers me in advertising. Businesses should be advertising their safety precautions, subtly or not.
We did carry-out from Magic Kitchen on Saturday (a Thai restaurant on Springfield’s north end). The person handling our order was wearing a mask and gloves. We will definitely be back to that restaurant (it also has awesome food and homemade pies).
The new normal is the fear of catching this virus. Put people at ease. It’s just good business.
A small group of protesters holding “Don’t tread on me” flags and chanting “Open Illinois!” demonstrated outside the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on Sunday, the latest in a series of protests across the country against stay-at-home orders designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
About 50 people gathered on the steps of the Capitol, holding signs that read “Open our state,” “Freedom is essential” and “No one is safe when rights are infringed.” Others waved “Trump 2020” and “Recall Pritzker.”
One counterprotester stood among them, wearing a face mask and holding a sign that read “These guys are idiots.”
As I noted over the weekend, the Statehouse is regularly the scene of rallies in the hundreds and even in the thousands. Yesterday’s was tiny.
For some people, Illinois’ stay-at-home order has gone on long enough.
On Sunday, about two dozen red, white and blue-clad protesters carrying Trump banners gathered near the steps of the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield calling for Gov. J.B. Pritzker to end his stay-at-home order, set to last until at least April 30. […]
“You know, what I would do with Chicago is just take Cook County and just build a wall right there and leave everybody inside,” said Robert Tracy, a commercial painter from Joliet. “I know it sounds silly, but I think the rest of the state could function without Cook County.” […]
Across from the rally, about a half-dozen of counterprotesters gathered. Among them was Allissa Hall, a social services worker from Springfield, holding a sign that said: “People are dying — go home!”
Will County is a hot spot. The guy is kidding himself.
Tensions ran high briefly as two vehicles blocked the intersection of Second Street and Capitol Avenue and other protesters had to be removed from the walkway by Springfield police and Secretary of State Capitol police Sunday afternoon.
The protest was part of Operation Gridlock, organized on Facebook. Similar protests over “stay at home” mandates have flourished in state capitals around the country in the past several days. […]
Lori “C.J.” Van Note of Heyworth, one of the protesters blocking the intersection with her vehicle, said she was tired of the “tyranny of the Democratic Party” that is causing people to lose their jobs. She also called the numbers of COVID-19 related illnesses and deaths “fake.”
“Cancel all meetings or gatherings of more than 10 people, like sports events, concerts, conferences, etc.”
March: 85% support
April: 87% support
“Close certain businesses where larger numbers of people gather, like theaters, bars, restaurants, etc.”
March: 84% support
April: 87% support
“Close schools and universities”
March: 85% support
April: 87% support
“Restrict travel by plane, train, or bus”
March: 78% support
April: 83% support
“Restrict all non-essential travel outside the home”
March: 82% support
April: 86% support
“Encourage people to stay in their homes and avoid socializing with others”
March: 87% support
April: 88% support
“Require people who can work from home to work from home”
March: 87% support
April: 89% support
One more point…
What is more, the percent who "strongly support" these things averages 64% and that average increased 6 points between the May and April polls. So the overall level of support has remained high *and* the intensity of support has increased.
While short on details, the state and regional guidance finally issued by the White House last week gives us a set of pretty reasonable, if difficult-to-achieve, goals.
We all know why we need to contain and reduce our risk to the COVID-19 virus: Save lives, preserve health and get people back to work.
And we now know what states are supposed to achieve to get to the finish line:
1) A measurable and sustained reduction in new positive tests over three sets of two-week periods, or the same downward trajectory of positive tests as a percentage of total tests
2) The ability to treat all patients without crisis care (like the tent hospitals in New York City)
3) Robust testing, contact tracing, syndromic surveillance that can catch an outbreak before it actually happens, as well as surveillance testing of asymptomatic members of vulnerable populations
4) An ample supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the ability to deploy it along with an ability to surge ICU capacity
Again, details are lacking. The White House says, for example, that states must be able to do things like “Protect employees and users of mass transit,” without explaining what that means.
When all that and more is done, states can then move to the first and quite limited phase of reopening their economies. But if they cannot sustain all four points mentioned above (and more) during that phase, they have to start over again. And then it’s on to Phase Two of the reopening, but with the same mandate to meet all the requirements listed above. And then Phase Three, which looks something like pre-pandemic life.
So, where is Illinois right now? The state seems to be generally OK with its hospital system and Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims that it is improving its PPE supply system.
“If the government can force restaurant cooks to wear a hair net, it can and should require them to wear masks.”
But after weeks of promises, the state’s testing program still lags the nation. Pritzker claimed yet again last week that they’ve fixed the latest glitch, but he’s made similar promises before about other things — like the state’s unemployment insurance application process — so we’ll see.
State leaders have been saying for weeks that testing is very important, but we have yet to see significant progress on that front. You cannot walk until you can crawl and we’re still crawling here.
And Illinois appears to have a long way to go on contact tracing, surveillance, etc.
But the really hard part will be meeting the requirement for a measurable and sustained downward trajectory in newly positive tests.
Decline doesn’t appear to just happen on its own. The upward climb in positive results is relatively swift, but the peak’s other side looks more like a plateau. Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezeki said Friday that she didn’t think Illinois had even reached its peak.
Illinois, like some other states, has slowed the upward curve of newly positive tests, except for April 17, when it spiked up hard. Slowing is good, but it’s not enough to comply with the White House guidance.
I asked Pritzker what scientists were telling him about how to reduce the number of newly positive tests and he said there wasn’t much that can be done except to continue doing what they have been doing.
Pritzker shied away from requiring masks in public, even though some say it could help bend that curve downward. I happen to think it’s a good idea, but the governor said, “we don’t live in a dictatorial society.”
If the government can force restaurant cooks to wear a hair net, it can and should require them to wear masks.
We know the “why” and we now know the outline of “what” states have to do. But when it comes to the sustained reduction of positive tests, the nation really has no plan for “how” that will be accomplished.
But at least we finally have a road map, which should give the nation and our state a bit of predictability.
By the way, the White House guidance also says schools can reopen during Phase Two, even though crowd sizes of 50 people or more “should be avoided.” That seems unwise, but if by some absolute miracle Illinois fixed all of its testing and monitoring issues within two weeks, and new positive test results began to drop immediately and then consistently continued downward for four more weeks, the school year would almost be over anyway.
But that miracle is not going to happen. The governor was right to cancel the rest of the school year.
* Email from the governor’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh…
UPDATED PROCEDURE: Governor’s 2:30pm briefing
Reporters—
I appreciate your patience as we navigate a new normal due to COVID-19.
STARTING MONDAY: To further ensure we’re appropriately following social distancing guidelines we will now only allow one print pool reporter and one broadcast pool reporter in the room for the governor’s daily press briefings. We will continue to accept questions from our portal that most of you have already been using.
