* As usual, I’ll be covering the governor’s press conferences this weekend, but comments will remained closed until Monday. Take care and, please, be safe…
Hey Bobby Marley
Sing something good to me
This world go crazy
It’s an emergency
We had tested 5660 people in the preceding 24 hours on Wednesday. And yesterday, we surpassed 9000 tests. Today, we met our goal of 10,000 daily tests. In fact we surpassed it with 16,124.
* More interesting news…
The overall positive rate for today’s batch of tests is about 17%, which is well below our cumulative average of 21%.
It’s too early to say whether this is a result of expanded testing criteria, versus an indicator of flattening the curve, but it’s a positive sign nonetheless for everyone when more people are getting tested and there is a lower ratio of positives
Please pardon all transcription errors.
* Pritzker continued…
Surpassing 10,000 tests is a very important milestone, not only because it allows us to isolate more of those who are COVID positive so that they don’t spread the infection, but also because it moves us in the direction of expanding our surveillance for outbreaks.
More testing means we can potentially lower the infection rate. So we’re going to continue to push that number up. Our ability to test and get results quickly is key to our ability to map the presence of this virus, and to gradually reduce our mitigation measures and get more people back to work.
* Public testing sites…
We now have 112 public testing sites in every one of IDPH’s 11 regions, including eight sites in the Rockford region, eight sites in the Peoria region, four sites in the Springfield region, four in the Edwardsville region, 31 sites in the Marion region, eight sites in the Champaign region, 22 sites in the city of Chicago, nine sites in the southwest suburbs, three sites in the west suburbs, five sites in the northwest suburbs and 10 sites in the north suburbs.
Remember, those are only the sites that are available to the public and the tests at those locations are entirely free. Beyond those 112 locations, there are healthcare providers that conduct tests for their own existing patients, the full list of public testing sites with hours, testing parameters and contact information is available on our coronavirus website, coronavirus.illinois.gov.
* Antibody tests…
I also want to talk briefly today about antibody tests, which have been in the headlines recently and have created a lot of buzz. I want to make sure that people have the facts about whether and how these tests are useful.
In theory, these tests could be an effective tool. We’re craving answers in an uncertain time and antibody tests offer the potential for more security. But I’m afraid we’ve seen many of these tests promoted in a way that errs on the side of irresponsible.
To be clear, these tests are not quite where we need them to be to offer a true metric of immunity in Illinois. This is not an Illinois specific problem. As of today, there still are no antibody blood tests certifiably proven to accurately and consistently diagnose COVID-19 antibodies. There are several reasons for that.
First, no one yet knows the true sensitivity and specificity of these tests. That is how accurate or inaccurate they are. Obviously you want to test to be accurate and not offer many false positives or false negatives. That kind of accuracy is in part tied to how long it’s been since a person, potentially had the virus, since it takes, each of us time to produce antibodies, and it’s in part tied to the quality of the test.
Second, this is a novel virus, entirely new. So researchers don’t yet know the extent to which having COVID-19 antibodies equals, having immunity. That’s a question whose answers will only be revealed over weeks or months, and maybe even years, for example, is there a certain exposure level at which antibodies don’t protect you. Or, if you can become immune. How long would immunity last?
Third, it’s not yet confirmed that these tests are able to explicitly identify COVID-19 antibodies versus Corona viruses that cause things like the common cold. The test must, must definitively identify antibodies for COVID-19, and nothing else for them to be fully effective. […]
We’re monitoring those studies and we’re planning how we could deploy those tests when they’re ready. As soon as they prove themselves accurate and reliable, I will make it a priority to get them into our communities as widely as we can. What I won’t do is run full speed ahead with these tests before they’re proven. Because, among other things, we will be offering people a false sense of security. I’ve said since the beginning that here in Illinois, we will rely on factual data, and we will lead with the science. That, and the goodwill of the people of Illinois, will be what sees us through this pandemic.
* Dr. Ezike…
4828 people were hospitalized across our state. 25% of those patients or 1225 were in the ICU, and 58% of those ICU patients or 709 patients were on ventilators
* More from Dr. Ezike…
IDPH is pushing testing materials to more and more long term care facilities. Since last Friday, we have pushed testing materials to 37 different long term care facilities, some who are actively experiencing outbreaks and some that had not identified a single case. Our hope is that by testing staff and residents in the long term care facilities located in areas with high levels of community transmission, we can detect cases earlier and potentially before an outbreak occurs.
* On to questions for the governor. So the phases that you mentioned yesterday. Obviously stay at home, extended through the end of May, the phases that you mentioned are those to come during May or they come in June? (Are we there yet?)…
They’ll come as soon as we possibly can. And in order to get to the next phase, we really need to see our peak and begin to move downward for, I think the suggestion of 14 days is the right one. And so seeing a downward movement 14 days in a row would give us a pretty good indication that we’re heading in the right direction on a consistent basis
* Are you suggesting people just kind of hold off for right now and not get antibody testing done?…
No. I’m just explaining why we’re not rushing ahead with massive antibody testing. The fact is that verifying those tests has been difficult for everybody. And we don’t want people to get false negatives or false positives that would lead people to believe that they’re immune or that they’re not immune and mistakenly so. W e just want to make sure that we have the right information that is available with the tests that actually are effective. And so we’re not going to plunge into that ourselves at the state level. Having said that there are hospitals and other people who are using serology tests, and they’re working with the you know the fact that there’s some percentage of those that are going to be negative or positive falsely.
* Baseball. Do you think baseball will be played here in Chicago this summer?…
I hope so. But I don’t know
* Can you give us the exact number of people being hired to help IDES with the unemployment claims? We’ve gotten news tips from Chicagoans asking how they can apply for those jobs…
Yeah. So we certainly want people to reach out to IDES that would be the best way to find out. They go through a process as you know when you get hired for the state. We’ve tried to speed that process up through for CMS. But as you know, we also hired an outside firm to help us with some overflow of calls and so on. So, I’ll be sure, we’ll be sure and make it so, we’ll be sure to have IDES post on its website how people could apply for any available positions. It’s an excellent point, if it’s not already available on the website I’ll make sure that it is.
* Why not open the phone lines longer for longer hours until the IDES bottleneck kind of slows down?…
Yeah, so one of the things I explained a little while ago when I was talking about unemployment as one of the featured topics for the day was that the federal government actually has requirements of training, and that training requirement is rather lengthy process.
And because people are giving their personal information to somebody over the phone, and you wouldn’t want to give that to somebody who might misuse that information or doesn’t understand how private that information really is. And so it’s very hard to expand the workforce, we’re doing it, but very hard to do it. And so, when you say leaving it open longer, people are working overtime. But in terms of running a second or third shift. Again, you would need more people and the training is really a gating issue again have. Having said that, we’ve expanded the phone lines, and the number of people that are covering those phones, who are already IDES employees but have been repositioned so that there are, as I recall the last time I looked at the statistics and I look at them reasonably frequently, we’re doing about three to four times the number of calls now in a day that we were doing at the beginning of this, let alone last year where it’s an even larger multiple.
* The Symphony of Joliet nursing home says that they need the National Guard to assist them in conducting conducting tests, the more we can test the more we can prevent the spread of virus is the governor’s office looking in to doing this at this facility or any others?…
Indeed, the whole point of expanding testing across the board has been so that we can go in starting with people who are very vulnerable. Also our first responders, making sure that we really cover the waterfront so to speak of everybody that is in let’s say a priority one status, nursing home residents and the staff and nursing homes are certainly in that category. And indeed, Dr. Ezike talked about I think yesterday or the day before the fact that we’ve that we’ve been going in, in fact we’ve identified the nursing homes. We’re going in ratably I guess is the right word, every day to test a new nursing home to make sure we get everybody there tested in the ones where there are no COVID positives already to make sure that we can keep it from getting COVID positive and then in the ones where there are COVID we’re assuming everybody is infected right i mean we’re treating it as if everybody is infected. … If they have made a special request for Illinois National Guard, we probably would have fulfilled it
* It seems to be harder to find numbers on COVID-19 recovery or hospital releases here in Illinois opposed to some other states. Maryland it’s listed with the rest of the daily numbers. We know that you’ve explained the difficulty and getting this data before but why are there states reporting daily, and we aren’t?…
Dr. Ezike: Well we have been trying to share with recovery data. Itry to update that once a week, in terms of us being able to pull out the hospital data. That is something again that we have to have the input before we can put the output. And so when we have missing pieces of data and if you push that out, it actually creates more questions than it offers answers in terms of if the numbers don’t match but we’re working with all of our partners to try to get as much data, put in and updated in a timely basis. A lot of times, even if we put out some data, there would be additional inputs that would come that would make us have to update the data and I know that can be a little bit confusing as well but we have nothing but the goal of being transparent but it’s also important to be able to put out trusted and and reliable data as well.
* Should grocery stores and other businesses turn people away if they’re not wearing a face covering some employers have safety concerns about such confrontations?…
I understand, but we have put in a requirement for people to wear face coverings. And so I, you know, just like with everything else you’re not allowed to go into a restaurant without wearing shoes.
So it’s perfectly acceptable to tell people that you’re not allowed in if you’re not wearing a face mask. Remember a face covering is protecting other people. So this person is being not just disrespectful to everybody in the grocery store, but also potentially infecting other people, by not wearing a face covering so I would suggest that be the language that’s used when you’re talking to somebody who’s not using a face guard first to just ask them please would you get a face covering and explain to them you can even use a T shirt. There are plenty of examples of how you can create a face covering for free, out of your own clothing or other items you may have in your own home or apartment.
* Reaction to the lawsuit filed by state representative Bailey claiming a violation of civil rights?…
Well, first as you know I have relied on science and research and doctors and advice. You know models from the experts to address this pandemic and it is a pandemic it is an emergency, it has been named such by the federal government we are in a state of emergency now federally. We are in a disaster proclamation for the state of Illinois. And for as long as we have the number of 2700 people getting infected in a day, people that are being that are their fatalities. And that’s happening on a somewhat consistent basis, thousands of people.
We are in an emergency so frankly, I think that a lawsuit about whether or not this is an emergency is a political maneuver. At a time when we probably shouldn’t be dealing with politics but rather simply addressing the emergency that no matter what political party you belong to.
* Should we assume June 1 the stay at home order will end, even if it’s gradually? (Are we there yet?)…
I’ve talked a lot about the way we would do that phasing in, back into the economy and again, I think that the new normal that occurs here, and I hope that it could occur before the end of May, but again it will be all based on whether people are getting sicker and where we are in the curve.
* A sheriff in Douglas County says he doesn’t intend to enforce your modified order. In such cases, how do you intend to enforce your order if it’s crucial to saving lives?…
Well, I can say that, then the sheriff is going to let people get sick and they’re going to be people who end up in the hospital and maybe even people in ICU and on ventilators. So, I feel badly for the people of that county that they have somebody who doesn’t recognize that this is a worldwide and very virulent virus, that is, you know, has is among us, it’s not going away. And we’re going to have to follow the rules in order for us to get through this and keep people alive and reopen our economy. […]
People, whether your Sheriff is enforcing it or not, you know what you need to do to keep yourself safe. We’ve laid it all out you can go to the IDPH website and read all about you know why you should wear a face covering and why it is important that you stay home and that we’ve only kept a central businesses open, plus the other ones that we’ve added on for May. So I think I would just encourage the people of that county to protect themselves
* Following reports that COVID was already in the United States before the first reported case, California Governor Newsome plans to order medical examiner’s to go back and look at autopsies for December in January. Do we plan on doing that as well?…
No. I know when our first case was identified was the second case in the US. Of course it begs the question, you know, that individual was not on a flight that came in after any travel restrictions and screenings were in place. So, for sure, if we think that this virus you know originated in, [garbled] and people were traveling to the US, it is possible or very likely that cases individuals who have this had come before are first diagnosed cases so potentially there have been other illnesses that were not appreciated. And I know that maybe there will be request by families maybe medical examiners will be reviewing some of their records, we wouldn’t stop any of that. If they identify new cases we will have to adjust our case counts, and we will absolutely do that to update our data.
* Many garden centers that also sold landscaping needs were already allowed to stay open. What specifically does this modification change?…
Actually nothing. It just makes it much more explicit. There were people who didn’t understand the order, they were spreading rumors that you couldn’t keep your garden center open or that we had somehow prohibited people from selling seeds. I don’t know where that is anywhere in this order prior and so we just put some language in there to make sure that people understood it completely.
* Are mayors and towns able to make their own decisions on what should remain closed, even if they conflict with your modifications?…
Anybody can be more stringent than the modifications that we’ve made that’s absolutely true that if you have a golf course in your area or you have a business that we’ve said could do curbside pickup, and you’ve decided that’s not safe in your area where that business isn’t safe, doing what they’re doing that is completely up to local officials to be to enact more stringent regulations than the ones we’ve put forward.
* You said the state expanded agreements with private commercial labs, do you have assurances that test results will come back faster than the seven to 12 days you’ve complained about before?…
Yes indeed in fact we, that’s one of our biggest concerns. So we tried to focus on commercial labs, the ones that we have agreements we’ve tried to focus on commercial labs that are in our area. Number one where we could have an agreement where we knew that they would return those test results quickly. And what what Hannah is referring to, just for everybody else, is that the large commercial laboratory companies which are not located here they may have a small location here but they’re generally not located here. Most of their testing capacity, they are returning their tests in seven to 12 days we just find that too long for most people. Nevertheless, there are doctors here in the state who are sending their tests to those labs and not getting those returned test results in that quite that that very long time.
* It’s been several days since the state began listing nursing home deaths and cases we’ve been seeing clusters of elderly dying in Cook County every day. Are we seeing an uptick, are there any other precautions in place to try to limit the number of cases and deaths in the state’s nursing homes?…
I think we’ve both been speaking towards this, we’re trying to identify, of course we’re aggressively working with places where cases have already been identified. And with our strike teams with our consultants with our infection control, preventionist, but we’re also trying to reach into neighborhoods where we know that there are cases in the community. But yet, an establishment in which there isn’t identified cases so that’s when we’re going in and testing all the staff and all the residents, so that we can maybe get a jump on identifying a positive case and then do the appropriate isolation and segregation. For those who identify, so our pre emptive proactive approach of mass testing we’re hoping is a way to get ahead of that, but yes we’re absolutely trying to fortify our strategies to try to get ahead of the outbreaks.
