COVID-19 roundup
Wednesday, Sep 1, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WCIA…
A House Republican who sought “data, studies, scientific or medical articles, and correspondence” from people advocating in support of school mask mandates got her answer in dramatic fashion on Tuesday.
Governor Pritzker’s office responded to an August 10th Freedom of Information Act Request filed by Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) by sending a staffer to her legislative office in Springfield to hand-deliver 870 pages of studies and letters from parents that supported the mask mandate.
Government agencies typically respond to FOIA requests in emails and attachments, but in delivering the papers in such a public manner, the Pritzker administration sought to draw attention to the number of parents who have thanked him for enacting and enforcing mask mandates at the start of the new school year.
“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing this,” an Elmhurst mother emailed to Pritzker’s office on August 4th. “When the Elmhurst 205 School District voted to make masks optional last week, I was devastated and shocked.
McCombie was not in her office when the Governor’s staffer delivered the studies and emails. She responded to Pritzker’s public response to her requests when she came out of a Republican caucus meeting.
“I think it’s absolutely, positively ridiculous that it has become political,” she said. “I think it’s ridiculous that he’s going to showboat and have his staff showboat around empty offices when we’re all in caucus. I mean, have the guts to do it when we’re sitting at our desk.”
Check out the visual…
* Unreal…
An Oak Lawn woman was arrested in Hawaii last week after, court records show, she entered the state with a fake COVID-19 vaccination card that misspelled drug company “Moderna” as “Maderna.”
* We had protests at school back in the day which got zero media coverage, probably because sports ball players weren’t involved…
Dozens of North Mac School District students and parents gathered outside the Macoupin County Courthouse in Carlinville on Tuesday, Aug. 31, to protest the district’s quarantine and remote learning policies.
Tuesday’s court hearing stemmed from whether the district had followed proper COVID-19 exposure and quarantine procedures at North Mac High School, and whether the superintendent’s move to full remote learning at the high school is legal. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four athletes that had been exposed to the virus at school and were forced to quarantine despite testing negative for COVID-19 in Sangamon County. […]
Students also staged a walkout at North Mac High in protest of the testing and quarantine policy on Monday, Aug. 30, where dozens of other students and some staff joined them outside the school.
Later that evening, District Superintendent Dr. Jay Goble announced that North Mac High would go fully remote, citing 30% of the school’s student body in quarantine.
Appellate judge candidate Tom DeVore is the attorney of record. Another Pyrrhic victory.
* Tribune…
More than two dozen Illinois schools are reporting COVID-19 outbreaks, weeks after students returned to the classroom for in-person learning at fully reopened schools.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday listed 26 Illinois schools with COVID-19 outbreaks, including several in the suburban Chicago areas of Cook, Lake, Kane and Will counties. […]
Outbreaks reported by IDPH include those that have been identified by the school’s local health department to have two or more COVID-19 cases among people who may have a shared exposure on school grounds and are from different households.
The criteria for an outbreak was previously five or more cases but recently changed, said IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.
The outbreak list is here.
* He has a point…
* More…
* WHO says it is monitoring a new Covid variant called ‘mu’: It has mutations that have the potential to evade immunity provided by a previous Covid-19 infection or vaccination, the WHO said.
* Two church events in Illinois linked to 180 Covid-19 cases, 5 hospitalizations
* Judge sides with Springfield hospital refusing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patient
* Chicago now asks unvaccinated travelers to quarantine — even with a negative COVID-19 test — and advises against Labor Day travel for unvaccinated kids