The broadcasters have organized themselves into a pool without my involvement and will continue doing so. Broadcasters, only the reporter from the pool team that day will be allowed in the room. Print reporters, I trust you can talk amongst yourselves to work out a similar system, but let me know if I can be helpful. Pool reporters gather questions from their colleagues and ask them in the room. I will continue working to ensure reporters working from home and from across the state are also equally represented by asking questions from our portal.
The only thing I ask is that you let me know who will be the pool reporters that day so I can let the security desk know who to expect.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to the day when we can return to a normal press conference set up where we can stand too close together and shout over each other once again.
Thanks!
Jordan
Aside from the health issues, some of the broadcast outlets were asking ridiculously repetitive questions and cutting off time for reporters who can’t be there or choose not to be there. Yesterday was one of the worst. A talk show host from a small radio station hogged the mic for what seemed like forever with things that weren’t even actual questions. It was ridiculous.
My own opinion is Abudayyeh has been fair to those of us who have asked questions via the online app and has posed some tough questions from reporters to the governor. I’ve heard no complaints about censorship, but a print pool reporter is also a good idea just to make sure.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,197 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 33 additional deaths.
Cook County: 1 male 40s, 1 female 60s, 5 males 60s, 4 females 80s, 2 males 80s, 2 females 90s, 3 males 90s, 1 unknown 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
Kane County: 1 female 90s
Madison County: 1 male 50s
Monroe County: 1 female 90s
Sangamon County: 1 male 90s
St. Clair County: 1 male 60s
Will County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 60s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 30,357 cases, including 1,290 deaths, in 93 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
…Adding… Keep in mind that weekend (especially Sunday) case and death reporting often misses things…
I pleased today to welcome home from overseas the first battalion of the 178th Infantry Regiment of the Illinois National Guard under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Garrison. 400 of our most exemplary Illinoisans served in Afghanistan to advance operation freedoms Sentinel.
These are remarkable individuals who possess a phenomenal strength. And as soldiers of the 178 infantry also carry the legacy of having descended from the nation’s first all black National Guard unit, the fighting eighth.
As governor, I have the honor of serving as the commander in chief of Illinois citizen soldiers. And in my first 16 months, I’ve learned a thing or two about the 13,000 women and men who make up the Illinois National Guard. Namely, they’re an astonishingly humble group, even though they’ve earned the right to take extraordinary pride in what they do.
In the midst of this COVID-19 emergency, I hope you’ve had a chance to see as I have just how amazing the Illinois National Guard is. Because it’s the guard that’s setting up our drive through testing sites to serve our first responders, our medical professionals and everyday resonance. It’s the guard that has helped to build the alternate care facility at McCormick Place at a jaw dropping record pace. It’s the guard that has provided critical surge support, as we’ve managed outbreaks in our facilities. It’s the guard who deserves our deepest reverence and gratitude.
* PPE…
I also want to share more positive news on the peopIe front we have another airlift of PPE arriving tomorrow in Illinois, that follows our first flight that landed earlier this week.
I’ll note that it’s the Illinois National Guard handling transportation logistics on the ground and ensuring that our protective equipment gets to the frontlines in the COVID-19 battle.
These millions of masks and gloves and other PPE will be taken to our state warehouse where inventory and performance quality checks are done before we ship them out to keep our first responders and our healthcare professionals protected as they work to keep us safe.
If it strikes you as a typical that in the midst of a national emergency a state is directly airlifting emergency response materials from another country, well, you’d be right. But that’s the landscape that we’re operating in, competing with other states, other countries, and even our own federal government for supplies. So if an airlift is what it takes to bring the PP to protect our nurses or firefighters or police officers and other essential workers, then it’s an airlift that we’ll use without hesitation.
* On to questions for the governor. I missed the first question because the video feed conked out, but the answer suggested the question was basically the same as usual. When is the state reopening? The answer was the same.
* President Trump is talking of course about opening the country possibly in stages, and there are parents out there today who have giant concerns wondering if their company says they’re one of the people who have to stop working from home and have to stop start going back into their businesses, while their kids are still home. Can you answer what Illinois might be able to provide to those parents?…
In terms of childcare for example we’ve created emergency childcare. In fact, all across the state that’s something we did weeks and weeks ago because of the essential workers and their needs. And there is capacity out there and we of course want to encourage people to become emergency childcare providers.
So to the extent people will go back to work and their kids will be at home. During the school year, that is one option for people, of course during the summer, people who normally work and their kids would be not in school during the summer. They’ll have that same problem if the kids were otherwise going to go to some congregate setting day camp or something else.
* There are people who are still going into their places of employment obviously such as nursing homes and things, and many of these businesses they are doing their due diligence they’re checking temperatures right at the door. But is that enough given the fact that COVID-19 can be asymptomatic for so long?…
The answer is no, it’s not enough, and what we really need is rapid testing in all of those settings, the ones that you’re describing congregate settings, but also everywhere else.
What we really would like is for people to be able to get tested on a very regular basis until we have a treatment and a vaccine. You want to know that people who are coming to work with you are not COVID positive. The challenge I think as you are well aware is that for weeks and weeks now, a couple of months that have gone by, the understanding by the scientists and the doctors has evolved because they’ve come to see for example what you’re describing people can be asymptomatic and pass along COVID-19. That wasn’t something that the CDC, for example, or the federal government or anybody really was saying, a month and a half ago.
And so as we learn more, you know, the evolution of how we think about how to get back to work, changes but you’re raising an excellent point. We need more than just a temperature check at the door right now that’s the only thing that we really have doing a wellness check for workers that walk in and doing a temperature check which is, you know, takes a moment to do.
* Hi governor. Will Jones from ABC. I have two questions. The first one is for you. And then the second one is for Dr. Ezike. The first question is, what can you tell people who are anxious about when this is going to be over?…
The first thing I would say is that we’re frankly I think everybody is anxious because we don’t know so much right, there’s a lot that still needs to be learned here, and we don’t have the treatment or the vaccine to really deal with this in a way that will make people feel safer.
But, as we’re learning more and sharing information all across the country and as the CDC provides more information as our Department of Public Health does its work. I think we’re, you know we’re getting a greater understanding day by day, and people should feel I think somewhat more confident today than they did weeks ago.
And let me give you one example of why I think I may have mentioned this in the last couple of days. But the report out of Chicago hospital was the University of Chicago, that the trials on remdesivir are one of the 70 different treatments that are in trials right now that the reports are very positive. Now, that doesn’t mean that the study is completed and that this is an approved treatment. But the idea that there’s something that’s gotten positive results, and that at least is rumored to be one of the main treatments that may be available. I think that is some really great news right that’s something to add on to as we see the bending of the curve here in the state, if you can have a treatment. Right. And then you see the beginning of decline of cases and a decline of hospitalizations, having a treatment makes an enormous difference. So people should start to feel more confident, seeing that are amazing private sector researchers, and that’s really what’s happening. Many of these private companies, the pharmaceutical companies as well as our NIH, scientists, that collectively, the United States is the greatest country in the world and, indeed, because we are so innovative and in the face of this pandemic the idea that we’re 70 treatments are in trials and a few of them look like they might be effective in just a couple of months that’s pretty amazing.