* Politico: The new stay at home order won’t allow the state legislature to return at all to Springfield to meet its May 31 budget deadline. Can you detail how lawmakers will adjust to the new order? [This is a basic separation of powers issue. The EO doesn’t apply to the GA. He can’t prevent the GA from meeting. Let’s move along.]
* What do you say to business owners who say that their workers are making more on unemployment and are choosing to remain off work until their benefits run out, even though they could go back to their jobs in many cases?…
That’s, I just, I don’t know what to say. That was an argument that Senator Graham made when they were trying to pass the bill. And I just think that’s a ridiculous argument.
People want to get back to work. They do have the opportunity to earn more money at work than they do with the extra $600 that’s being provided to them per month is, that’s not enough to make a difference for these families.
* What should someone with an underlying condition do is told to either return to work under the relaxed at home order or be fired especially in light of the recent restraining order issued by a Sangamon County judge in the workman’s compensation case?…
They should report to the Department of Labor for the state of Illinois. They also have their their own union. There are other authorities on a local level. In particular, the Department of Public Health in their local county. But the Department of Labor certainly is an important place for them to go.
* What are some of the key differences between Illinois and other states in the Midwest path when it comes to reopening the economy?…
There are a lot of differences between these states. First I’d tell you we have the best people in the entire country here in Illinois. And then the next best are those in the Midwest. But the fact is that we have different infection rates across the different states. We have different characteristics. Some states like Ohio have multiple sort of medium to large sized cities, Illinois has Chicago which is a massive city, and some medium sized cities. So there are a lot you know so you see infection rates are different and and regionally different and so on. So, there are a lot of differences but there are also a lot of things in common and again, when we’re thinking about reopening the economy we’re talking about looking at industries, and many of the industries in the Midwest are similar.
* What are your thoughts about President Trump’s advocacy of disinfectant injections as possible treatment for COVID-19? And what do you make of Trump’s contention today he was only being sarcastic with those comments?…
I don’t know if you’re goading me with that question. I mean it’s dangerous what the President suggested yesterday was dangerous. And he clearly was not making any facial expressions or any discussion that would make it sound as if he was joking in any way. And I think he’s, you know, all I can say is I hope to God that nobody listened to him yesterday.
* On life after the pandemic, what elements of the pandemic life will stay with us afterward and what parts of our pre pandemic lives are probably gone?…
I don’t think that I can think that far into the future i mean I have a hard time imagining what what the fall will look like.
But I certainly know that one effect of the pandemic is that Illinoisans have really pulled together to support each other. It’s amazing. I don’t know who, you know, in Cook County in Chicago if you, if you are even in your apartment or your house at eight o’clock at night. The entire city in fact the entire county are out cheering for our health care workers, cheering for our first responders, cheering for all the essential workers because of the risks that they’re taking. And I mean, that’s just one example, people in downstate, there are people delivering meals to seniors at their homes because seniors are afraid sometimes to go out and certainly are vulnerable and people are bringing meals and putting them in their front at the front door and ringing the bell and leaving so that you know they don’t have any contact or any transmission. And I just think it is testament to the greatness of the people that the state of Illinois to the kindness of the people in the state of Illinois. So, I don’t know, maybe that was already here but it’s so much more evident now, and I think maybe one lasting legacy of this is that we will have demonstrated to each other that you know that we are all in this together and that we will stand up for each other when things get tough.
* By moving the general assembly into special session, if that’s a way for the Democratic leadership to strong arm an agenda with the three fifths majority requirement? [Huh?]…
No.
Nothing’s been decided about how the legislature would meet. And so I look forward to having more conversations as I already have had with the leaders, and certainly their input about whether we would end up in a special session or a regular session, you know helpful, but the legislature is going to have to make its own decisions at this point.
* Can you debunk some of the persistent rumors about your order? Are any businesses connected to you profiting from the pandemic, do hospitals get more money based on their number of COVID cases?…
I heard the first part of this, what was the do hospitals make more money on COVID-19? No in fact hospitals lose money.
Hospitals make money on elective surgeries. That’s true. And one of the reasons that we allowed some hospitals in regions that have enough bed availability to have elective surgeries, is we wanted to make sure that they could pay their bills, many of them, particularly downstate are dependent upon elective surgeries to balance their budget to just keep the lights on. And so we wanted to make it easier and also there are people who have had to put off surgeries for all of this time, because we wanted to make sure there were enough beds available. We didn’t know how virulent this virus was going to be and whether we were going to have every hospital full. And so after five weeks, it’s clear that in some areas of the state there is real danger of that in other areas of the state there’s not and so that is allowing elective surgeries now with some restrictions. I think was the right thing to do.
As to whether I own anything that’s making any money during this, I mean, first of all, I am everything that I have is in a blind trust, and I’m trying to think of anything that I was involved with before, but no.
* I MESSED UP MY OWN QUESTION!. Mayor Lightfoot unveiled her city’s recovery plan yesterday, when do you expect to do the same for the state of what might it look like? [I meant to say recovery plan committee, but goofed!]…
I don’t think a recovery plan was issued yesterday, that committee was put together. And so, the state will do this differently than the city will. And I’ll be doing as I have been doing, speaking with mayors and and leaders from around the state, from Southern Illinois, in Central Illinois and around Chicago and of course in The Rockford area too, and Western Illinois and making sure that we’re taking into account the real diversity of the state, and all the industries and the differences between those industries manufacturing will have a very different set of rules for reopening than, let’s say restaurants or bars would. And so, this is something, it’s a complex endeavor. I don’t see it as one where you can get one committee of people together to make decisions about the entire economy.
* The Harrisburg city council has called a special meeting for Tuesday to consider a proposal to open up some retailers to in-house customers on May 1 despite your extension. Your thoughts on this, would there be consequences?…
That would be a violation of the stay at home rule and there, certainly I have enforcement mechanisms available to me but I would look forward to not having to do that.
* How can people get masks if they don’t have credit cards to order online? What masks and vendors do you recommend?…
I actually would suggest to people that there are a lot of ways to use a free mask. I certainly am not going to recommend a particular mask maker. But I saw a video of how somebody can take a T shirt and use it to make a mask with tying it behind their head and and so on. But, you know, I’m not gonna recommend, I think there are lots of ways to do it. I would recommend somebody go online and just type in homemade mask or homemade face covering. And they’re much less expensive than trying to buy one online.
* Much of the concern has been around masks, but in some areas now there are an insufficient number of gowns being a problem. Has acquiring and supplying gowns or any other type of PPE become a problem here in Illinois?…
I wouldn’t call it a problem in the sense that we’ve run out of them entirely in the state or in any particular place. However, you are correct, each one of these things as you can imagine, has been in shortage in fact, all of them at the beginning, we’re in massive shortage.
But we’ve been able to bring, first it was masks, we wanted to make sure that we had N95 masks that are very hard to acquire. We’re still acquiring them but we’ve had a pretty good success at that. We wanted to have other kinds of face coverings like surgical masks or general medical masks. G owns are in shorter supply and indeed I spoke about this with our team this morning. Because we have actually a number of gowns, lots of gowns that are on order now and I don’t know what date they will arrive, but we do have them on order. And I know that you know our expectation is that we will not run out of gowns in the state.
* Now that you’ve met the 10,000 tests goal for a single day is this level of testing sustainable for the long term is there any benchmark to aim for?…
You know the challenges in the supply chain in order to get us to 10,000 were immense. And indeed, this was raised on a call that we had today with the White House task force that everybody wants to expand. I heard one of the governors saying they have 4000 tests today, and they’re having trouble expanding from that to 6000 a day. So everybody’s having trouble. Having said that, my expectation is that we will be able to sustain 10,000 again it will let you know like many other things depend upon how many people go to a testing site on any given day.
How many tests we get done is dependent on how many people go and get a test done, in part, and then on the supplies, so my expectation is that we’ll be able to maintain this level. My hope and expectation and then of course this isn’t enough. And so the idea here is we’ve got to keep going. And we will.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,724 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 108 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 male 60s
Clinton County: 1 female 100+
Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 female 40s, 3 males 40s, 1 female 50s, 5 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 7 males 60s, 14 females 70s, 15 males 70s, 10 females 80s, 11 males 80s, 4 females 90s, 5 males 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 80s, 3 females 90s, 2 males 90s
Jefferson County: 1 male 70s
Kankakee County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 80s
Lake County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 90s
Madison County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
McHenry County: 1 male 50s
Sangamon County: 1 male 70s
Whiteside County: 1 unknown 90s
Will County: 1 male 20s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 males 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 39,658 cases, including 1,795 deaths, in 96 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
First, let me tell you what a half-life is. We don’t measure the virus as far as how long will it live on a surface. We have to measure the decay of the virus in terms of its half-life because we don’t know certain-… That has a bearing on how long the virus is going to be alive and active. So, we measure it in half-life because half-life doesn’t change.
So, if you look at an 18 hour half-life, what you’re basically saying is that every 18 hours the life of the virus is cut in half. So, if you start with 1000 particles of the virus, in 18 hours you’re down to 500, and 18 hours after that you’re down to 250 and so on and so forth. […]
So, the virus is dying at a much more rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just from exposure to humidity. If you look at the fourth line, you inject the sunlight into that, you inject UV rays into that, the same effects on line two as 70 to 75 degrees with 80% humidity on the surface and look at line four but now you inject the sun, the half-life goes from six hours to two minutes. That’s how much of an impact UV rays has on the virus. […]
So, in summary, within the conditions we’ve tested today, the virus in droplets of saliva survives best in indoors and dry conditions. … look at the aerosol as you breathe it, you put it in a room, 70 to 75 degrees, 20% humidity, low humidity. Half-life is about an hour, but you get outside and it cuts down to a minute and a half. Very significant difference when it gets hit with UV rays. […]
(I)ncreasing the temperature and humidity of potentially contaminated indoor spaces appears to reduce the stability of the virus, and extra care may be warranted for dry environments that do not have exposure to solar light.
Translation: Open the windows and turn up the heat in congregate settings like nursing homes, retail establishments, offices, etc. And even if turns out this doesn’t work, it’s not going to do any harm. Fresh air is fresh air.
Several studies support the idea that indoor humidity plays a role in seasonal disease transmission. When someone coughs or sneezes, they release tiny droplets into the air (if they’re sick, these droplets will contain virus). The bigger droplets typically fall before they get very far, but the tiniest droplets, called droplet nuclei, can go much farther. In humid conditions, these tiny droplets don’t evaporate as much, so they drop down more quickly than they would in dry conditions. Virus-containing droplets that travel farther are more likely to infect a new host.
Bryan warned it would be “irresponsible” to say the warmer summer months will eliminate the virus. But he said that time period would provide an “opportunity to get ahead” of the pandemic.
We’re also testing disinfectants readily available. We’ve tested bleach, we’ve tested isopropyl alcohol on the virus specifically in saliva or in respiratory fluids and I can tell you that bleach will kill the virus in five minutes. Isopropyl alcohol will kill the virus in 30 seconds and that’s with no manipulation, no rubbing. Just bring it on and leaving it go. You rub it and it goes away even faster.
An idea that might seem outlandish at first is gaining some ground as a way to speed development of a coronavirus vaccine: intentionally infecting people with the virus as part of a trial.
The idea, known as a “challenge trial,” would deliberately infect a few hundred young, healthy volunteers, who were first given either the potential vaccine or a placebo. Those picked would be well informed about the risks.
That would allow the effectiveness of a vaccine to be determined faster than a traditional clinical trial, which would require that researchers wait for some of the participants to become infected in the course of their daily lives.
Supporters say the challenge trial could save several months in the search for a vaccine, which is widely seen as critical for people to feel confident again with social gatherings.
A group of 35 House lawmakers, led by Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Donna Shalala (D-Fla.), a former secretary of Health and Human Services, wrote to the Food and Drug Administration this week lending their support to the idea.
Nursing home group criticizes state response to COVID-19: Aaron’s conference call came in the wake of complaints from nursing home workers that managers are not providing adequate gear and training while failing to share information on outbreaks. Aaron said his peers in the industry were being blamed unfairly.
New executive order by Pritzker waives some graduation requirements for high school seniors, 8th graders
Aurora Public Library to consider employee furloughs due to pandemic
After reported BBQs and picnic gatherings, parking lots at ‘too popular’ Cook County Forest Preserves to be closed during weekend, Preckwinkle says
For Chicago-area Muslims without traditional mosque access, a remote Ramadan isn’t a new concept
Mayor Lori Lightfoot to preside over City Council meeting after opponents blocked COVID-19 emergency spending powers
Unexpected ripple effect of COVID-19: Important work to restore parts of Cook County forest preserves put on hold
* Framework released to reopen Adams County: Red flags that could cause the plan to pause would be an increase of community transmission, multiple cases in a workplace or congregate living facility, a decrease in PPE or gatherings outside of the governor’s executive order. Simon said the hope is that moving ahead to the second phase of the plan — possibly in June — is that residents can move responsibly with the return of restaurants and bars in a limited capacity.
* During COVID, is your food safe? Experts weigh in: On the one hand, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have concluded that the novel coronavirus can’t be spread from food and its packaging, Anderson said. On the other hand, if respiratory droplets from the mouth or nose of someone with COVID-19 are on the package and someone else handles that package shortly thereafter, that person could be at risk.
“If any of these folks re-offend and hurt somebody else, I will hold J.B. Pritzker personally responsible and I will make it my mission in life to ensure that the family members know that it was J.B. Pritzker that caused them this harm as well,” Cabello said. […]
Some of those commuted include Kwayera Jackson, a former football standout in Southern Illinois, who was convicted of murder in the death of his infant son. Supporters of Jackson have petitioned for his release, saying Jackson killed his son attempting to perform “strengthening exercises” on the 5-month-old boy. The document shows Jackson was released on April 10.
“It’s very disturbing,” said Bethalto Mayor Alan Winslow, who was the lead investigator in the case. Jackson was convicted in the 1998 killing and sentenced in 2000. Under truth-in-sentencing laws, he was to serve all 40 years.
“He showed no remorse,” Winslow said. He said Jackson, now 40, beat the child to death then told two different false stories to cover his acts.
I think that whoever represented the government or the governor in making this decision did not do any due diligence on this case. I think there was a lot of political issue to this. And I think it’s wrong, and quite honestly, I hope to see the system change.
