* Brenden Moore at the Herald and Review…
Though some high-profile Republicans, such as Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, have encouraged people to get vaccinated, leadership has been lacking on the issue from others.
Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, who has openly flouted the mask mandate on the U.S. House floor and just recently tweeted “Do vaccines work?” in response to the revised CDC mask recommendations (they do).
Only about 34% of Miller’s constituents are fully vaccinated, the lowest of any congressional district in the state, according to data from Harvard University. A public message encouraging vaccination could go a long way.
Same with state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, a downstate candidate for governor. He pointedly refused to endorse the vaccine in an interview earlier this week with WCIA, despite the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing hospitalization and death.
* No relation…
* Mark Maxwell on Darren Bailey…
Throughout the pandemic, Bailey has promoted the importance of individual responsibility over collective action and personal freedoms over government mandates. What advice would he give responsible individuals about how they could best protect themselves and others during the pandemic?
“I think the one thing that people need to do is understand the constitutional basis of freedom that this country stands on: the Constitution,” Bailey answered, avoiding any reference to vaccines.
Publicly available data posted on the Illinois Department of Public Health’s website says that 97.7% of people who died due to COVID-19 this year were unvaccinated. Asked how he would respond to that data if it came across his desk as governor, Bailey dismissed the readily available numbers as untrustworthy, without offering any evidence or explanation.
“We asked for the proof,” Bailey said. “We want to see it. Where’s this coming from? Where’s this going? And they never present it. So, my facts, your facts, my data, your data.”
* Um…
* Maxwell…
When a reporter asked Bailey how he squares that comment with speed limit laws that were intended to keep people safe, he seemed to suggest those laws were merely “advice.”
“Speed limit laws, you know, that’s, that’s an advice, that’s a law. You drive the speed limit, or you speed, or you drive slower. It is up to government, it is up to the Illinois Department of Public Health, to best advise what they think is best. It is up to the American people to decide on their own if they’re going to go with that advice or not. It’s that simple.”
* Bailey also refused to say whether he was vaxed…
* He’s not vaxed and neither is fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Gary Rabine…
* The depths some people will sink just to score political points with the most deliberately ignorant segment of the GOP base…
According to fellow church members, Bailey’s own brother-in-law was transferred to a hospital in St. Louis under a medically induced coma for specialized [COVID] treatment.
The church is asking for urgent prayers while Bailey sows doubts about public health data that shows vaccines are effective.
Public health data shows nearly 98% of Illinois patients who died due to covid-19 illness this year did not have the vaccine.
Pritzker responded to the reports and said leadership is about listening to experts.
“I am sorry for his brother-in-law who is hospitalized with COVID-19,” he said. “Misinformation is killing people. And people who are promoting misinformation, people who are not listening to the science, are not helping anyone. We need leaders in the state of Illinois listening to the science.”
* And Bailey isn’t alone…
Rabine falsely said that if the vaccines were FDA approved, they “would have been taken off the shelf about 5,000 or 6,000 deaths ago.”
Rabine’s comment, which he repeated throughout the interview, either misunderstands or misinterprets the CDC’s regular, routine collection of “adverse event” reports from people who took the vaccine. As a part of rigorous review protocols, the law requires public health experts to cast a wide net and collect a variety of tips or reports from anyone and everyone who may have gone through some sort of medical episode or death after taking a vaccine, even if the vaccine had nothing to do with their medical episode. Those reports are gathered and collected for medical professionals to thoroughly examine and look for any potential link back to the vaccine. The CDC calls the process the “most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history,” and says the vaccines are “safe and effective.” […]
Asked to clarify what he meant, Rabine again incorrectly attributed thousands of deaths directly to the vaccine. He was apparently using the CDC’s ‘Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System’ (VAERS) to inflate fears about the risks of the vaccine. While the CDC says “reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare,” the agency did collect “6,207 reports of death (0.0018%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine,” adding that the “FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause.”
* Rabine’s spokesman walked it back…
After the interview, Maxwell wrote in a story for his station that he received a voicemail from Rabine’s spokesman, Travis Akin, who sought to retract the candidate’s claims of thousands of deaths directly attributable to vaccines. “I think we are walking that back,” Akin said, according to Maxwell’s story.
* But…
Attacking a reporter for tweeting simple facts. Great. Also, Rabine didn’t go after any of the male reporters who were calling him out and even mocking him. Gonna be a long year.
* Even the ILGOP cringed…
* Like I said, it’s gonna be a long year…
* But hilarity will certainly abound…
So, he held his little rally outside. Great advance work, bub.