* Hi. Amy Jacobson WIND Chicago. I have a question for you and a question for the doctor. While I won’t hog the mic [ha!]. … The PPE that’s landing tomorrow. Where’s it coming from and what do you want to say to the FBI agent here in Chicago who stopped your procurement team from wasting $26 million of our tax dollars? [That’s two questions] Because there’s a lot of scams going on, not just in Illinois all over the country, and they were about to purchase $26 million for pay a company that money, and it was a big company…
It’s coming from China … You should know that most of the PPE that is manufactured in the world, and again, we’re talking about disposable PPE, not the fabric masks and other things which are much more expensive but the disposable PPE which is needed by healthcare workers and first responders, that comes from China and so this is coming from China. I don’t recall right now where this particular shipment is coming from exactly in China.
As to scams. Oh my goodness, I mean I’ve talked to other governors, yeah you as you can, as you can imagine you’ve seen it all online if anybody’s even looked up for any PPE on their own. And you know the scams are everywhere you can imagine, you know, big ones and small ones right and people have tried to contact us to get us signed up for you know delivery of PPE that doesn’t exist. And we’ve had to ferret those things out and we’ve definitely been working with law enforcement, also with the attorney general, I think I mentioned that yesterday that you know we need our attorney general on it but if you’re talking about an international seller, but you know we don’t. We’re not allowed in the state of Illinois to purchase directly from any international provider. And so we use either an Illinois company or a US company to go find that for us and so sometimes in that process. You know, there can be people you know bad actors and we definitely rely upon the FBI, and our state police and our Attorney General to help ferret those things out for us.
* Amy Jacobson at WIND: Thank you. Doctor, I have one quick question. First of all thank you for all that you’ve done and your dedication to this. I think it would be helpful for all of us, Illinois, if we knew because every day we come out with numbers, how many of those are active cases. How many are in ICU. How many have recovered because I think that would help, maybe some people sleep better at night because I know we’re gonna have larger numbers because more people are being tested, right [Most of those answers are online, so she hogged the mic for nothing again and now let’s move along.]
* CBS 2: Vice President Pence says 5 million tests should be completed by the end of the month. He calls that a success. Nancy Pelosi was on fox news this morning she gives President Trump an F when it comes to testing. So who’s right and where do we stand in Illinois right now?…
Well let me respond to the question about testing. I’ve been frustrated when I hear the White House talk about testing capacity, versus testing they seem to use those interchangeably. Those are very different. Testing capacity is the capability, machines that exist in your state that could possibly run a test.
But as you know, well, because I’ve talked about it a lot over the last month and a half, that you need a lot of other things in order to actually have a test result. You need a swab to take the specimen, you need the viral transport medium to put the specimen in so that it can be transported safely. You need the RNA extractor, so that the process can run properly and you need the machine, and oh by the way you need lab technicians and a lot of them because we’re doing a lot more testing than normally gets done. Because we have this novel Corona virus that we have to test for.
So when you think about testing capacity, you know they say well we have the ability to do X number of tests. Well yeah, testing capacity is large, but if you don’t have all of those items, which, by the way, none of the states have all of those items that they need. You actually use the testing capacity that’s available, so very frustrating.
Look today where are we, what you saw today we announced, you know 6000 specimens were announced today that were tested, and you saw that 1100 and some positives among the 6000. We have a fluctuating number, every day it’s going to be different. Each day, because you get different reports each day I’ll tell you today. We got no report from one of the largest commercial laboratories in the country. And so that’s that’s a number of tests that were obviously done and completed, but never reported to us because they didn’t report it to anyone in the country. You know what, why that is. I can’t tell you but we’ll get those tests tomorrow and hopefully we’ll get all of the tests that were done yesterday reported tomorrow and test today reported tomorrow but we’re a little bit at the whim of these commercial laboratories. Now we control our own state laboratories which are doing amazing jobs. And then we have terrific hospitals here in the state that are doing a lot of testing as well.
* I spoke with Dr. Howard Herman from UIC right before I came here. He said the problem with a lot of what you’ve done is that you’ve made the procedures and the policies optional, he said for example masks. Why not order the use of masks?…
I appreciate that, and he’s right. I didn’t order it. And I have considered doing that and still I’m considering doing that.
As you know, I came out strongly and told people that they should be wearing masks and every time I talk about this, wash your hands, wipe your surfaces, make sure you’re wearing a mask when you go outside. But have I put an order in yet? No, but you’re foreshadowing that.
I mentioned this also a few days ago that one of the Republican state representatives Rep. Batinick has been very helpful providing ideas. And that is one idea that he suggested. His suggestion was just for a retail establishment like grocery stores and the essential workers all wearing them, and people who go to those locations as well. That’s a good first step, for example.
But I don’t disagree with the comments of the doctor, you know it may be that the right answer is everybody wears a mask, no matter where they are outside, or perhaps everybody wears a mask if they know that they’re going to be in an area with other people.
* If you do decide to do that [mask] order, when might that happen?…
April 30 is when our stay at home order expires. And so we’re looking at how we might make adjustments. And so, obviously between now and then, we’ll be making some decisions about that and putting that forward.
* The Lupus Society of Illinois has a petition asking you to prohibit doctors from preemptively prescribing hydroxychloroquine as COVID prevention as it’s causing a shortage of the drugs. Will you do that why or why not?…
There’s been a lot of discussion about hydroxychloroquine by the president, he’s pushed it a lot. And then it therefore is being overused without a lot of testing to back it up. The decision by doctors about whether to use something that’s off brand, you know something that’s allowed and permitted it’s an FDA approved drugs, and then using an off brand, those are decisions that are typically made by doctors. … I don’t disagree that it shouldn’t be used off brand unless you really know that it works and right now we just don’t know that it works.
* Me: This is mainly a federal issue, but with so many meat processing plants shutting down or experiencing spikes in cases, is there a state role in improving these conditions?…
Indeed, the federal government of course regulates those plants. But it is also the responsibility of the state to keep the people who work there, who live in our state of course, safe and of course the businesses in our state as well.
So, we have worked with local health departments on making sure that they are using PPE in those facilities, and making sure that the people who work in this facility are safe and not forced to work if they are not feeling well, if they have any symptoms at all. And some plants are very good about following all of those, and some, we’ve had to talk to, have discussions with, and you know have have been threatened to force closure.
* Dahl: You have gotten attention nationally during this pandemic. How does the State benefit and how do you benefit from this heightened profile?…
The most important thing that’s happened is we’ve actually gotten more from the federal government as a result of by, you know, having a slightly higher profile or speaking out nationally.
I’m very pleased with what we’ve received from the army the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, HHS and I continue to have dialogue, behind the scenes. It’s not just speaking out publicly, behind the scenes speaking with the vice president directly, but also White House advisors, speaking to representatives of the various departments, including the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of HHS directly about our needs, so that we can get them fulfilled. … But, you know, you’ve heard me publicly talk about some of the things that the White House has promised and hasn’t been able to deliver. But ‘ll continue to do whatever I have to do to make sure that we get what we need in the state of Illinois.