Illinois Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) said Friday that state Senate Republicans could get behind granting temporary furloughs for prisoners with non-violent crimes who are also at risk for health complications — within a transparent system involving the say of law enforcement.
“This not the case of a non-violent offense,” he said of Jackson’s release.
“The governor is not answering questions, and is not being open to law enforcement, or the judiciary, or the media, or the public at-large,” Plummer added.
“The transparency is completely non-existent,” he said. “I have talked to prosecutors, and I have talked to law enforcement officials who have been involved in multiple of these cases. None of them have heard anything from the governor’s office or the governor.”
First, the governor has sole authority over clemencies granted to him by the Illinois Constitution. No governor is obligated to talk to anyone, including Republican state legislators. And, as you’ll see in a moment, local law enforcement officials had a chance to speak up on this particular case and missed it.
* Gov. Pritzker has said that the majority of the prisoner releases are handled by the Illinois Department of Corrections under statutory guidelines which were modified by an executive order. All of his clemencies, he said, are run through the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. He has reportedly granted 17 clemency petitions since March 11.
So, I called PRB Chairman Craig Findley, who has served on the PRB since 2001. He did a 15-month stint as chairman when he was first appointed and was then reappointed chairman in 2015 by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Findley told me that the clemency process has always been confidential. “We don’t explain them and the governor has no obligation to explain them,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know of a single governor who has talked publicly about individual commutations (except maybe when George Ryan cleared out death row). And he very politely (the man has always been a gentleman) refused to answer questions about individual cases.
* I also reached out to the governor’s office. Here’s Jordan Abudayyeh..
There is a clear process that has been used for decades when governors exercise their clemency powers. The Prisoner Review Board makes confidential recommendations to the governor who reviews clemency petitions and takes action. The Governor is a strong believer in criminal justice reform and that means carefully and thoughtfully considering petitions for clemency from those who have demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation while serving their sentence. The Governor takes the PRB’s recommendations to heart as he weighs these decisions.
She also added this…
Mr. Jackson’s petition was considered by the PRB in July 2019, and provided an opportunity for public comment and for the Madison County State’s Attorney to submit a response, which it did not do. [Emphasis added.]
In other words, this clemency process appears to have started about a year ago and nobody, including Bethalto’s mayor, Sen. Plummer and Rep. Cabello, apparently spoke up.
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Thursday that using swimming pools during the coronavirus pandemic is not a good idea – with a gross-out reason as to why.
“IDPH does regulate pools, and if we want to get into the different microbes that exist within pools – different swimming pools – we can do that. But definitely, the practice of obviously being in a swimming pool, unfortunately, we do know that there is some fecal shedding of this coronavirus,” Ezike said, barely able to stop herself from laughing as she did so.
There are other reasons that swimming pools should not be opened for now, Ezike said.
“You would have locker rooms with which people would need to change, so you would have more people congregated in the same setting, so for a myriad of reasons, that wouldn’t be conducive to promoting social distancing and decreasing community spread,” Ezike said.
That last part turns out to be the most important (and it’s a critical reason not to allow public pool use right now) because the first part doesn’t quite match up to the CDC’s guidelines.
The virus that causes COVID-19 has been found in the feces of some patients diagnosed with COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether the virus found in feces may be capable of causing COVID-19. There has not been any confirmed report of the virus spreading from feces to a person. Scientists also do not know how much risk there is that the virus could be spread from the feces of an infected person to another person. However, they think this risk is low based on data from previous outbreaks of diseases caused by related coronaviruses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
There is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas, or water play areas. Proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of these facilities should inactivate the virus in the water.
While there is ongoing community spread of COVID-19 of the virus that causes COVID-19, it is important for individuals as well as owners and operators of these facilities to take steps to ensure health and safety:
Everyone should follow local and state guidance that may determine when and how recreational water facilities may operate.
Individuals should continue to protect themselves and others at recreational water venues both in and out of the water – for example, by practicing social distancing and good hand hygiene.
In addition to ensuring water safety and quality, owners and operators of community pools, hot tubs, spas, and water play areas should follow the interim guidance for businesses and employers for cleaning and disinfecting their community facilities.
Under the stay-at-home order, individuals must wear a “face-covering or mask when in a public place where they can’t maintain a six-foot social distance.” It applies to anyone over the age of 2 “who are able to medically tolerate a face-covering or a mask.” […]
Pritzker said police should remind people who aren’t wearing a mask of the order and all businesses must require people to have one in order to enter.
“People should wear a mask and it should be they should be reminded if they’re not wearing a mask that they’re not,” he said. “And private establishments do need to require that people who enter their establishment wear a mask.”
Nearby suburbs and other major cities, including New York City, have implemented similar requirements. The Centers for Disease Control has recommended people wear cloth face coverings, as well.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, speaking during a Thursday press conference before Pritzker’s announcement, said the city would work to ensure all Chicagoans have access to coverings and won’t punish those who struggle to comply.
“I do worry a little bit about that [availability], though, and the ability of our residents, particularly in poorer neighborhoods, to be able to access materials,” Lightfoot said. “Once we see what the guidance is from the governor, we’re gonna work hard to make sure we can actually give our residents the ability to comply. We’re not gonna ticket and arrest people because they don’t have face coverings, but it is to their benefit … .”
As the story notes, the CDC has some guidance on how to make your own cloth masks. Click here for that.
Whenever anyone has asked me, I’ve sent them to Etsy. If you click here, I’ve set up a search for masks that are ready to ship in 1-3 days, organized by buyer ratings. Also, I saw on Facebook yesterday that Rickey Hendon is selling KN95 masks, just in case you’re interested or brave.
Independent and new party candidates seeking placement on the Nov. 3 ballot will be required to submit only 10 percent of the normal number of nominating signatures and will file petitions six weeks later than originally scheduled under a court order issued Thursday by Chief U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer.
The order was in response to a lawsuit by the Libertarian Party of Illinois, the Illinois Green Party and several independent candidates alleging that concerns over COVID-19, including a statewide order limiting social contact, impaired their ability to gather sufficient signatures and meet the June 22 filing deadline for new party and independent candidates. Under the order, new party and independent candidates will file nominating petitions with the State Board of Elections from July 31-Aug. 7.
In addition to reducing the number of signatures required by candidates, the order allows the Libertarian and Green parties to place candidates on the November ballot without filing nominating petitions for any offices in which those parties fielded candidates in either the 2016 or 2018 general elections. This means both parties can place candidates for president and U.S. Senate on the November ballot. The Green Party also can name candidates to the ballot in the 5th and 12th congressional races.
Other independent and new party candidates will be required to submit 10 percent of the statutory signature requirements for offices on the November ballot. This reduces the original 25,000 signature requirement for presidential, U.S. Senate, Illinois Supreme Court and Illinois Appellate Court candidates to 2,500 signatures. Signature requirements for other offices on the November ballot vary by office, and the original requirements are listed in the 2020 Candidates Guide, which is attached to this release.
The order also drops the requirement that signatures on nominating petitions be original, physical signatures. A physical “wet” signature would still be permitted but not required on the candidate’s petition. Petition signers may physically sign a copy of a candidate’s petition, or they may electronically sign their handwritten signatures to the petition using a finger or a device such as a computer mouse or stylus. Photocopies of signatures also will be permitted.
The order is here. I’m kinda wondering if the folks behind Sam McCann’s Conservative Party might try to take advantage of this. I asked earlier today, but haven’t yet heard back.
First, please note that the session days scheduled for next week (Tuesday, April 28 through Thursday, April 30) are cancelled. The deadline for House Bills out of Committees, which had previously been rescheduled for April 30, will be extended to Thursday, May 7. The 3rd Reading deadline for House Bills, which had previously been rescheduled for May 8, will be extended to Friday, May 15.
Attached you’ll find a summary of yesterday’s call hosted by the White House, as well as some recent guidance from FEMA concerning the use of PPE in non-healthcare settings. I think essential businesses that are not healthcare-related will find this instructive.
Summer of White House call is here. FEMA guidance is here.
Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John M. Madonia has issued a TRO this afternoon following a lawsuit filed by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association earlier this week related to emergency amendments filed by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission seeking to change substantive provisions under the Workers’ Compensation Act. While the lead plaintiffs on this case are the IMA and IRMA, more than two dozen business groups from every segment of the economy are supporting this effort.
…Adding… I’m told the state has to respond by April 30 and both parties will reconvene on May 4 for potential arguments.
The new Stay At Home order that includes many recommendations from the House Republican caucus is the first step in moving Illinois forward. Working together and implementing smart policy decisions will increase the safety of Illinois residents and allow our economy to begin opening up in an equitable fashion while still protecting employees and customers. I want Illinoisans to know that the Executive Order is not final, but it is a working document subject to change. While I am pleased with today’s actions, we must do more to restore economic vitality of the state while maintaining the health and safety of our citizens.
* Rep. Darren Bailey…
– State Rep. Darren Bailey filed a lawsuit today (April 23) against Governor J.B. Pritzker for a violation of civil rights.
“My lawsuit asks the court to find that Gov. Pritzker overextended his power by issuing additional ‘stay at home’ orders after his original disaster proclamation, which expired on April 9th, 2020,” said Bailey
(R-Xenia). “Enough is enough. I filed this lawsuit on behalf of myself and my constituents who are ready to go back to work and resume a normal life.”
While special emergency powers were granted to the governor through the Emergency Management Act in the late 1980’s by the Illinois General assembly, the unprecedented power and authority he wields under the current crisis calls for an immediate review and reconsideration of legislative intent.
I am pleased this stay-at-home extension contains recommendations submitted by Senate Republicans that will ease some of the onerous restrictions on small businesses, essential health care procedures, and state parks. This will allow residents the opportunity to avail themselves of these activities and services while maintaining the proper social-distancing protocols.
However, one area not included in this extension was a regional, phased-in reopening of our state. Downstate communities, while following the proper social distancing guidelines, are not seeing the same number of cases, but they’re suffering just the same economically.
Thirty days is a long time, and the Governor has said the peak could be reached by the end of this month or early May. He must continue to monitor the data with the hope that we can ease restrictions before May 30 if it is safe to do so. We have to realize COVID-19 is our new normal, and it is time to address how all businesses, essential or otherwise, operate safely.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Jordan Abudayyeh…
At every step of the response to this deadly pandemic, the Governor has followed the guidance of public health experts and used the emergency powers authorized in State law to protect the health and lives of all Illinoisans.
As the experts outlined today, we are now seeing that the stay at home orders and other emergency steps have started to slow the spread of the coronavirus and are making a significant difference.
Now is not the time to stop our work, because we must remember lives are at stake. It is truly unfortunate that a legislator is working against our public health efforts.
* On to questions for the governor. Remember to pardon all transcription errors. Are you saying that doctors and patients can now start making appointments to do procedures beginning May 1st for such things as MRIs, mammograms, colonoscopies and other potentially life saving measures?…
Dr. Ezike: So yes, we’ve been working very hard to try to come up with very safe ways that we can help these postponed procedures and surgeries, which, after postponing them for too long could actually become more of a harm to the patients, instead of a benefit.
And so we will roll out details in the coming days, but we are trying to make a healthcare, more accessible, these specific surgeries and procedures, and we will be working with our partners, the Illinois Health and Hospital Association to try to find the best media in terms of keeping beds available for COVID patients in case there is the surge, in case there’s any change in what happens with that, and make sure that we won’t undo any of the benefits that we’ve done so far.
* Greg Bishop at the Center Square apparently thinks the governor can unilaterally break the AFSCME contract, or just wanted to ding Pritzker: The state is scheduled to give union workers $261 million in raises. How do you justify those raises to people who are out of work and struggling to file unemployment benefits and pay their daily bills?…
Yeah. So, as you know, these are contracts negotiated after four years of no contracts for those workers, and no raises at all. And so that’s why those contracts are in place now. I was able to negotiate something with them. We certainly keep in close contact, we’re watching the budget very closely. But suffice to say that that’s the reason that those exist. If you look at the four years of no raises and the negotiated raises that were in those contracts, they’re very reasonable for the taxpayers and I think, again, we’re looking at all the constraints of the budget going forward and we’ll continue to make changes to the budget because that’s something tha the February budget that was proposed is no longer a budget that we can ever [garbled] so there are 261 million could be readjusted.
* Are you aware of the results of a study that was put out today that found the COVID-19 has spread through air conditioning systems at a restaurant in China?…
Dr. Ezike: I am not aware of that but I will make sure that my team researches that so that we can be aware of all the current information that’s coming out so thank you for sharing that.
I’m kinda stunned that she didn’t know about that.
* What are your thoughts about the recommendations concerning the letter that Minority Leader Jim Durkin put out today, expressing his desire for you to share the modeling numbers in detail with legislative leaders as well as the public?…
Well I think one of the purposes of today you know, he and one of his colleagues in the House have wanted to see the models, and as I’ve said to them many times, there are multiple models and the modeling doesn’t determine my answers to, you know how we’re going to move forward, but it is instructive for sure. So this is an assistance I think everybody to understand what we’re looking at. But this isn’t even the only thing that I’m looking at so the idea that somehow sharing one model with people is going to somehow instruct them about what next moves we’re going to make, I think is a fallacy.
* You’ve been accused by some including some Illinois Republican lawmakers of operating in a bubble, would you commit to holding a virtual town hall to hear directly from Illinois residents about the economic problems that they are facing?…
Well the accusation that I’m operating in a bubble is ridiculous.
First of all, I think everybody on my staff and the Republican members of the House and Senate and the leaders themselves know that I make frequent calls every day to them, to many of their constituents, to mayors, [and] Brad Cole knows there are quite a number of mayors all across the state that I’ve reached out to. I’ve tried to make myself accessible in every way that I can we’re also in a stay at home order. I’m trying hard to reach out as we all are using zoom and other methods of communication with people, and I’ll continue to do that for as long as we’re in this situation.
* WIND’s Amy Jacobson says that, preface that by saying this, Mitch McConnell has said he won’t provide federal bailout funds for state pension funds but he would support a provision to allow states to file for bankruptcy. You have said you don’t want such a such a provision and wouldn’t use it. If a reorganization was good enough for Puerto Rico, with less debt per capita than Illinois, why isn’t it good enough for Illinois? And if it’s not good enough for Illinois, what options would you necessarily consider absent a federal bailout?…
So, I would like to say that Amy clearly doesn’t understand what happens when an organization goes through a bankruptcy and out the other side.