* How can mass testing be a pillar of our recovery recovery plan when the centers for infectious disease research and policy says there won’t be enough reagent needed to conduct those tests?…
Well this is I think a great example of the challenge of not having invoked the defense production act. If we had done that, if we had gotten you know the chemical companies and the companies who produce reagent to essentially focus all of their resources on delivering for the states, we could have been further along. But I think all the companies that produce reagent, not to mention all the other items that I mentioned that are part of the supply chain, all of those items are in short supply. And all of those items I’m fighting hard for.
I will say I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to do more than some other states recently in order to have all the supplies to ramp up our testing. And then we need to actually ramp it up with using all of those pieces of the supply chain together.
* Politico: What would you recommend to Senators Durbin and Duckworth and Representative Davis who are on the President’s task force to open the economy, what to address first?…
Well, I mean I’m partial to the industries that are particularly important here in the state of Illinois.
One thing I think has been very challenging for people is, how are we protecting, and this is very important, how are we protecting the workers and the customers in each of the retail and wholesale and warehouse situations.
We’re the supply chain hub of the nation here in Illinois. We have a lot of warehouses and distribution. Not to mention manufacturing and other things but how do we protect the workers, and the customers, and give guidance more than just you know six feet apart, and maska by industry, I’m working on this myself. But, this is a problem that every state that is similar to ours or every industry, like the industries that we have here in Illinois, is trying to grapple with, so I hope that they will address that.
* Rock River Times: Now that we’re seeing more grocery store workers infected with COVID-19, shoppers are worried that they will be infected by touching items they purchase, and should shoppers wipe down items that they buy at stores?…
They absolutely should wipe down items that they buy at the stores.
I would suggest to everybody there are a couple of very good and well thought out demonstration videos and articles about what you should do when you go to the grocery store. When you buy things, you bring them home how you should handle that, when you get home, everything really needs to be wiped down. And whatever it is you’re carrying the groceries in needs to immediately be thrown away or, you know, if it can be wiped down, great, but you need to get it out of your kitchen and make sure that it’s out of the reach of anybody who would touch it and, therefore, possibly be infected by something that’s remaining on those items. But it can be done. And again there are lots of good instructional videos and articles about that.
* The Secretary of State’s office says about 40 protesters showed up at the Statehouse today. It may have grown slightly more than that later, but that’s still pretty darned pathetic.
The Statehouse grounds are regularly filled with hundreds, even thousands of people amassing to petition their government for redress of grievances.
Polling has shown that an overwhelmingly number of Americans is more afraid that their states will lift the stay at home orders too early than those who fear they will open too late, and there’s no major national organization funding protesters here like in other states. Both of those points may explain today’s turnout. But coverage follows conflict, so we’ll see how the news media handles this silliness…
* I don’t know anything about this particular meat-packing plant, but that industry has never been known for treating blue collar employees well…
With 21 coronavirus cases confirmed at a meat packing plant on Chicago’s South Side, employees are demanding more equipment to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Workers at the nearly century-old Rose Packing are worried for their health and safety.
“They need to shut down and clean and sterilize, make sure they do not have other employees sick,” said a family spokesperson for two Rose Packing employees.
Both employees said they’re quarantined after contracting COVID-19. They asked not to be identified out of fear of repercussions.
They broke the unions, lowered pay, sped up the lines and, as a consequence, had to import workers from other countries.
The government needs to do something before these companies risk breaking the food supply chain.
* The governor’s daily press briefings are too often being held hostage by, um, less than stellar questions. Yesterday’s “best” example…
Far-right Chicago radio host blames central Illinoisans for crowding the city's lakefront /s pic.twitter.com/vQia0WWER0
* Senate President Don Harmon’s foolish pitch to Washington can only hurt Illinois: Apparently, the president of the Illinois Senate, Don Harmon — who has been in that job all of three months — doesn’t quite get that. Last week, he made a politically deaf, even foolish, pitch to Washington that can only hurt our state’s chances of securing additional COVID-19 relief funds. … At best, Harmon’s pension ask is politically clueless. At worst, it will serve to explode efforts at bipartisanship in Washington as our nation struggles to recover from the pandemic. You can almost see congressional Republicans waving Harmon’s letter in the air and saying: “See, we told you. Blue states like Illinois are just being greedy. They want us to bail them out of problems of their own making, created over decades. Why should we help them?”
* Chicago’s top doctor says investigation has raised questions about whether infant died of COVID-19: She added that “there was a test that was positive, there was a test that was negative, and there were other positive tests for another kind of coronavirus.” She identified that disease as NL63, a coronavirus that emerged well before COVID-19 spread across the globe. Arwady said examination under a microscope didn’t show “signs that any of the COVID-19 had actually gotten into the cells of the baby.”
* ‘Very, Very Scary’: Officials Dumbfounded as Florida Beaches Reopen, 3 Days After Death Spike: Despite the mayor’s warnings, hundreds of people flocked to the beaches in Duval County Friday, some engaging group sports like volleyball or spikeball. Photos of the scene drew outcry on social media, spawning the hashtag #FloridaMorons, as well as disdain from officials elsewhere in the state.
Prof. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at Yale University, in New Haven, CT, is the senior author of the paper, which appears in the Annual Review of Virology.
As Prof. Iwasaki and the co-authors note, seasonal cycles are known to play a crucial role in the transmission of respiratory viral illnesses. […]
First, they say that when cold, dry air comes indoors and is warmed, the relative humidity indoors drops by about 20%. Such a drop in humidity makes it easier for airborne viral particles to travel.
Second, the hair-like organelles outside of cells that line the body’s airways, called cilia, do not function as well in dry conditions — they cannot expel viral particles as well as they otherwise would.
For instance, the new review cites one study that found that mice in an environment with 10% relative humidity had impaired clearance of the influenza virus, compared with mice in an environment with 50% relative humidity.
Furthermore, studies have shown that “Dry air exposure of mice impairs epithelial cell repair in the lung after influenza virus infection,” according to the new analysis.
Lastly, the authors point out, several studies in mice have shown that the immune response to viruses is less efficient in drier conditions.
“That’s why I recommend humidifiers during the winter in buildings,” says the study’s senior author.
Humidity today in Chicago is 39 percent. The paper also cites a study about the benefits of ventilation, so maybe open some windows. Couldn’t hurt.
* The paper also points to studies which encourage wearing face masks to keep your nose warm and moist. Turns out, masks could be more helpful than many of us knew.
Coming Monday our office will be starting our next program: “Let’s Face It”. We are going keep a list of Restaurants and Stores in the 97th that commit to having their employees wear face coverings at work. Our first establishment is “Hopscotch and Vine”. The first 20 who commit will get 50 free masks from me. We are going to get posters printed but that may take a bit of time. In the meantime establishments can advertise this additional bit of safety on their own. I’m asking all restaurants and stores to please require your employees to wear a face covering. It does not have to be a mask. Any face covering will do. Let’s end this thing and get to work again!
He’s giving away this cool poster to display at establishments which have agreed to comply…
New data from the Illinois Department of Public Health shows how widespread the coronavirus has become in the state’s nursing homes, with at least 272 deaths and nearly 3,300 cases of the virus reported by officials.
The data, gleaned from 17 of Illinois’ 102 counties, shows that 133 facilities have reported five or more cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began. In those counties, a total of 272 deaths have been reported as a result of COVID-19, and 3,265 cases of the virus have been confirmed by laboratory testing. […]
The top five counties in terms of cases reported:
1. Cook County - 1,496 cases confirmed, 141 deaths
2. DuPage County - 470 cases confirmed, 37 deaths
3. Will County - 421 cases confirmed, 36 deaths
4. Lake County - 283 cases confirmed, 31 deaths
5. Kane County - 119 cases confirmed, 10 deaths
Unfortunately, there was some sort of glitch and the new page wasn’t available this morning. The page is back up. Click here.
If you do venture out despite Illinois’ stay-at-home order – to go to work, to buy groceries, maybe to talk a walk – you generally won’t get in trouble for not wearing a mask, though it’s encouraged.
But in some pockets of Illinois, it’s mandatory.
Municipalities including Cicero, Glenview, Highland Park, Morton Grove, Niles, Skokie and Wilmette require anyone to wear a mask while in public.
There are slight variations in these ordinances and executive orders; some are already in effect, while others will take effect Monday.
But by and large, masks that cover the nose and mouth are obligatory for anyone working at or patronizing essential businesses, like grocery stories, and while taking public transit or ride-hailing services and taxis.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,585 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 125 additional deaths.
- Cook County: 1 male 20s, 1 female 30s, 3 males 30s, 1 female 40s, 1 male 40s, 4 females 50s, 6 males 50s, 9 females 60s, 11 males 60s, 8 females 70s, 20 males 70’s, 11 females 80s, 12 males 80s, 8 females 90s, 4 males 90s
- DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s, 3 females 90s, 1 male 90s
- Kane County: 2 males 50s
- Kankakee County: 2 females 80s
- Kendall County: 1 male 60s
- Lake County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
- McHenry County: 1 male 70s, 3 males 80s
- Monroe County: 1 male 80s
- Peoria County: 1 female 80s
- Will County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
Hamilton County is now reporting a case. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 29,160 cases, including 1,259 deaths, in 93 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
…Adding… Today’s graph of new cases, which is at the core of the White House guidelines for reopening…
Last weekend I announced that those who have COVID-19 and are recovering at home anywhere in southern and central Illinois have access to a terrific new telehealth program that allows remote patient monitoring for COVID-19.
That program now extends to the rest of Illinois. Rounding out our telehealth coverage around the state to remind you this program serves those potentially infected with a mild version of COVID-19, who will be able to recover from the safety of their homes. Again, that’s the vast majority of people who get infected. Patients will receive daily virtual visits by healthcare workers and receive wellness kits that include things like thermometers and pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs and alcohol wipes.
And to be very clear, the remote patient monitoring program is available to everyone who is COVID positive, and recovering at home, regardless of your insurance coverage.
More info is here. Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* The governor then went on to praise local organizations for stepping up during the crisis. Here’s one…
For many of you this pandemic has been draining emotionally and physically. And as I’ve said before it’s important to feel that, and even share that with a friend, a family member or confidant, but it’s equally important to look out the window to walk outside to look at all the hopeful signs, because those signs are all around us, and today I want to shine a spotlight on a few of those signs. Look at the creativity that people have brought to make sure that those in need are truly cared for, like the Clearbrook organization in Arlington Heights, where staff at the special needs nonprofit have done everything from performing Corona caroling with ukuleles in their neighborhoods, delivering activity care packages to over 60 families and sewing masks for their fellow employees.
* He closed with this example…
I’ll leave you with one last bit of joy, the Red Cross of Chicago, and Northern Illinois was slated to host its 18th annual heroes breakfast next week and event that had to be canceled because of COVID-19.
Instead, the Red Cross is featuring on their social media pages, members of the extraordinary 2020 class of heroes, people who make you proud that you’re from Illinois. […]
You are the difference makers. You are the helpers. You are bending this curve and helping out our healthcare workers and saving lives even just by staying at home. And I am so very proud of the state and of all of you
* Dr. Ezike commented about today’s new cases and deaths…
Although our numbers continue to climb, it is with some guarded optimism that we say that the growth is slowing. That is definitely a good thing, but we must continue to be strong and hold the line. I know people are getting tired of hearing the same message, but the same tactics continue to apply. Continue to stay home, continue to wash your hands, wear a mask if you go outside. Let’s keep up the progress we’ve made thus far.
* On to questions for the governor. What would you advise people who are hoping to have weddings reunions memorial services, other family gatherings this summer?…
It’s difficult for me to advise people because there’s so many uncertainties ahead of us you know we don’t even know exactly where the peak will be won’t really know until you’re past the peak that you’ve hit the peak.
And then as you’ve seen from various plans that have been put out, none of them really contemplate large gatherings, until much after, not just when you’ve gone 14 days in a row of diminished numbers of hospitalizations and other cases and so on. But, you know, long past that actually are when we would have large gatherings so depending on the size of things. [He went on, but that’s enough.]
* When do you think you will make a decision on whether to extend the stay at home order?…
You have to look at all the numbers and kind of all the trends and make a decision about whether and if so for how long, and under what conditions and so I promise you, I get asked this question virtually every day, and I promise I’ll give you the answer as soon as I know it
Dude is more patient that I would be.
* As the weather warms up, are you inclined to help give people more opportunities to enjoy outdoor activities by reopening state parks, golf courses, as long as people can do those activities while social distancing?…
Again, I’m personally inclined because I think all of us want to have a great summer. But I can’t rely on my own instincts and my own desires. And instead, as you know, I’ve been listening to the epidemiologists and the experts here in Illinois, as well as the advice that we’re getting from those who are not here in Illinois. And again, I’ll make decisions about that as you know as the data presents itself.
* Would you consider opening Illinois on a county by county basis or will it be a statewide action?…
I guess, in short, I understand there are differences of the number of cases that are occurring in different parts of the state. And so I understand the desire to try to regionalize and I’m looking at the data to try to make determinations. Remember a lot of this has to do with when you hit peak are hospitals going to be available to people who need hospitalization, ICU bedsm ventilators. And so trying to measure where we are and what the ascent rate is here, because we’re still increasing the number of deaths, we’re still increasing the number of, well, we’re increasing the number of total cases in the state. And so I’ve got to take all that into consideration, and then look at what hospitals are more available or less available as a result.