The cost of borrowing, the cost of doing business goes way up much beyond where we are now. We would be paying interest at usurious rates. Our state would be in a world of hurt, people wouldn’t want to do business in fact with a state that’s gone through bankruptcy with the idea that, well if you’ve gone through it once you might go through it again.
And the fact is states are not allowed to declare bankruptcy, and it’s a good thing.
What we do need to do is make sure that we do as I was doing before we got to this crisis, which is to balance our budget on a regular basis to begin to build surpluses so that we can pay down existing bills, that were there before I came into office to make sure that we’re continuing the services that people need in the state, while also being fiscally responsible.
* Cisco Cotto says there are several downstate counties that are being devastated economically, even though they have very few infections. Why not allow those areas to reopen across the board?…
Well, as you can see from some of the changes that we made in the executive order, I listened to many people downstate and in areas where there were let the lower infection rates, lower hospitalizations, so that we could make it more accessible for them to do certain kinds of things that we thought will not spread the infection, but will allow areas that have a different set of characteristics than let’s say an area of downtown Chicago. To be able to operate in a different fashion so that’s that’s built in I talked about some of those things in my remarks.
* A study finds that 88% of COVID-19 patients who are on ventilators in New York, passed away. Do you know what the percentage is here in Illinois?…
Dr. Ezike: I have been following more national and international data, I don’t have Illinois specific data. But across the board we have seen rates of 50 to 80% mortality on events, and we have learned I know from talking to ICU and pulmonary specialists that people are trying different more innovative ways to try to increase the oxygenation in patients who are suffering respiratory distress and that involves putting people on their stomach and rotating them in the different positions to try to get oxygen to different parts of the lungs. So we are seeing that here.
* How much testing do we need in Illinois in order to go about normal life before a vaccine is widely available? What’s the figure in terms of tests per capita? Have we hit a ceiling in our ability to test in the nation or in Illinois because of a lack of testing materials available? What about the spread of the disease in Illinois, do we not know yet?…
>Let me start by answering the question about how many tests, do we need per capita, what’s the right number. It’s very difficult to say and the reason that you know when you talk to the experts around the country, about this, they will give you different answers.
And it is certainly different in different industries, obviously, what you’d like to do in certain industries like the nursing home industry is you would like to be able to test every person, every day on a rapid test basis. So add all of that up and that’s some number of tests that you start with, and that’s just nursing homes. We want to do that in each setting in where you’ve got somebody who has a comorbidity that might put them at risk. So that’s why nobody’s really come up with quite the exact number.
What I can tell you is, as you know, I set an initial goal here for Illinois, because remember when I set the goal we were only in the few thousands range of testing. I set an initial goal of let’s get to 10,000 that seemed like a pretty big number. And it still is, we aren’t there yet, but we’re getting closer. And then the question I’m certainly thinking about this too. What’s the next goal. We’re not going to be able to immediately go from 10,000 to 250,000.
So what’s the next goal what’s possible? And how would we use the tests if we could come up with a number that’s possible in the near future over the next let’s say the two months? Hence, how would you use those tests right if you came up with that number?
So that’s how we’re operating now because the truth is, even if you set a goal of hundreds of thousands of tests a day, the testing materials don’t exist today because the market is so strained. And so it’s difficult to try to shoot for the moon. But I do think setting real goals that are a little bit slightly out of range that you can shoot for and work really hard to make that those are the kinds of goals I like to set.
* Why is Cook County seeing a different range of deaths and cases than other cities with similar demographics? What factors are you seeing to suggest why the county is not recovering as quickly as other similar counties?…
Dr. Ezike: This virus is preying on people who are older, is preying on people with underlying conditions. So there’s definitely a bias towards communities, or areas where there are older people or more infirmed people.
It’s one of the reasons that we have seen that health disparities across our ethnic groups with the black community bearing a higher burden of this, of this disease in terms of the mortality. Again, the disparities of health in terms of the health of communities existed before COVID was here. Again we’ve talked about many of the reasons for that socio-economic racism. Many, you know, loss of opportunities but if you had that to start with and then you place COVID on top of that, then you will have a more serious burden of the disease on those on those communities.
* How will the face covering requirement be enforced, and with the stay at home order now in place for over a month outside of congregate settings have you identified where community transmission is continuing to happen?…
Face coverings, you know, the same way that everything else has been enforced. It’s certainly done at the local level. We’re not encouraging police officers to stop people and arrest them, take drastic action. We are encouraging certainly everybody to encourage everybody else that they know but including the police or other officials to it, you know, people should wear a mask and they should be reminded if they’re not wearing a mask that they’re not. And private establishments do need to require that people who enter their establishment wear a mask. […]
Dr. Ezike: We have community transition in in all parts of our state. I think in terms of documented cases. We’re at 96 counties of the 102 and so we know that the majority of people who are ELS cannot tell you exactly where it came from. So there’s widespread community transmission.
Pritzker: You could say that the rates are higher in some areas and others but that’s not to say that we don’t have it throughout the state. And let me just remind you that that you need to do more testing everywhere in the country to do central surveillance which is
* What will the state do to help people unable to pay their rent or mortgages, money won’t be able to pay at the end of forbearance periods, since they’ve gone without income?…
We’ve been encouraging the forbearance as much as possible. We’ve obviously stopped sheriffs from evicting people we’ve talked to mortgage companies to get them to provide forbearance. Look, we’re all hopeful that we’re able to begin to put our economy back together. We hope that the forbearance period that people will be able to take advantage of will be a short enough period, but fully covered so that when people are able to go back to work, they’ll be able to to afford to pay their bills
* You’re allowing outdoor recreation, why not indoor pools which are chlorinated or gyms under correct spacing and capacity limits? Isn’t that a health necessity for some people?…
Dr. Ezike: IDPH does regulate pools and if we want to get into the, the different microbes that exists within pools, different swimming pools, we can do that. But definitely the practice of obviously being in a swimming pool, unfortunately we do know this here’s some fecal shedding coronavirus … And so, as well as associated with pools, you would have locker rooms with which people would need to change. So you would have more people congregated in the same setting. So for a myriad of reasons. That wouldn’t be conducive to promoting social distancing and decreasing community spread.
* Will you release the raw data for these models, when and where can we access it?…
I just want to be clear with everybody, we don’t own these models, these models belong to the experts who you’ve heard from and the others who’ve been part of our consultative group. And so I would suggest, I will just remind everybody that they have spoken with the press before, they’ve been quoted about what the work that they do and. And I think that that will continue and so again it’s up to them though these are models that are owned and controlled by the people who created them.
* How do we police boating on Lake Michigan?…
I can’t you know they’re just the same way. Look, we’re encouraging everybody to do the right thing. I think the other, we’re not going to be sending police out to look at every boat and count people that are on the boat. But I think people know what the right thing to do is, they’re being told what the right thing to do is and if it needs ultimately to be enforced, then we may need to go that direction by using law enforcement, but that is not currently what we’re looking for.
* Many retailers already fill online orders and do curbside business. How will this benefit them beyond what they’re already doing and sacrificing?
Well, if they’re not an essential business they will not have been doing this or should not have been doing this, but it is now allowed for retail businesses.
* We’ve had a record number of new cases yesterday, is this simply a result of more testing or is the virus continuing to spread if it’s still spreading do we know where and why?…
Dr. Ezike: I will say that the increased number of cases have to be taken in context with what the denominator is and so as you’ve heard Governor Pritzker say we’re the last two days we’ve tested over 9000 people for the first time in this state and so when you look at the the numerator, the number of positive cases over the denominator, all the people that were tested, we actually are still running about the same percentage of positivity but obviously if you test more people, you will get more positives, again, that is understood. But I think we’re still in the 20-21% positive rate. So it’s still consistent it’s just a matter of more people tested.
She explained that yesterday, by the way.
* Jake Griffin at The Daily Herald: Many people in rural parts of the state wants to quarantine Chicago and the suburbs and reopen parts of downstate Illinois that aren’t seeing infection rates like the urban areas. Why has the state not done that? [I swear I did not make that up.]…
I, I’m not sure how to answer that except that this virus knows no boundaries, folks. No one is immune from this virus no matter where you live. And we are trying to take into account the differences between population density in one area of the state versus another and you’re seeing that in the executive order, the modifications to the executive order that we put out today.
* Was the extension of the stay at home order to May 30 taken into account when you gave your updated budget and revenue figures for fiscal year 2020 and 2021 last week? If not, given large parts of the economy will still be closed for four more weeks, do you expect revenue coming into the state this and next year to be even lower than the drop you projected last week?…
There are unknowns every single day. And so, no I didn’t know a week or two or three ago what exactly we would be doing in the month of May, nor do I know honestly, what’s going to happen tomorrow as a result of this virus.
But what I can tell you is that we have taken into account the fact that there is a significant effect on the state of Illinois economy and therefore on the collection of tax revenue for the state. And so we have projected that this would be a prolonged recession, not, multi years, but a reasonably long one. And so that is factored into the numbers that we put forward. And we’ll continue to evaluate that as we’re working with the legislature on putting our budget together.
* Can you explain specifically what kind of economic relief you’ve asked for from the federal government?…
Well, you know, I have been involved in asking for relief for hospitalsm for unemployment, for those who are unemployed, making sure that we provide funding for our local governments.
One of the challenges of the last [bill] was that it set a threshold at 500,000 people. So if you were in a city or a town or county that had less than 500,000 people, you weren’t benefiting from at least from that provision of the CARES Act. And so that’s one of the things that I’ve talked about smaller cities and towns and counties should be able to benefit too and of course the states ahave undergone significant pain in their budgets and it’s not just the state of Illinois, every state in the United States. I was on a call with the National Governors Association members, all the governors or at least as many as were on I think there were 40, as well as numerous other direct calls that I’ve made everybody, Republican and Democrat, there 24 states led by Democrats 26 states led by Republicans, every one of the states is having the challenges that we’re having and needs help from the federal realm. So I talked to federal representatives, or have my team talking to federal representatives all the time. And I hope that that each of the provisions that we’ve talked about, small businesses need more relief. There’s no doubt about it. And so, small businesses, hospitals, you know, all of these things have taken into account lobbying for to our federal representatives.
* Would you be willing to meet with [the president] at the White House to help mend fences and get your point across directly?…
Of course. I’ve been on the phone with the White House on frequent occasions. I’ve spoken with the President and the Vice President all during this crisis, even when the President has been critical of me.
I’m somebody who will do anything to work for the people of the state of Illinois, anything to help us get back on our feet, and to get past this crisis and in a way that preserves our working families and helps them.
So, yeah, of course I mean I would do any of those things. The President does not, you know, I have been to the White House and met with the president at the White House on a couple of occasions now, during the course of my governorship and of course I would go back and Governor Pence, sorry, Vice President Pence who was a governor of a neighboring state Indiana, has been very communicative with me and I know that he would also have a meeting with me if I asked for one. So yeah. Absolutely.
To start, let me explain a bit about the role of modeling in my decision making, since the outbreak of COVID-19. I’ve taken into consideration a variety of models from researchers all across the world. There are often widely different projections from those about the state of Illinois. Some of this disparity is the result of methodological differences, but much of it also is due to data access and quality. The earliest coronavirus models that we had in the United States had to rely upon data from other countries applied to our national landscape, and certainly there was a real benefit in those very early days of getting educated estimates of what the virus’s effect on Illinois would look like regardless of where that early data came from. But the picture that gets painted by modeling gets better when it’s based off of what’s actually happening on the ground in Illinois data that can only be gathered with the passage of time.
We now have what we didn’t have two months ago, an understanding of what COVID-19 cases, deaths hospitalizations ventilator and ICU usage look like every day in Illinois. Even so, two months is not a lot of time in the world of modeling.
That’s important because the very essence of a model is that it gets smarter over time. How well you consistently test past predictions against current reality and then adjust projections accordingly. Or to put it simply, the more facts that you have, like exactly how many people went into the hospital with COVID-19 on a certain date, the better your ability to predict outcomes on any later date.
Notice I say it becomes better, because it never is exact. There is no crystal ball available to us. There are only estimates. Illinois is the proud home to some of the finest researchers and research institutions in the world, and still it is always the case that different modeling teams come to different conclusions.
So I undertook a project to give me the best possible approximations of future COVID-19 illnesses in Illinois, that would then allow me to make decisions about what resources we would need to keep Illinoisans alive, and recovering. And what urgency would be required in decisions about whether to initiate new mitigation strategies or extend existing ones, like the stay at home order. I have known from the start that even the best projections are going to have a great deal of variance. But knowing the boundaries of that variance informs my decision making. So we convened top researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, the Chicago and Illinois Department of Public Health Northwestern School of Medicine. The University of Chicago. And we also brought in outside consulting groups. They worked as a cohort, under civis analytics, using the most comprehensive data available for the entire state of Illinois. Suffice to say the findings we’re discussing today about the state of Illinois were put together by some of the best scientists doctors researchers from some of those great institutions that I just mentioned.
I want to look first at the projected fatalities. As you can see from the graphs that are next to me, Illinois is now looking at a peak, or plateau of deaths per day. Somewhere between late April and early May.
Why a range instead of an exact date? Well, everyone wants to look at the median line as a guide, that nice clear line that cuts through the big shaded section on all the models circulating online.
But reality is not quite so simple. Look at the actual deaths from the past few weeks on the graph next to me and look at the median projections going forward. Reality swings up and down, sometimes drastically affect that can’t be captured with a simple median line. What we have to consider is the whole shaded area that shaded area shows the range that researchers are 95% confident that things will land. That’s a shaded area you would see in differing shapes on every model.
To be clear, the fact that the variance is large doesn’t make a model less useful, but it does, nevertheless, make it clear that it is only a tool to be used.
I worry that people think the model is some miraculously accurate view into the future that is going to tell us exactly what we need to do and when it’s not. It won’t. I guarantee that the model that we’re sharing today will change in the coming days as projected numbers about those days are replaced with actual numbers.
A model is an imperfect tool that we use to add context to the actual numbers that we can chart every day. Cases, fatalities ,hospitalizations, positive test results, ventilator and ICU usage.
I also want to explain a bit about this change in our estimated peak cases. The concept of flattening the curve, only just entered our common vocabulary in the last few months, and it’s really crucial to understand our approach.
Weeks ago, many models, both those produced by our in state experts and those from around the nation, predicted an early or mid April peak for Illinois. But as the weeks have progressed those models have come to look quite different. That’s not because those models were bad models. Instead it’s because their inputs got better as time went on, real time data came in, and importantly Illinoisans protected each other by staying home.
Human behavior is exceptionally difficult to measure and even harder to predict. So that last part about staying home has made all the difference in our progress. Also, and this is very important, the most sensible and responsible use of a model in a public health crisis, like this one, is to pay close attention to the worst case scenario. In other words, when building hospital beds, purchasing and acquiring PPE and ventilators and making decisions about mitigation efforts, public officials should assume that the worst end of the model range could happen, and take that into account in planning.
…Pushing out that peak is a natural consequence and the best indicator that we are flattening the curve. That’s what you’re aiming to do, slow down the rate of transmission, which leads to a slower rate of increase over a longer period of time. Hence, a later, and lower peak, pushing the peak further down the line might not sound like good news but I promise you, it saves lives.
And make no mistake, Illinois has saved lives by staying home and social distancing we have kept our infection and death rates for the month of March and April, thousands below the rates projected.
Had we not implemented those mitigation strategies, the good people of this state have allowed our healthcare professionals, the ability to treat patients to the best of their ability without having to make dark choices, very real choices that doctors in other countries face about who lives and who dies. That is a historic and heroic act carried out by all of you.
Your efforts to protect your families, protect your communities, protect each other, have also given us another tool. And that’s time, time to build up our hospital capacity in terms of beds ventilators and healthcare workers, time to prepare for the kind of surge, that could occur. Anytime as a result of a virus from which no one is immune and capacity, we built in August of 2019. Back in a world that had never heard of COVID-19, Illinois had an average of about 26,000 total hospital beds available.
As of today, our total bed count in existing hospitals is more than 31,000. Back in August we had about 2000 ventilators, that number is now more than 3200 ventilators, and we’re building our healthcare workforce too. There are now 5000 out of state and former medical professionals who have applied for temporary licenses to join Illinois fight against COVID-19. We’ve built up our hospital capacity significantly.
But if we let up now, we would have nowhere near the kind of hospital capacity that we would need the projections are clear. If we lifted the stay at home order tomorrow, we would see our deaths per day shoot into the thousands. By the end of May, and that would last well into the summer, our hospitals would be full and very sick people would have nowhere to go. People who otherwise might have won their fight against COVID would die because we wouldn’t be able to help them through.
No amount of political pressure would ever make me allow such a scenario for our state, our beloved state of Illinois.
* And now the rationale for the new order…
So, the numbers present us with only one choice. Next week, I intend to sign an extension of our stay at home order with some modifications through Saturday, May 30.
To everyone listening: We are in possibly the most difficult parts of this journey. I know how badly we all want our normal lives back. Believe me, if I could make that happen right now, I would.
But this is the part where we have to dig in. And we have to understand that the sacrifices that we’ve made as a state to avoid a worst case scenario, are working. And we need to keep going a little while longer. to finish the job.
* More info…
On a more optimistic note, my team and I are finalizing the next step principles for safely moving toward reopening in phases. We are making progress building out testing and launching our contact tracing initiative. So that is so important to us that over time we will be able to realize the new normal.
We’ll be sharing more on that in the days and weeks ahead. On another optimistic note, May will look somewhat different than March and April.
I know that even with these changes, this stay at home order leaves many restrictions in place. And in the coming weeks as we get to the point of working our way down to the other side of the peak, as we move forward, there will be more to do to get people back to work and open up even more.
Understand that these are not choices that are made arbitrarily. These changes are what the data says that we can offer the people of Illinois, without risking so much viral transmission, that our hospitals will again become or potentially become overrun.
* Warning…
That said, if we start to see crowds and people violating the order or breaking the rules, I will need to bring back these restrictions. I’m hopeful that we will not need to do that.
* Reasoning with people…
Folks, this is a battle that you never asked to fight, I know that. I also know that our doctors and our nurses and our healthcare professionals, never asked to lead us through a pandemic. Our essential workers never asked to man the frontlines of society, our small businesses never asked to sacrifice their bottom line to an invisible enemy.
I see your pain. And I am so, so very sorry for it. But for every person who wants to go to dinner or hang out with friends in a park or swing open the sole their salon doors, there is a family mourning the death of someone they love. There is a parent, a child, a friend who would give anything to have their greatest strain be the difficulties of staying home, and not the unimaginable pain of a life loss too soon.
I’m not in the business of comparing suffering in a pandemic. Everyone is allowed to hurt, but we have the opportunity to prevent the pain of loss from touching the lives of thousands, we have the opportunity to follow the leadership of the countless nonprofits and community leaders and families across Illinois, who have demonstrated their courage and their empathy and their willingness to help, Illinois has the best people in the world. And I’ve said all along that I will fight like hell for you.
I’m asking you to hold on for just a little while longer. To help make sure that we all see through to the other side of this struggle. One day I pray that this virus will be a memory. But the strength that we found together will be something that we carry with us forever.
* Professor Nigel Goldenfeld of UIUC…
So let me tell you a little bit about modeling, but in my own language. Modeling an epidemic is rather like modeling the trajectory of a rocket. When you don’t know where it started from, in what direction it was pointing and how much fuel is onboard the rocket and you can’t even see the rocket, modeling an epidemic is not rocket science. It’s harder.
* Prof. Sergie Maslov of UIUC…
The success of social distancing is measured by what did not happen. Our calculations show that the number of deaths would have been about 20 times as high as they are today.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,826 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 123 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 male 80s
Champaign County: 1 male 90s
Cook County: 1 male 20s, 1 male 30s, 2 females 40s, 1 male 40s, 3 females 50s, 3 males 50s, 3 females 60s, 7 males 60s, 9 females 70s, 13 males 70s, 8 females 80s, 8 males 80s, 10 females 90s, 2 males 90s
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 4 females 70s, 3 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 3 males 80s, 2 females 90s
Fayette County: 1 female 90s
Jackson County: 1 female 70s
Kane County: 1 male 70s, 1 male 90s
Kankakee County: 1 female 80s, 4 males 80s
Kendall County: 1 male 70s
Lake County: 1 male 60s, 2 females 70s, 3 males 70s, 2 females 80s, 2 males 80s, 1 male 100+
McHenry County: 1 female 40s, 1 male 40s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s
Sangamon County: 1male 70s
Will County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 2 males 90s
Winnebago County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 36,934 cases, including 1,688 deaths, in 96 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
…Adding… From Dr. Ezike…
Right now statewide medical surgical bed availability remains relatively flat, similar to ICU Bed Availability.
Although use has been increasing slowly, capacity has also been increasing, thereby maintaining relatively stable levels.
As of yesterday, 4877 individuals were reported to be hospitalized with COVID-19, of those 1268 patients were in the ICU and 766 patients were on ventilators.
* Press release [Pritzker said today the order will be formally issued next week and last through the end of May]…
Based on data from scientists and health experts and after consulting with stakeholders across the state, Governor JB Pritzker announced that he will sign a modified version of the state’s stay at home order that will go into effect on May 1 to continue the life-saving progress made over the last month while also allowing residents additional in the safest way possible.
In conjunction with today’s announcement, the Governor released modeling today put together by top academic institutions and researchers in Illinois that predicts the course of coronavirus in the state over the coming months. On our current trajectory, the state is projected to see a peak or plateau of deaths per day between late April and early May, but if the stay at home order were lifted this week, the model anticipates a second wave of the outbreak in Illinois starting in May, which would claim tens of thousands of lives and greatly exceed the state’s hospital capacity.
“Make no mistake, Illinois has saved lives. By staying home and social distancing, we have kept our infection and death rates for the months of March and April thousands below the rates projected had we not implemented these mitigation strategies,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I know how badly we all want our normal lives back. But this is the part where we have to dig in and understand that the sacrifices we’ve made as a state to avoid a worst-case scenario are working — and we need to keep going a little while longer to finish the job.”
MODIFIED STAY AT HOME ORDER
Lifting mitigation measures is only possible with widespread availability and access to COVID-19 testing, tracing and treatment. The data show that if the state were to lift mitigations abruptly this week, this would result in a second wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
After consulting with doctors, scientists and experts in Illinois and across the world, the Governor has announced he will sign a modified version of the state’s stay at home order that will go into effect on May 1 and extend through the end of the month. The modified order will strengthen the state’s social distancing requirements while allowing residents additional flexibility and provide measured relief to non-essential businesses in the safest way possible.
The new executive order will include the following modifications effective May 1:
OUTDOOR RECREATION: State parks will begin a phased re-opening under guidance from the Department of Natural Resources. Fishing and boating in groups of no more than two people will be permitted. A list of parks that will be open on May 1 and additional guidelines can be found on the Illinois Department of Natural Resources website HERE . Golf will be permitted under strict safety guidelines provided by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and when ensuring that social distancing is followed.
NEW ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES: Greenhouses, garden centers and nurseries may re-open as essential businesses. These stores must follow social distancing requirements and must require that employees and customers wear a face covering. Animal grooming services may also re-open.
NON-ESSENTIAL RETAIL: Retail stores not designated as non-essential businesses and operations may re-open to fulfill telephone and online orders through pick-up outside the store and delivery.
FACE COVERINGS: Beginning on May 1, individuals will be required to wear a face-covering or a mask when in a public place where they can’t maintain a six-foot social distance. Face-coverings will be required in public indoor spaces, such as stores. This new requirement applies to all individuals over the age of two who are able to medically tolerate a face-covering or a mask.
ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES AND MANUFACTURING: Essential businesses and manufacturers will be required to provide face-coverings to all employees who are not able to maintain six-feet of social distancing, as well as follow new requirements that maximize social distancing and prioritize the well-being of employees and customers. This will include occupancy limits for essential businesses and precautions such as staggering shifts and operating only essential lines for manufacturers.
SCHOOLS: Educational institutions may allow and establish procedures for pick-up of necessary supplies or student belongings. Dormitory move-outs must follow public health guidelines, including social distancing.
The Illinois Department of Public Health will also be issuing guidance to surgi-centers and hospitals to allow for certain elective surgeries for non-life-threatening conditions, starting on May 1. Facilities will need to meet specific criteria, including proper PPE, ensuring enough overall space for COVID-19 patients remains available, and testing of elective surgery patients to ensure COVID-19 negative status.
“For our analysis, we looked for studies that made stronger claims to identifying a causal effect of individual laws,” said Andrew Morral, one of the authors of the report. “They had to show that changes (for instance, in suicide rates) that are attributed to the law occurred only after the law was implemented (not before), and did not occur in states where the law was not implemented.”
First, there was a clear consensus (indicated by three or more high-quality studies in agreement) that stand-your-ground laws, which allow people to use guns to defend themselves in public even if retreating is an option, result in higher overall rates of gun homicide. The higher rates aren’t simply from “bad guys” getting shot; the research shows the additional deaths created by stand-your-ground laws far surpass the documented cases of defensive gun use in the United States.
There was also a broad consensus that child access prevention laws, which set requirements for how guns must be stored at home, are effective in reducing self-inflicted gun injuries among children and adults.
For instance, there is moderate evidence that banning gun purchases by people under domestic violence restraining orders decreases intimate-partner homicides. The research also showed moderate evidence that background checks reduce gun homicides, and that waiting periods for firearms purchases reduce gun suicides and overall homicide.
There’s some evidence, for instance, that licensing requirements reduce suicides, that bans on gun ownership among the mentally ill reduce violent crime, that “right-to-carry” laws increase violent crime, that minimum purchasing age requirements reduce youth suicides, and that assault weapon bans end up boosting sales of those weapons in the period before the ban takes place.
The study found “no scholarly consensus” on “red flag” laws and mandatory gun-safety training. And there is no high quality research of gun-free zones and armed school employees.
That’s not to say some laws don’t work. It’s just that nobody has yet shown with some scientific certainty that they do.
Thursday, Apr 23, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Illinois Kidney Care Alliance (IKCA) and its dialysis provider member companies are working diligently across Illinois to support dialysis patients and their caregivers in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Given their underlying comorbidities, people with kidney failure are at a greater risk of complications if they contract COVID-19. To offset this concern, Illinois’ dialysis providers have instituted advanced infection control protocols in their clinics to help give care teams and patients protection against possible infection.
Dialysis patients should:
Dialysis patients should continue to take any medicine prescribed by their physicians and should NOT miss their treatments.
A rash of coronavirus outbreaks at dozens of meat packing plants across the nation is far more extensive than previously thought, according to an exclusive review of cases by USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
And it could get worse. More than 150 of America’s largest meat processing plants operate in counties where the rate of coronavirus infection is already among the nation’s highest, based on the media outlets’ analysis of slaughterhouse locations and county-level COVID-19 infection rates.
These facilities represent more than 1 in 3 of the nation’s biggest beef, pork and poultry processing plants. Rates of infection around these plants are higher than those of 75% of other U.S. counties, the analysis found.
And while experts say the industry has thus far maintained sufficient production despite infections in at least 2,200 workers at 48 plants, there are fears that the number of cases could continue to rise and that meat packing plants will become the next disaster zones.
* The News-Gazette has a regular feature where Champaign-Urbana Public Health Administrator Julie Pryde answers questions from readers. It’s a great service and here’s the latest…
Q: I was hoping you could follow up on the question from Thursday about cloth mask protection. If a cloth mask can’t protect the wearer from getting infected, how can the mask stop you from spreading the virus? I find this confusing. Wouldn’t it be as porous in either direction?
A: The cloth masks are intended to prevent droplets from spreading when someone is talking, coughing, sneezing, etc. They also help prevent individuals from touching their nose and mouth. The masks should be made of at least two layers of cloth. The masks will absorb droplets. Remember that the masks are not to replace social distancing, cough/sneeze etiquette or thorough and frequent hand-washing. Ideally, everyone who is in public, especially while shopping or accessing other essential services, would wear these to help protect each other.
A new virus-repelling face mask is one of the things on the fast track to development at Jump Trading Simulation & Education Center through a program launched to address the pandemic.