I want to point out one thing because people ask us all the time and I just want to make clear that the rate of ascent of cases in rural areas seems to be have caught up with and even surpassed in some areas, the rate of ascent of cases in urban areas, and there are a number of places you can go to read about that.
And so when I think about regionalization, I worry about that rate of ascent in rural areas where for whatever reason, maybe people aren’t following the stay at home order as much or for whatever other reason that rate of ascent is increasing. And so I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep the case load and case numbers down in rural areas.
* Regarding nursing homes, what can be done to get those numbers down so many people are losing their lives at those facilities?…
From the very beginning I mean really from before we had our stay at home rule in place, I called the governors of states where we saw terrible nursing home tragedies including Governor Inslee Governor Cuomo, and asked them, what did you learn, what should I know as we start to put orders in place to deal with nursing homes. And they gave me tremendous advic along the way and the CDC kind of has caught up with them, I have to say, and the advice that they gave me.
And so we’ve put that in place. I mean, way back when, in fact nursing homes were locked down in the sense of no visitors. We were taking temperatures of everybody entering. We were checking on everybody in the facility we’re doing testing and when there was, you know, a new a new couple of cases that could be identified we were you know trying to make sure that we were separating people out doing all the things that were being recommended by the doctors to do. So I’m frustrated by this I must say because nursing homes, it’s very hard to deal with congregate settings, this is just something, you know, to move them out, is a, is a challenge to separate them we can do that within facilities, families can’t take a COVID positive nursing home resident back into their homes. And then it’s very hard, many people need services beyond just a place to live. They need nursing services healthcare services, and you can’t just move them, you know into a hotel room somewhere. And so, so these are very challenging and we’re doing, I think the right things we have a strike team that goes into a hot story into a nursing home when we discovered that there’s an outbreak. [He went on, but you get the idea.]
* Why won’t the state buy PPE from local black vendors. Instead, the state has spent over $1.7 million to get PPE from China. [Willie Wilson put out a statement on this the other day. He has a distribution company that does handle PPE]…
We are, we will take anybody with PPE, we’ll look at them as a vendor. We’re not avoiding anybody at all. The challenge is that there are no local providers that can provide large amounts, or at least you know, many people have come and said they could provide a few thousand here or there. We need to acquire millions of masks for example, and so you know and that’s one part and the other part is, as you know when you get a larger number a larger quantity of something you can often get it at a lower price. I’m not saying the prices are low, they’ve been bid up to prices that are ridiculous, frankly, but oftentimes what’s being done by a small vendor is more expensive on a per mask basis than what we can acquire elsewhere, but I mean, anybody that has an idea. I mean a, you know, an opportunity to sell us PP should be contacting our procurement team and it’s easy to find us you can call the governor’s office. That’s very easy or you can call CMS.
* The Associated Press has a story out right now and the headline is Governor’s feeling the heat to reopen from the president. Are you feeling the heat to reopen?…
I don’t know what it means to feel the heat I’m listening to the scientists and the doctors I don’t feel any heat I I listen to the people who know, and who have informed opinions about what we ought to do. I will say that I think that the plan that came out yesterday that that Dr. Fauci and others presented, there are aspects of that plan that I think are pretty good. And so, you know, I don’t know if I feel heat, I, I’m going to do what’s best for the people of the state and you know we’re not yet at our peak, and so it’s very hard to make decisions about what happens you know 14 days or a month or two months after that.
* What are you going to do with the budget to address the need for increased child welfare services as the stay at home order is likely increasing child abuse in the state?…
Well I think you saw in the proposed budget and I’m not suggesting that our budget for 2021 is going to look exactly like the proposed budget we put forward in February, but you know that I have prioritized Child Welfare in our budget, increasing staffing increasing funding and so on. And so as we look to revamp the budget and make sure that we’re meeting the needs that we now know you know we need to, in terms of balancing the budget and the lack of revenues coming in. I want to protect as much as possible the dollars that we’re putting in to protect those children. So what I can assure you, is that all of what our intention has been in terms of revamping dcfs is still there I mean all of us are focused on making sure that we’re able to carry out the plans that we’ve put in place.
* Amy Jacobson at WIND: Hi governor. Hi. Um, so, in our attempt to save lives. We’ve destroyed, millions of small businesses, millions of people’s lives, and you kept talking about the scientists and the different phases one where we’re going to get to phase one phase one phase one Trump’s plan phase one phase two and phase three? [Yes, that was the question.]…
We’re in phase one I think [actually, we’re not yet in phase one], but I understand what you’re saying. In other words, when do we move to another phase [that’s more accurate].
And the answer is if you read in the plan what they’re essentially saying is you have to get past your peak. And then you’ve got to have 14 days of declining case location numbers and and hospitalizations is really the way I would look at it. And as you have 14 days in a row of decline, then you can say, according to that plan, you can start to move into, you know, the next phase.
I want to get there as fast as anybody does we want people to get back to work. We want people to get back to their lives. The concern here is trying to balance and I think you raised it right at the beginning of your question, trying to balance the protecting people’s health and safety with trying to protect people’s livelihoods and very early on I said you know that the some of the toughest choices I’ve ever had to make these are choices between saving lives and saving livelihoods.
* Amy Jacobson at WIND: This is like an ongoing challenge in North Carolina and in Florida the governor’s there. They’re letting people use the lakefront or the beaches, is that, but they’re doing it you know from six to eight or six to 11 in the morning then five to eight at night, is there any way we can have our Lakefront back? You know that’s a lot of space that people use you know joggers bicyclists fisher fishermen, everything?…
I understand the question that I want you to know I’m frustrated as everybody else’s by the idea that that we can’t enjoy the things that we’ve been enjoying every summer.
You know, when is it that we’ll be able to do that again I’ve got to measure this and the answer to the first question that I get you know when I’m trying to measure this against the science you know I want people to go out and enjoy their lives.
I just had conversations with a number of downstate legislators who were talking about the fact that people can’t fish in the state parks because the state parks are not open, and couldn’t people fish because there’s enough social distancing. And of course I completely understand. Remember that we did that with state parks, because the people work at the state parks, because they have to congregate together there’s a place in which many of them have to congregate in order to manage the state parks and so, but I am looking exactly at those kinds of things.
* Amy Jacobson at WIND: What are the rules going to be? You raise the question what if people spaced properly and wore a mask or whatever? I mean that warm day was bad, I mean people came in from Central Illinois to go to the lakefront. Yeah, I think we deserve a second chance…
I understand what you’re saying and I have every desire, I really do and so like I’ve said every day, we’re evaluating when, but I want to remind you that we are not even at our peak yet. And so we’ve got to get to the peak and start moving down the other side.
Jordan Abudayyeh then thankfully insisted on taking online questions from actual reporters.
* AP: What specifically do you like about the President’s reopening guidance? What points from it do you disagree with? What could Illinois incorporate?…
Well I think I just pointed out something that I like about it, which is looking at 14 consecutive days of reduction in cases or the reduction of hospitalizations, that would lead us to then be able to make some changes.