The Peoria-based center is an innovation hub for clinicians from OSF HealthCare, the University Of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, and engineers from the University of Illinois in Urbana. The Jump Arches program has earmarked $750,000 for the program, which is developing things to address some of the most pressing issues healthcare workers and the public are facing during the pandemic. […]
“These new materials don’t allow any of the virus particles to adhere to the outside of the mask,” said Vozenilek. “Because as you breathe in and out you are pulling the air in on the outside of the mask and particles have a tendency to gather as you are pulling the air in. So the mask becomes contaminated. So in the future, the materials will be designed so the viral particles can’t adhere to further reduce contagion.”
Other research teams are working on disinfection methods for the masks.
Furloughs and layoffs for workers at Sinai hospitals
Chicago’s warm-weather businesses prepare for the worst as coronavirus shutdowns are extended
Evanston joins at least 18 Chicago suburbs requiring face coverings in public
City to hold first online town hall on COVID-19 aimed at slowing spread of virus in majority black communities
For decades Chicago’s lunchtime dining room, Manny’s now fights for new business during coronavirus pandemic
* Illinois roundup…
* Meat supply chain begins to feel effects of COVID-19: “When one section of the supply chain has a slowdown or complete shutdown, it bottlenecks the rest of the system,” Illinois Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert, Jr. said. “With highly perishable products like milk or vegetables, the bottleneck is slowing down the process longer than the items have in shelf life.”
* Hidden coronavirus outbreaks spread through cities like Chicago, New York far earlier than Americans knew, researchers say: Vespignani said he and his research team warned officials of the silent spread, posting some of their early projections in mid-February. “We were talking to officials here, and it was the same reaction we got in Italy, in the U.K., in Spain,” Vespignani said. “They told me, ‘OK, that’s happening on your computer, not in reality.’ “Look,” he added, “No one’s going to shut down a country based on a model.”
* Lawmakers slowly preparing for session to reopen: Officials have been careful, though, to stress that the working groups are not legislative committees and that they are not authorized to draft legislation, hear testimony or take votes. “These are far more informal,” Rep. Michael Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat and co-chair of the House economic recovery working group, said this week. “I think they’re simply ways for us to congregate and hear each other out and compare notes and ideas about what we’re going to face in the near future, when we do return to normal regular order.” The difference between “working groups” and legislative committees is important because Article IV, Section 5 of the Illinois Constitution requires all meetings of the General Assembly, as well as legislative committees and commissions to be open to the public, unless two-thirds of the chamber votes to close them.
* Top vaccine doctor says his concern about Trump’s coronavirus treatment theory led to ouster from federal agency
* Gilead’s coronavirus drug flops in first trial: The Chinese trial showed the antiviral remdesivir did not improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream
* It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he does this because he’s been hinting at it for at least a week, but this story includes a lot of pure speculation…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to extend Illinois’ stay-at-home order Thursday, sources tell NBC 5.
With just one week left until the current April 30 deadline, Pritzker is poised to reveal an extension during his 2:30 p.m. coronavirus press briefing.
Though it’s not clear how long he will extend the order for, state law allows a governor to sign an executive order for 30 days. Sources believe the order could be extended through May 30.
The order is expected to include a new requirement that residents cover their faces in public spaces where social distancing is difficult.
Pritzker could also lift some restrictions on the order. Lawmakers and businesses have asked Pritzker to open state parks and golf courses and allow elective surgeries.
The press conference starts in just a couple of hours. We’ll know then.
* Meanwhile, a single alderman introduces an ordinance and the headline reads “Facial coverings would be required in many public settings in Chicago under City Council plan.” C’mon…
Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd, introduced her ordinance Wednesday and said she’ll push for a quick hearing. “If we really want to get this behind us, everyone has to wear a mask in public,” Smith said. “The real impediment to that happening is social acceptance, so this ordinance would get everyone on the same page by making it a requirement.” […]
Asked Wednesday about whether she is generally considering requiring face coverings, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it’s being discussed, but implementing such rules would be hard.
“The challenge is making sure every member of the public has the same accessibility to some kind of face covering,” she said. “And we know, from the disparities in our city, that that is not so. What is possible in Lincoln Park is not the same as what’s possible in Austin or Englewood or Roseland. So we have to have a policy that is consistent with the realities of people’s lives. And while we are going to continue to encourage people to wear masks in congregate settings, mandating that without giving people the tools to actually comply — and we’re not going to lock people up because they aren’t wearing masks in public. So, these are nuanced issues.”
…Adding… Email…
Hey Rich,
Point of clarification, in response to ‘Meanwhile, a single alderman introduces an ordinance and the headline reads “Facial coverings would be required in many public settings in Chicago under City Council plan.”’
41 out of the 50 aldermen signed on to cosponsor this ordinance. We were working the phones all weekend.
(of course, it may be a non-issue as of a couple hours ago…)
Thank you for keeping us up to speed on the state stuff - it’s been very helpful. I mean that with zero percent snark.
* For the most up-to-date information on COVID-19 resources, please visit and subscribe at - for mobile updates, text COVID19 to 78015 or email: coronavirus@chicago.gov. *
Erik Wallenius
Chief of Staff
Alderman Michele Smith
* And we don’t even know what will be in the next stay at home order, so this is a silly headline…
McHenry drive-in theater owner making plans to reopen May 1. Extension of stay-at-home order would nix that idea.
Illinois Dept. of Public Health death projections due to COVID-19. The gray line indicates range of deaths, which at its peak could hit between 50 and 150 deaths. The black line is reported deaths. The green line is the University of Chicago median line; the orange line is the median line projected by the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign researchers.
And based on the projections, the peak “should be somewhere starting now through the first week of May,” [Cameron Mock, who oversees the state’s COVID-19 projections] told the Sun-Times.
“I think it’s tough to say, but I think a couple of weeks,” Mock said of the range.
According to a projection obtained by the Sun-Times, the top of the peak could see 150 deaths a day. But during that peak period, the daily range of fatalities could fluctuate anywhere from 50 to 150. […]
Another graph Pritzker plans to show will estimate that the death rate would go up ten times if the stay at home order was lifted Friday – a little less than a week before the scheduled April 30 expiration.
The model shows deaths in the state slowly flattening into August.
* I asked the governor’s office about the article’s focus on death rates because it’s a lagging indicator of about 3-4 weeks and because the governor has said he’s looking at a wide range of things, including hospitalization, case numbers, etc. I told subscribers the response, but I think it’s important to make that public to prevent confusion…
You are correct that deaths are lagging behind infections, but we don’t have enough testing right now to have a good sense of the true infection rate, so you have the option of choosing a lagging but reliable indicator, or a current but unreliable indicator. Like the governor has said, a model is just one tool he looks at.
Also, like the Sun-Times story mentions and like the governor has said, models are constantly changing when you put new data into them. This model has changed, changes, and will change every day as we put new data into it. The state could see the ‘peak’ within a span of time from now through May and then we could continue on that peak, which will probably be more of a plateau for a period before we see the decline.
More than 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to the Labor Department, a signal that the tidal wave of job losses continues to grow during the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s the fifth-straight week that job losses were measured in the millions. From March 15 to April 18, 26.5 million have probably been laid off or furloughed. The number of jobs lost in that brief span effectively erased all jobs created after the 2008 financial crisis. Jobless figures on this scale haven’t been seen since the Great Depression.
The new weekly total comes on top of 22 million Americans who had sought benefits in previous weeks, a volume that has overwhelmed state systems for processing unemployment claims. Economists estimate that the national unemployment rate sits between 15 and 20 percent, much higher than it was during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009. The unemployment rate at the peak of the Great Depression was about 25 percent.
The new weekly jobless claims figure came around economist predictions, which were expected “to be staggering, but not growing, which is a small mercy,” said Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter. For comparison, 5.2 million people filed unemployment claims for the week ending April 11.
While weekly numbers keep decreasing, Illinois residents continue to file for unemployment benefits at record-high numbers due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Illinois residents filed 102,736 claims for unemployment benefits last week, according to preliminary numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s an about 27% decrease from the revised total of 141,160 for the week ending April 11, according to Illinois Department of Employment Security numbers on April 16.
Illinois received more than 757,000 initial unemployment claims from March 1 to April 18, according to state data. That’s more than the total number of initial claims for all of 2019 – which was more than 476,000 – and more than four times the amount of claims filed in the first two months of the 2008 Great Recession, per the state data.
* Keep in mind that Germany has done a much better job than the US at containing the virus…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "Nobody likes to hear this but it is the truth. We are not living through the final phase of this crisis, we are still at its beginning. We will still have to live with this virus for a long time.” pic.twitter.com/BCbbrdZxT3
As you know, more widespread testing is a key goal for combating COVID-19. It’s a vital feature of our long term path to building a new normal. Along that path we need to make testing more available and convenient to more people. So I’m pleased to announce two additional state run drive through testing sites, both of which are available to anyone who has COVID like symptoms and wants to test, even without a doctor’s order.
Today in Aurora, we opened a new drive thru at the Chicago Premium Outlets outdoor shopping mall, located at 1650 Premium outlet Boulevard in Aurora, that location can take up to 600 specimens per day.
And starting on Friday in Rockford, we will open a drive thru location at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford, the address there is 1601 Parkview Avenue, and that location will be able to take 500 specimens, a day when fully ramped up between these two new sites, and our three existing sites in Markham, Bloomington, and in Harwood Heights, our five drive-throughs can run up to 2900 tests per day when the Rockford test site is fully up and running.
As always, please pardon all transcription errors.
* PPE…
We’ve now sent out more than 15 million items, including 7.7 million surgical masks, nearly 1.7 million N95 masks, over 30,000 gowns, over 6.4 million gloves and over 350,000 face shields to locations all across the state of Illinois.
We also have outstanding orders due to arrive in the coming days and weeks with an additional 25.5 million NK and N95 masks [I’m not quite sure of that bit because I wasn’t paying attention and was relying on the transcription], 25 million surgical and general medical masks, 8.4 million gowns and coveralls, 14 million gloves and 7.5 million face shields and goggles.
* Dr. Ezike…
At the end of yesterday, we had 4665 individuals in Illinois who were hospitalized with COVID-19, of those 1220 were in the ICU and 747 of those ICU patients were on ventilators.
* On to questions for the governor. Got a long list of questions from colleagues here but wanted to begin with one of my own. The argument has been made regarding the stay at home order that the intention or the goal was, was not to eliminate COVID-19 by April 30, that was never going to happen, but to buy time for the health care capacity to increase for the ICU beds to increase to get the ventilators and the PPE to get the alternate care facilities up and running, including McCormick Place and credit to the administration, a lot of that has been accomplished in a short amount of time. So the argument has been made that, because the healthcare capacity is in a much better place right now. and because of the curve and the peak may be coming later and lower than initially projected why not open things up after April 30 just in a slightly more robust way than you’d so far indicate now…
I appreciate that question and I think people need to understand actually the principal purpose of the stay at home order was to make sure that fewer people got sick and fewer people would die than would otherwise without a stay at home order. And as you’re suggesting in the last part of your comments, the curve gets pushed out when you do that push down, and that’s good because, as you’re trying to build capacity you’re trying to raise the line, you know that you don’t want to go above of how many beds, do you have how many ICU beds, do you have how many ventilators do you have. You want to raise the line so that you can fit all of the patients and the needs underneath that line of capacity, let’s say, and you want to continue to make sure that that wave of patients doesn’t go above the line. You don’t necessarily need to continue to build capacity right. If we can’t build out more McCormick places.
But what you want to do is make sure that the number of people who get sick is kept down. And so that’s really the purpose of a stay at home order, it was the purpose of the original, you know, canceling of, as you may recall canceling of the parades and St Patrick’s Day parade and then closing of restaurants and bars so that’s what I think people need to pay attention to.
Now, obviously, you know, the better we do with this, right, the better we do with this, the more likely it is that we can start to think about what are the safe ways to begin to reopen things, so that people can go back to work people could go back to school. Are there ways to do that that keep people safe.
Some of the things we’ve suggested already like everybody wearing a mask, are some of what’s one idea among a bunch, that will help us get to keeping under the capacity and making sure that few people as few people as possible get sick. I think most people understand the need for avoiding a resurgence of the virus.
* I mean, is there a scenario in which you can open up the economy without there being some increase in cases and fatalities or are you going to have to make a very difficult decision. In terms of balancing increase with in order to avoid creating dire harm…
Well I think I’ve foreshadowed for everybody and I think it’s widely understood that the things that you need in order to open the economy are things that we don’t quite yet have in place, nor does any state. Some states are reopening anyway, that’s their choice I think people might get sick, many people might get sick as a result of it.
But look, what have I said right, testing tracing treating and PPE. And while we’re working very hard on PPE and testing and spinning up a contact tracing effort that will be very large at the end. Those are three things that we have to work on we’re not there yet, you know we’ve talked a lot about testing. We’re just not there yet.
And so, having said that you can make tweaks and moves and you know as you move along here. And as we learn more. Remember the researchers are learning things as we go to. Nobody was saying, everybody has to wear a mask at the beginning, nobody was saying that. Now, that’s pretty common understanding among the epidemiologists and others that it makes sense if you’re going to be outside and, each of you wears them. And you don’t have to wear an N95 mask, you just need some face covering because it’s your droplets that you don’t want to convey to somebody else and you don’t want them conveying it to you.
So once again, all these things are going to be kind of the new normal going forward and allow us to do things to loosen things up and begin to as you’re saying reopen the economy.
* At what point though, does the human cost of keeping the economy closed, the health problems that arise from joblessness etc. outweigh or commensurate to the health costs…
Obviously these are things that I weigh every day and I think about all the time because I understand that it’s challenging for people, there’s a mental health cost in addition to financial costs for everybody, this is going on, it’s having an effect on everybody. And so, I like everybody I wanted to be back to normal as fast as possible. I think we’re all recognizing that normal is going to look a little bit different going forward until there’s a vaccine, until the we can literally rid our state and our country and our planet of this scourge of COVID-19. Things are going to be a little bit different I think, we’re all going to have to be a lot more careful. And while we’re being careful, it allows us to begin to open things up more.
He went on for a while longer, but you get the idea.
* Yesterday during the White House briefing Dr. Birx mentioned New York, New Orleans and specifically Chicago, were doing quote much better. Do you agree with that assessment and how closely is your team consulting with federal government on modeling and determination of the peak?…
We are indeed doing better and I want to make sure everybody understands and look at New York right i mean they’re they’ve, they’ve seemingly flattened their curve, but it’s flattened at a very at a reasonably high level, but flat is way better than you know than the direction that they were going. And the same thing is true in Louisiana and the same thing is true in Chicago. So, I absolutely agree with things are better. And so that that’s a very good sign of, you know how the direction that things are going.
* To the second part of the question…
They don’t have, they are not using seemingly that data from Illinois as far as I know. And they have not offered to help with our data, or with our estimation of our curve. They in fact worked for a long time using that public one that people, others were using the IHME curve, which is inaccurate as regards Illinois, for example. They show a much lower number of hospital beds on their site than we actually have. So it’s very hard to, you know, they don’t have the data that we have, for whatever reason, so, you know, I would say what we have and the experts we have here are what we need I think to get good modeling and there are a number of institutions that have modeled Chicago. county, state and we are looking at those.
* One of our unemployed viewers says that she’s tried getting through to IDES quote hundreds of times without success. She finally reached out to the governor’s office and the matter was in fact quickly resolved. Would you recommend that other frustrated unemployed workers contact your office as a last resort?…
I certainly want to make sure that everybody gets what they need from our IDES and I will say that there’s been a vast improvement, I watched the numbers, I get a report every day. And we are processing gosh, I think 17 times the number. The last report I saw 17 times the number in a single day that we did a single day last year. So just to give you a sense of the magnitude of the problem. […]
Remember, the biggest issue is we can’t look at their private information, the governor’s office, right, we can’t process for them. And so, we have limited ability to really do anything except to hand it off back to IDES. And maybe get some attention to it.
* Summer camp business owners and parents said they say that they are waiting on official word from you to make a decision about whether summer camps will proceed or not, when can they expect that decision?…
Well, I’m not making decisions about summer camps. The summer camps themselves and I know parents will make those decisions and I feel terrible not having a perfect answer for them because as we’ve seen, you have to really watch all these numbers and see which direction we’re going to know to even begin to start to project when could you. And then, of course, is it possible to do social distancing in the context of a summer camp if people are staying overnight, for example, or even in a day camp, aren’t they often gathering in large groups in a summer camp. So I think these are all things that we’ll have to watch the numbers and see how things are going.
* Missouri’s governor has said that he intends to reopen most of the state as soon as next week, Missouri. Actually, May 4, he made a correction. Given that so many people in Metro East live and work in that same region, have you had any luck working with Governor Parson to convince him why that may not be a good idea?…
No, although I think I’ve been very vocal, I think all the governors know where I stand on what kind of a set of principles ought to be operated upon in order to think about reopening. It’s why we created this Midwest pact of states and we reached out to Missouri. They were not interested in joining that pact and similarly with Iowa.
* When will you allow elective surgeries to resume? Governor Cuomo is allowing them starting next week…
Yeah, we’re looking at that as we are in lots of other areas. […]
I’ve gotten suggestions from all across both sides of the aisle of elected officials as well as all across the industry so we’re considering a lot of different things
* Mitch McConnell said today that he’d be open to letting states file for bankruptcy to deal with economic losses from coronavirus, is that something you’ve considered or would consider addressing with state lawmakers?…
No.
* Back on April 5 you said that you had not had a haircut recently and that you were starting to get a little shaggy Have you gotten your haircut since then and if so who cut your hair?…
Does it look any less shaggy now. No… I was joking that I’ll end up wearing a ponytail at some point. We’re all looking forward to that.
* Rockford Mayor McNamara wants small retailers hard hit by big box stores to reopen with social social distancing or for you to ban big box stores from selling non essential goods. During the stay at home order. Are you considering his proposal?…
I haven’t seen that proposal and Mayor McNamara is a very thoughtful mayor. I certainly would like to look at how they are configuring their suggestion. But I spoke with mayors all across the state, about what’s of concern in their communities and I’m trying to take all of that into consideration as we make changes, not just now, but as we move forward, obviously. Even in the President’s plan for reopening there’s this contemplation of phases. And so we’re going to be looking at each of these things with regard to those phases.
* What specific metric has the multi state group come up with to determine when to reopen? Is it a downward trend of the number of positive cases the number of deaths, the hospitalization rates, is that going to be regionalised?…
We certainly talk about that as a group, we have shared our best ideas and that’s really the purpose of this pact. So I will look at the common interests that we have and then look at those common things that are good for Illinois, that come out of that pact. But that’s one of the reasons for that, we have a pact like that as we have a lots of things in common as Midwestern states. So I know that we’ll be able to kind of, let’s say, keep people safe and healthy. While we’re reopening things, in part because we share borders and ideas with one another.
* Responding to another question, Dr. Ezike said 2500 healthcare workers have contracted the virus “and we think that we know of potentially eight deaths.”
* Rep. Batinick said today that he expects restaurants would be among the last businesses to reopen. Is that also your thinking and what would it take to reopen restaurants for dining in safely?
All I can say is that I’ve read a number of the reports people have put together, including one that was done by AEI the American Enterprise Institute and a few others. And the suggestion, kind of the collective suggestion is that industries like restaurants and hospitality are harder to open than some others which are much easier to have social distancing, for example in a large warehouse, than it is in a restaurant where there might be booths and tables next to one another.
* Asked again about Mitch McConnell…
I think that Majority Leader McConnell is certainly important to the process of getting things done in Washington DC, but he’s not the only person involved. And there are an awful lot of Senators on both sides of the aisle that disagree with him. So, I’m hopeful that as a result of work that they’re doing those senators that believe that states and local governments deserve and need additional support…
* Asked about House Republican request that state parks be reopened…
It’s something that we absolutely have considered. I’ve heard a lot about it from people who live in areas where the state parks have been closed.
Remember that one of the biggest reasons that we closed state parks originally was the state workers who work there who have to work in close proximity. Even though you might think of a state park as being quite large. The state workers, how they work right is often in a building together, and in trucks, in which there might be multiple people that are in the truck as they travel around the park. And so that that’s obviously not at the beginning of this, that was not something that was acceptable to close proximity, and even now, and so we’ve talked a lot about you know how we might make changes that would allow people to use state parks.
* In suing your administration today, heads of major business group said that recent COVID related extension for workers comp benefits were pretty much unilaterally imposed on them without consultation or debate. Is that true?…
That is not true. And I don’t really want to comment any further because I know it’s a subject of litigation.
* The Association of Illinois Chiefs of Police is contending that felons convicted of violent crimes are being released due to COVID-19, is that correct?…
As you know I review applications for commutations of sentences as governor. It’s what every governor does, you can look back through, you know, I have the records of each of the governors Republican and Democratic so and and I do commute sentences so the contention that I’m looking at and actually do commute sentences, that’s an accurate depiction. I’m not sure what implication they’re making there.
* As you consider extending the stay at home order, a majority of the cases are in Northern Illinois. What’s your message to residents in downstate and Metro East where there are just a fraction of the cases and deaths?…
Well, you know, he mentioned Metro East. Actually there’s a hotspot in Metro east.
And that should remind you that nowhere in Illinois are people immune from COVID-19.
There are fewer cases it’s true, in some counties, but you heard me say at the beginning when there was only one county that had cases that this was likely to spread. We now have 96 counties with cases. What I would say to people who live in central and southern Illinois is, I’m taking into account the fact that there are fewer cases and fewer deaths in those areas. But we’re also looking at hospital availability and other factors to determine how we might think about changes that will be good for people who live in areas that don’t have as virulent a spread of COVID-19
* Today is the highest number of positive test results reported in one day. How do you explain the surge?…
Well, the most important thing that happened today that led to a lot higher positive test count is we tested more people. I think the testing number for today was 9300, and that’s the largest number yet, so that’s why you see a larger positive testing result.
* Are the early models predicting a peak in mid April wrong, and do you believe the public has a right to see the models you’re using to make these life altering decisions?…
So I think I’ve made clear but I’ll repeat that I’ve relied upon a variety of experts, you can reach them yourselves they’re the experts at Northwestern they’re well known in Northwestern U of C you have UIC. These are, [garbled] you know examples of folks who, some of whom have developed models.
And so, I look at all of the those and listen to those experts because I think one of the things that maybe isn’t widely understood as these models are they change literally every day. And the reason is because you’re projecting on one day, right, but about a bunch of days forward. And then as you move forward, you have actual numbers now to plug into the model. And guess what, that will be different than whatever you projected by its very nature.
So there’s nothing exact about these models and it’s really important for people to understand that, you know, I’m estimating. We all are. Even the modelers are estimating and the purpose for the estimating isn’t so much that we know exactly what date, some data, which you might peak, that’s not the purpose of the models.
The purpose of the models from my perspective is to understand what the capacity needs will be for us in our hospitals among our healthcare workers to treat people who might get COVID-19 on those dates where we might have a very high infection rate and a need for more hospital beds. So that I hope that gives a bigger picture of what we’re looking at.
But I think you should look at all of the online models, they’re worth looking at. We’ll be talking more about modeling tomorrow, to give you a better understanding of how we look at things.
* We’ve picked up a bunch of new commenters lately. All are welcome if they abide by the rules and they keep in mind that this isn’t Facebook.
However, some of the newbies are neglecting to pick screen names. I don’t care how thoughtful or interesting their comments are, I’m deleting all anonymous comments as soon as I see them because most are drive-by one-offs which add zero value.
But that process can take a bit. I have other stuff to do besides monitoring comments, after all.
So, I’m asking all other commenters to not respond to the anonymous goofs. If something is getting out of hand, please email me (click the contact button at the top right of the page) or text me if you have my number and I’ll try to get right on it. But in the meantime just completely ignore them because their shelf-life is brief. Life is too short to spend time arguing with the walking dead.
A county board chairman has raised concerns after he said the Illinois Department of Corrections failed to test 5 correctional officers who worked at Stateville Correctional Center, a state-run prison that has been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The prison has reported a growing number of coronavirus cases and the Illinois Department of Corrections had asked for officers from other prisons to fill in at Stateville. Fulton County Board Chairman Pat O’Brian said officers from Illinois River Correctional Center were told they would be tested after their rotation at Stateville and placed on 14-day paid quarantine. O’Brian said that is not happening.
“They were essentially releasing five individuals back into our communities that had been working at one of the largest COVID outbreaks in a prison in the state of Illinois,” O’Brian said. “We had to act on that.”
State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, and State Rep. Mike Unes, R-East Peoria, have been in contact with the governor’s office regarding the issues.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was asked about the issue on Tuesday at a news conference but declined to provide specifics.
I’ve read a few other articles about this. Here are a couple of them..
Not one of those reporters bothered to reach out to AFSCME Council 31 for its response. So I did.
* Here’s Anders Lindall…
Last month IDOC sought volunteers from other facilities to be temporarily detailed to Stateville in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak there. It’s our understanding that, without talking to the union, some management personnel promised that — upon the completion of three to five weeks of working 12-hour shifts, five days a week at Stateville — staff who volunteered to participate would remain in paid status during a 14-day self-quarantine period before returning to work at their usual facility. This promise was subsequently withdrawn.
AFSCME’s top priority is safety and making sure that the employees involved could be immediately tested for COVID-19 before returning to work. That would not only prevent the potential spread of coronavirus infection between facilities but ensure that anyone found to have contracted it could get needed medical attention while taking the COVID leave available to all state employees. The union pushed hard and made it happen.
The union has also filed a grievance over management’s withdrawal of the promised 14 days’ leave. These unnecessary complications and confusion could have been avoided if the department had simply agreed upon a procedure with AFSCME in advance and prevented some supervisors from dealing directly with individual employees.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,049 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 98 additional deaths.
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 male 30s, 3 males 40s, 2 females 50s, 3 males 50s, 5 females 60s, 6 males 60s, 7 females 70s, 8 males 70s, 1 unknown 70s, 5 females 80s, 16 males 80s, 8 females 90s, 3 males 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 male 80s, 2 females 90s
Jefferson County: 1 male 60s
Kane County: 2 males 50s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s
Kankakee County: 1 female 90s
Kendall County: 1 female 60s
Lake County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 90s
Macon County: 1 female 60s
Madison County: 2 males 70s, 1 male 80s
McHenry County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s
Monroe County: 1 male 80s
Rock Island County: 1 male 70s
St. Clair County: 1 male 80s
Will County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 35,108 cases, including 1,565 deaths, in 96 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
* The tricky math of lifting coronavirus lockdowns - Research groups are trying to calculate how much we can safely relax social distancing restrictions, but we’re still missing critical pieces of data.
* Is the City Itself the Problem? - There’s a long history of blaming urban areas rather than economic factors for physical and moral ills. But density can be an asset for fighting coronavirus
* Illinois Republican lawmakers urge Pritzker to open state parks and some businesses: Rep. Mark Batinick, a Plainfield Republican, recommended that senior citizens, one of the groups most vulnerable to COVID-19, continue to stay isolated, and that employees be required to wear face coverings inside stores and restaurants. Batinick said he has largely been satisfied with the Pritzker administration’s communication with lawmakers during the public health crisis, but that he wants to see new epidemiology charts over the next couple days.
* Decatur mayor on whether people will behave when restrictions are lifted: That’s what we’re risking. If we open up somewhat, having people take so much advantage of it that they overdo it, they overcorrect, and we have to go back to Ground Zero because as you said, we haven’t hit the peak here yet. We’re still nearly a month away from where we thought we’d be right now. I hope along with the governor that we’ve overprepared. That is my goal is that we are so over the top and overprepared and it doesn’t happen here in the way that it could. I think the governor does not want New York happening in Chicago. By doing everything and being in place, if it does come, we’ll be ready, and we can pray every day that it doesn’t.
* Why Experts Say It’s a Good Thing Illinois’ Peak in Coronavirus Cases Will Be Later Than Anticipated: “So the reason why we’re not quite at peak is actually really good news. And I know that’s hard to hear that, you know, we may need to stay in longer, we’re not going to be able to just go right back to normal, but moving that peak later is the sign. It’s the reason why if you or someone in your family needs to go to the hospital or gets sick with COVID and needs a ventilator, it’s available. And we want to make sure it continues to be available.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he favors allowing states struggling with high public employee pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout.
“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he said Wednesday in a response to a question on the syndicated Hugh Hewitt radio show. “It’s saved some cities, and there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”
Getting that through the Senate would be quite difficult, to say the least. Financial institutions which hold untold billions in public debt have a lot of clout in DC, and I can’t see them jumping up and down with glee at the possibility of those portfolios collapsing.