* Capitol News Illinois: Senate Republicans wrote a letter earlier this week which you’ve already addressed, but we’re going to continue asking this question why some prison sentences were recently commuted without informing or consulting judges, the General Assembly victims, or law enforcement, they know recent commutations include convicted murderers. [The reporter could’ve looked at the state constitution, but I digress]. With the recent commutations, are these related to COVID-19?…
So I just want to be clear that those go through the PRB [Prisoner Review Board]. So they actually have a presentation of each case at the PRB, they vote on those cases before they ever get to my desk.
* Politico: Did you talk to Senate President Dan Harmon about the letter he sent to Congress asking for a bailout and why weren’t you a part of that ask?…
I was not aware of the content of the letter before it went. And, there’s no reason why a senate president in Illinois I can’t send a letter to the delegation. And you know I don’t object to people communicating with our federal representatives, I do it all the time.
* Tribune: What were your thoughts on the letter, specifically the $41 billion ask?…
Well it’s different than what I have been talking to the federal representatives about.
As you know, and I’ve said it here in front of you talking about our budget, that I really believe the states need to have some unencumbered dollars that come in that will help us with the coming years budget. Every state has this problem, it just does and so, I don’t object like I said to people talking to our federal representatives with their opinions. I have certainly done that.
* Me to Dr. Ezike: A study [to be] published in the Annual Review of Virology claims that low indoor humidity could be a problem for the virus’ spread. 40 to 60% is apparently optimal. Is that being looked out for places like nursing homes, prisons etc.?…
It’s not currently, that’s an interesting fact that I’m not aware of.
There’s probably additional study that needs to be done. Probably not directly by IDPH but I hope that further research will guide us and we will follow results as they come up.
* WMAY: Protests are being planned in the coming days against the restrictions you put in place. What is your message to these protesters?…
That I want to remove the restrictions as much as anybody else does, and I’m going to do it based on science.
* Why didn’t the state release the nursing home data earlier, and when did you realize nursing home cases were exploding?…
We have followed nursing homes, like I said I made early calls about this. We knew that there were challenges in every congregate setting. And so we have paid close attention and in fact have, as I mentioned, we have strike teams and protocols and so on that we put in place very early on. So there’s no desire to avoid nursing homes. Our, in fact, every focus that we could have because we all know, very early on and all of us that it’s our senior citizens who are most at risk. And so that’s why we focused on nursing homes early and will will continue.
In terms of publishing the data, we’ve had the aggregate data published for people we were concerned about. In some areas, you’re stigmatizing people who work at those nursing homes when you publish that. That is a nursing home that has an outbreak. You can stigmatize the families of the people who have relatives in those nursing homes, and we were concerned about that.
But, look, we also are very much in favor of transparency. I’ve been here 41 days in a row talking to you about everything everything to do with COVID-19. And we’re pleased to put all that data online so that people can look at it now.
* Crain’s: Trump’s Special Assistant Judd Deere suggested you are either ignorant and incompetent or have a propensity to over politicize your criticism of resources from the White House. How short is Illinois from what is requested from the federal government today?…
Well, I think we’ve received in terms of PPE, we’re I think under 3% of the PPE that we asked for, has been delivered by the federal government.
Meanwhile, you’ve heard me say over and over and over again how proud I am of our Army Corps of Engineers, of FEMA and the work that they’re doing with us. I’ve been very pleased with a lot of the things that that we’ve gotten.
And the challenge has been when the White House makes a promise about something and then doesn’t deliver and then makes another promise and doesn’t deliver. And then the president stands up and criticizes people, but he’s not delivering. That’s obviously irksome. Having said that, I’m very proud of the people who work at the other levels of government who have delivered for the state of Illinois.
Illinois needs more than $40 billion in relief from the federal government because of the coronavirus pandemic — including $10 billion to help bail out its beleaguered pension system, according to a letter the Illinois Senate president sent to members of Congress.
The letter, sent this week by State Senator Don Harmon, also seeks a $15 billion grant to “stabilize the state’s budget,” $9.6 billion in direct aid to Illinois’s cities, $6 billion for the state’s unemployment insurance fund, and hardship money for hospitals and nursing homes, among other things.
The article is somewhat misleading on one point. The $15 billion state budget request is for parts of three fiscal years. From the letter…
$15 billion in block grant funding: A flexible block grant would stabilize the state’s operating budget and allow officials here to address unique needs for the current fiscal year, FY2021 and early FY2022. Added flexibility with new federal dollars would also allow the state to assist human service providers serving as the safety net for our most vulnerable population.
* But why Harmon thought to ask for this is just beyond me…
$10 billion in pension relief, directly for the state’s retirement systems: Illinois largest liabilities are its unfunded pension liability at $138 billion and other post-employment benefits liability at $54 billion. Illinois law has put the state on a path to fund the pension liability in a manner that is actuarially sound, and the state has been following the payment plan set out in that law. In a normal year the size of those payments crowds out funding for services and programs. Clearly this will not be a normal year and that crowding out effect will be exacerbated by significant revenue losses. I would ask that the federal government: 1. Provide direct cash assistance to the pension systems; or 2. Offer a low interest federal loan to aid Illinois in our efforts to restore and maintain retirement security for public sector workers, many of which are on the frontlines of this pandemic battle.
For those who might say “It never hurts to ask,” yes, it can hurt to ask.
Dick Durbin represents one of the most bankrupt states in America and the most bankrupt city, Chicago, in America behind those closed doors. They are demanding straight cash bailouts for states and cities that have been fiscally irresponsible for years.
There is a certain strain of wonky politicians who try to “start conversations” without first pausing to ask themselves if publicly sharing those ideas could hurt their own causes.
Illinois created this problem. It’s Illinois’ responsibility to solve it, not the federal government’s. This letter could even hurt all other states’ attempts to convince Congress and the president to back an aid package.
* I asked the governor’s office for comment about the Senate Democrats’ pension ask…
The Governor clearly outlined what he believes our federal partners can do immediately to assist the state earlier this week. We’re working with our congressional delegation, as well as Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer, to ensure another aid package includes funds for the state of Illinois and the flexibility to use them in our budget.
OK, but has the governor ever asked for federal help with state pensions?…
No we have not.
* There are some decent ideas in Harmon’s letter, but he’s asking for a lot. For instance…
Raise FMAP to 65 percent: Thank you for taking the necessary step in the CARES Act to increase Federal Medical Assistance Percentage to 56.34 percent for the duration of the coronavirus emergency. I ask your consideration of a further increase, taking Illinois to 65 percent, which is a 3.1 percent increase over the level afforded Illinois during the Great Recession. This increase will allow Illinois to continue paying health care providers in a timely manner for the services they deliver to the Medicaid system.
* And is this ask based on actual need? Harmon’s letter doesn’t say…
$6 billion in direct aid to the state’s unemployment trust fund
Another diplomatic statement from the governor’s press secretary…
Just like states around the country, Illinois is seeing an unprecedented number of unemployment claims. We’re working with our federal partners to ensure our program remains strong and we welcome any additional funding for our trust fund.
Two more Chicago suburbs are joining the growing trend of requiring people to wear face masks in public during the coronavirus pandemic.
The city of Highland Park is requiring residents to wear face masks when engaging in certain essential activities, starting Monday.
Mayor Nancy Rotering issued the order Friday, joining Skokie, Glenview and Cicero in mandating face coverings. […]
The village of Wilmette has also moved to make wearing a mask a requirement, not just a recommendation.
* If you’re starting to worry a little bit about the food supply, you’re not alone…
A cluster of COVID-19 cases has forced an Illinois food processing plant to shut down for at least two weeks.
Health officials in Ogle County, just west of DeKalb, say there are about 24 cases linked to Hormel Foods in the town of Rochelle. Those cases have shown up in Ogle County and other surrounding counties.
The meat supply chain is especially vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus since processing is increasingly done at a handful of massive plants. Another problem in the beef supply, according to Bormann, is something called carcass utilization — the use of the whole animal.
“The first problem is we don’t have enough people to process the animals, and number two is they can’t do carcass balance because restaurants are down,” he said. “What’s selling? Freaking hamburger.”
Restaurants typically use the expensive stuff — strips, ribs, tenderloins and sirloin, Bormann said, while retail takes the chucks and rounds and trims. With restaurants mostly shuttered, “all of a sudden 23 percent of the animal isn’t being bought because food service is gone,” he said.
Industry experts said that the shutdown of beef processing facilities could prompt another round of hoarding at the grocery stores, as with toilet paper and milk several weeks ago.
* Meat roundup…
* The US won’t run out of food during the coronavirus pandemic: “We admire the way that the system works,” Yossi Sheffi, a supply chain expert and the director of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, told Vox. “The virus is still moving from state to state and it’s not uniform all over the country, so the demand patterns are changing all the time. But at the end of the day, we don’t see it as a real danger that we will run out of food.”
* As meat packing plants close for coronavirus, will prices spike and shelves go empty?: Experts say the loss of production has so far been offset by meat stocked up in cold storage, according to The Associated Press. Additionally, companies are sending meat previously intended for now-closed restaurants to grocery stores, the AP reported. But experts warn extended closures could change that because individual plants account for a large amount of production.
* The Food Chain’s Weakest Link: Slaughterhouses - A relatively small number of plants process much of the beef and pork in the United States, and some of them have closed because workers are getting sick.
* Spread of coronavirus closes North American meat plants: Aurora Packing Company closed a beef plant in Aurora, Illinois, said Brad Lyle, chief financial officer for U.S. commodity firm Kerns and Associates. A security officer at the plant said it was closed due to the pandemic. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
The governor was palling around with penguins when the White House officially lost patience.
But the dust-up had nothing to do with the flightless birds at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, making cute cameos in a public safety announcement with J.B. Pritzker. What upset the White House happened earlier, when Illinois’ Democratic chief executive went on CNN to say that he had “given up” on receiving assistance from the federal government; he also announced that his state was “doing what we need to do despite” the president.
This, a White House spokesman tells RealClearPolitics, is more than inaccurate.
“Whether through ignorance or incompetence or a propensity to politicize everything, Governor Pritzker is not being truthful with the people of Illinois when he says his state has not been provided resources from President Trump’s administration,” said deputy press secretary, Judd Deere. Trump doesn’t see red or blue, Deere insisted, asserting that the president has directed federal aid to “every state regardless of the political affiliation of the state’s governor.”
And in the Illinois situation, the White House provided receipts. Trump declared a national emergency on March 13. The state followed suit on March 24. Supplies followed.
Hilarious. But if you’re going to do a hit piece for the White House, at least try to get some facts straight.
Setting aside the childishly over-heated DC rhetoric (nobody has ever said the federal government has supplied no resources, for crying out loud), the governor issued a state disaster proclamation on March 9th. A simple Google search would’ve found that, but why verify anything when the White House hands you “receipts.”
And the link in the RCP article to “the state followed suit on March 24″ line actually leads to a White House press release entitled “President Donald J. Trump Approves Illinois Disaster Declaration.” So, the RCP reporter either deliberately misled his readers or was too incompetent to know that what really happened was the president approved the state’s declaration 15 days after it was declared here.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased hospital capacity in the Chicago by more than 4,000 beds. The Defense Logistics Agency sent a decontamination system to the Windy City. As of last week, according to the White House, Rear Adm. John Polowczyk of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had airlifted 1.1 million N95 facemasks, 4.3 million surgical masks, 1.9 million surgical gowns, and 65 million surgical gloves to Chicago.
The Corps of Engineers has done a remarkable job at McCormick Place to create 3,000, not 4,000, beds. But maybe when the RCP reporter wrote “the Chicago” he meant the Chicago area. But these are overflow beds for low-acuity patients. McCormick Place is not a hospital.
Also, as has been said time and time again, the number of delivered federal supplies is a small fraction of what the state has requested. I don’t doubt that the state has over-requested. But it’s still important context.
…Adding… Pritzker’s deputy comms director…
Article, like you and your boss, ignores basic facts. Illinois, along with every other state has received a fraction of what its asked for from the White House and been left to compete in an insane market the President could have stepped in to prevent, but go off Judd. #twillhttps://t.co/fIkGExEPR9
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* Roundup of other stories written by capable reporters…
* How DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry jails are avoiding an outbreak: Sheriffs are thwarting an outbreak — for now — with strict screening and cleaning protocols, they say. All four suburban departments have also worked with local police to issue citations rather than make arrests, and they have released as many inmates charged or convicted of nonviolent crimes as possible.
* The Mask Mover: Today on the show, we take you into one high pressure deal where the difference between life and death comes down to a locked room filled with computer servers, [Illinois] bureaucrats willing to bend the rules, and a guy… who knows a guy.
* No Plan In Sight: Test Troubles Cloud Trump Recovery Effort: Trump on Thursday released a plan to ease business restriction that hinges on a downward trajectory of positive tests. But more than a month after he declared, “Anybody who wants a test, can get a test,” the reality has been much different. People report being unable to get tested. Labs and public officials say critical supply shortages are making it impossible to increase testing to the levels experts say is necessary to keep the virus in check. … Trump’s plan envisions setting up “sentinel surveillance sites” that would screen people without symptoms in locations that serve older people or minority populations. Experts say testing would have to increase as much as threefold to be effective.
* 5 Rockford-area mayors request authority to reopen businesses: “Earlier this week, I reached out to Gov. Pritzker about safely and responsibly opening more local small businesses, which have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Protecting the health of our residents remains the top priority, but we need to ensure that small non-essential businesses are treated fairly,” McNamara said in a statement. “Now is the time to follow science and medicine. What we have been doing is working. Now is not the time to reverse course. A plan to open all businesses on a single day – or to allow a hodgepodge system where each city makes its own rules — is not responsible when we know it will be right in the middle of our surge.”