But getting that radical idea through the House would be next to impossible. McConnell is very good at public negotiating ploys. The media eats it up every time. But everyone needs to take a breath, even if President Trump chimes in.
His statements set up a conflict with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said on Bloomberg Television Wednesday a “major package” of aid for state and local government will be in the next stimulus legislation considered by Congress.
McConnell may also find himself in conflict with President Donald Trump. The president said Tuesday after meeting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that states will need assistance. “And I think most Republicans agree too, and Democrats,” Trump said. “And that’s part of phase four.”
* But while McConnell did throw a lot of cold water on a state bailout package, saying he wanted to hit the pause button, he didn’t completely rule out all state aid today. Let’s go back to McConnell’s remarks…
“You raised yourself the important issue of what states have done, many of them have done it to themselves with their pension programs. There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations,” McConnell said, after Hewitt floated Illinois, California and Connecticut as examples of states that have overly generous benefits for public employees.
“We’ll certainly insist that anything we’d borrow to send down to the states is not spent on solving problems that they created for themselves over the years with their pension program,” McConnell added.
To my eyes, that last bit looks like the real McConnell demand: No federal money for state pension funds. The Harmon letter did not help.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
The Governor is working with our delegation and partners in Washington D.C. to ensure the state has the resources it needs to continue this fight against COVID-19. As the nation grapples with the impacts of this virus, every state is facing budget shortfalls and we need partners in Congress who will work with us on real solutions, instead of using this crisis to propose an ideological hail mary. The State of Illinois prioritizes its debt payments and is working to ensure we remain on firm fiscal footing through this crisis and we are working with partners who believe a federal response is needed to address unique challenges of this time.
Each year, Teachers’ Retirement System distributes approximately $7 billion in benefits to retired members and beneficiaries. Those benefits must be – and always have been – paid each month, no matter what the economic conditions may be.
TRS will continue to have sufficient funds to meet all benefit payments on time and in full for the foreseeable future despite the worldwide economic downturn created by the spread of the coronavirus.
The System’s defensive investment strategy enabled TRS to protect the bulk of member assets during recent market upheavals. On December 31, 2019, TRS assets stood at $54.24 billion. As of April 20, 2020, the investment portfolio was valued at $50.18 billion.
“The impact of the economy’s hard stop is being felt in every household, every business, every school and every government in the United States. TRS is not immune,” said TRS Executive Director Dick Ingram. “TRS was able to limit the economic damage from the coronavirus because our investment strategy emphasizes keeping risk at a minimum.”
A key element of the TRS investment program is to maintain a focus on steady, long-term investment returns. Short-term corrections in the investment markets get the headlines, but TRS recognizes that the majority of its members maintain relationships with the System that last for several decades.
For instance, the 40-year return for TRS at the end of 2019 was 9.1 percent. During the same period, the annualized return for the S&P 500 index was 8.4 percent.
In its 81-year history, TRS has survived numerous economy-shattering events, including World War II and the resulting reconstruction of Europe and Asia, wars in Korea and Vietnam, oil supply crises in 1973 and 1979; runaway inflation in the 1970s and 1980s; numerous stock market “corrections;” the Iranian invasion of Kuwait, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and five global health epidemics – SARS, Ebola, the Avian Flu, the Zika virus and the Swine Flu.
“Our long-term perspective and strategy serve our members well,” Ingram added.
To put this into some perspective, the Fiscal Year 2020 budget appropriated $4.8 billion to TRS. And $4 billion has vanished for now.
Wednesday, Apr 22, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
In Illinois, the five people who have the ultimate say in shaping our state legislative districts include House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President Don Harmon, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady, and Governor J.B. Pritzker. If state lawmakers don’t follow the lead of other states and pass the Fair Maps Amendment, our representation will be determined by career politicians and attorneys.
Or, we could follow a path that would lead to a more diverse group representing the people of Illinois. If we follow California’s lead and establish an independent commission, we could have our next remap led by people who have spent their lives educating high schoolers, running small businesses and doing community foundation work and urban planning. That was the result of California’s first independent, citizen-led commission. Which group would you trust to represent your community’s interests?
State lawmakers must take votes on HJRCA41/SJRCA18, the Fair Maps Amendment, by May 3rd or we will be left with the status quo.
* Even if the governor had the power to do this (and I don’t think he does and neither does his legal counsel), a governor should not use this emergency to fulfill a policy goal that has been rejected for decades by the Illinois General Assembly just because elements of his base want him to do it. Here’s Ariel Cheung at the Tribune…
The state’s eviction moratorium has not been enough to protect Illinois renters, housing advocates say. Chicago’s 2,000 one-time housing grants — which 83,000 people have applied for — did not quiet the calls for relief.
Lawmakers are rushing to pass legislation that would suspend rent and mortgage payments during the coronavirus pandemic, while also keeping landlords and lenders afloat. But next month’s rent is due in just over a week, leaving little time to help those who need it. […]
Advocates and a growing number of politicians have urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker to use his emergency powers through his ongoing disaster proclamation to repeal the state’s preemptive ban on rent regulation — action Pritzker has repeatedly said he cannot legally take. They are also pushing for the governor to put a moratorium on rent and mortgage payments for the duration of his stay-at-home order and three months after it is lifted.
They come armed with a legal opinion arguing that such action is within the governor’s powers during a declared disaster, either by issuing a statewide order or leaving it up to municipalities to decide.
…Adding… Set aside for a moment the highly questionable legality of the governor issuing an executive order to nullify a state law that prohibits rent control, and consider their other demand that he place a “moratorium on rent and mortgage payments” for the duration.
Leases and mortgages are legally binding contracts. So, the progressives pushing this idea need to stop and think what they’re doing. If they say he has the ability to nullify contracts, then what’s to stop him from temporarily nullifying or altering public and private employee union contracts? The CTU has been backing this ill-advised campaign. Careful what you wish for. Also, y’all might want to check the US Constitution’s contract clause.
Heck, taking it to an extreme, if the governor supposedly has this much power during an emergency, what’s to stop him from nullifying the legally binding contract portion of the state Constitution’s pension clause?
The COVID-19 public health crisis has our Country living through unprecedented times. Our State is under a stay- at-home order resulting in school closures, drastically altered restaurant operations, and banned gatherings of ten people or more. In the midst of this stay-at-home order, some services cannot stop and some workers must still report to the frontlines.
Nursing home workers are among those our state is depending on to show up and care for our loved ones. As elected officials – as Illinoisans – we owe them and their families a great deal of gratitude and deep appreciation. We are concerned to hear that there is not enough PPE being provided to workers in ALL job classifications in nursing homes. If we are going to flatten the curve of COVID-19, we have to provide the appropriate PPE, for workers and consumers to feel safe. Workers should be informed and trained on how to deal with COVID-19 in all facilities for their safety as well as the residents. Our collective goal is to save as many lives as possible and that can only be done when employers protect their employees.
In addition, these workers are among the lowest paid in the state. Last year the Illinois General Assembly took action to increase the reimbursement rates for nursing homes by $240 million. We supported this measure, in part because it was assured by the nursing home industry that a significant portion of this money would be spent on direct care staff – the very staff on the frontlines fighting back against COVID-19.
Unfortunately, we’ve learned that this hasn’t been the case as workers from over 100 nursing facilities are bargaining to finalize a contract before their current agreement expires at the end of this month. As some of the lawmakers who authorized this funding, we remain hopeful that the nursing home industry intends to offer their workers a contract that truly reflects the large increase in dollars that the industry was given. This also comes in light of news that the nursing home industry is asking for millions more in immediate state funding for purposes which are unclear. We are alarmed to learn of this request when the money previously authorized hasn’t yet been used for its intended purpose.
We urge the Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities to thoroughly consider their actions in this extremely trying time. Workers deserve respect and dignity. This starts with adequate personal protective equipment, a level of paid sick time that you would expect for yourself, and wages that don’t keep employees living in poverty.
If the COVID-19 public health pandemic has accomplished one thing it has uncovered the very real problem that frontline healthcare workers haven’t received the support, respect, and compensation they deserve to support themselves and their families. Please consider contributing to the solution. Now is the time to save lives – not pennies.
* Meanwhile, SEIU Healthcare has two new radio ads. First up, “She’s My Mom”…
Script…
My daughter cries every day when I go to work at a nursing home, not knowing if I’ll be safe.
I hear the cries of patients — crying because they’re getting sick, care workers are getting sick, and because nursing home owners refuse to help. Nursing-home workers — Black, brown, and white women — deserve a safe workplace and hazard pay for our work on the frontlines — we deserve to be able to protect our families and communities from getting sick. Because I’m not just a nursing-home worker —
I’m a Nursing home worker on the frontlines of this crisis. Other Black women, like me, are risking our lives everyday, working in unsafe workplaces, and not receiving hazard pay for our essential work. Across Illinois, residents in nursing homes are dying…. workers like me are dying.
We need nursing home owners to put our safety and our patients’ safety above their profits.
We are urging our lawmakers to get involved on behalf of our patients’ lives — and ours too.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday said models are now predicting the new coronavirus won’t peak in Illinois until mid-May, weeks later than previously projected. […]
“So it’s been pushed out now, according to the models, to maybe mid-May, but at a lower level, and so we’re moving, inching toward that date,” Pritzker said.
* The first question from Illinois reporters yesterday was about that changed forecast. Pritzker’s response…
We’ll be talking more about our models in the coming couple of days. But suffice to say that we’re working hard to try to make changes to the stay at home order. But, you know, we are in the stay at home order now, so I think I’ve given enough information to people so they understand that the peak is still yet to come. We need to be careful.
But I wanted to give our staff and myself enough time to have conversations with the epidemiologists and the experts and people in different industries to try to understand what we could do, not just in the very near term about changing the stay at home order in some ways, tweaking at the edges and trying to make it easier on people, but also what we will do going forward, if in fact the peak comes in mid-May or whenever that may come. We need to have 14 days after that, as you know, according to many of the experts, where the numbers are going down, so we’re looking at all of those things we’re working on it now.
I have a very real problem with the governor going on a national cable news program mere minutes after briefing Illinois reporters Monday and telling that audience about a very substantial change in his forecast, and then repeating that information to a national newspaper the following day, but then dismissing questions about this quite substantial revision from reporters who actually live in and cover his own state.
I get why the modeling changed. The curve was slowed. Illinoisans leveled off a sharp upward spike and that pushed things out by several weeks.
But he should’ve explained this yesterday. And he probably should’ve said who was doing this new modeling that he’s looking at. At least give us a thumbnail sketch and then provide lots more details at a later briefing devoted entirely to the topic.
We’re the ones he governs. We’re the ones whose very lives and livelihoods depend on the governor’s every decision. If he’s not willing to answer questions at home, then he shoudn’t go on national media and answer theirs.
– A coalition of business groups today filed a lawsuit challenging changes recently adopted by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission that will require employers to pay workers’ compensation benefits if an employee is diagnosed with COVID-19 without proof the illness was contracted at the workplace.
The plaintiffs in the case are the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, which filed the suit on behalf of the state’s diverse employer community. Together, IMA and IRMA’s membership employ the largest number of workers in Illinois and contribute the highest share of the state’s Gross Domestic Product. The legal challenge was filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court by attorneys Scott Cruz, Thad Felton and Kevin Hormuth with the law firm Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C.
“To be clear, this case is not about the wisdom of the substantive new law expressed by the Commission. This case is about the Commission far exceeding its rulemaking authority. The substantive law of Illinois, and the wisdom of implementing it, is for the legislature, after proper discourse, and not the whim of the Commission,” said attorney Scott Cruz. “Essential businesses across Illinois are doing all they can to protect workers while also meeting unprecedented demand for food, medical supplies, protective equipment and other important services needed during this pandemic. At a time when many are waiting for relief from the federal and state government in an effort to make payroll and retain workers, they will now be forced to pay for additional medical and salary costs regardless of whether an employees’ illness was contracted outside of the workplace.”
For clarity’s sake, the new rules shift the onus of proof onto businesses. They can still rebut the claims.
Working on getting a copy of the lawsuit, but the biz groups say they believe they’ll get a hearing this week.
It shouldn’t shock anyone that the corporate community opposes a policy decision that helps workers. It’s what happens in Springfield and Washington D.C.
Only thing is, for the last several weeks, we as a community, state, nation and world have been fighting a scourge that has ground the economy nearly to a halt and likely forever changed our society and its people.
From the beginnings of the pandemic, our institutions have had one common thread holding communities together – our front line workers. Whether it is the health care workers and first responders trying to stay even or one step ahead of a lightning-fast disease, or the grocery store clerks, public employees and other essential support people, they have not blinked in trying to keep us safe and ready to begin a recovery.
We commend Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission for their foresight, compassion and good judgement in making sure those essential workers who contract COVID-19 are covered under Workers’ Compensation protections.
This is why we have Workers’ Compensation. Let’s defend the workers standing between us and chaos. We hope the business community interests that filed a lawsuit challenging the ability of sick workers to have speedy access to Workers’ Compensation rethink their position.
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, our 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.
The governor’s remarks clearly struck a nerve.
* A reporter asked the governor this question yesterday…
How do you respond to concerns from nursing home groups that their facilities were not prioritized soon enough by the administration, including testing and PPE? They argue that this has led to even worse shortages of PPE and more positive cases and facilities as many cases went undiagnosed for limited access to testing
Who is it that made the, not the question, but made the statement about PPE not being real? I think it’s an association. […]
I don’t think it would be fair to say that we have not provided PPE to nursing homes or to the counties to provide to their nursing homes. But we certainly want to know when there are nursing homes where you believe there is not PPE being made available every day to the people in those nursing homes where there are COVID positive patients, you should let our IDPH know. Dr. Ezike and her staff are all over this and they want to make sure that every one of our seniors is protected.
* A little background. I received this email after Monday’s media briefing from Matt Hartman, the executive director of the Illinois Health Care Association…
Rich, there was a good deal of misinformation in the Governor’s presser today in regards to nursing homes and how the state has handled the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in regards to the sector. The statements regarding expansive testing in facilities, prioritization of the sector for PPE, and prior statements about additional funding for nursing homes flowing all mischaracterized the reality. The timelines they describe are inaccurate, as are the responses to the requests of the sector and how they have involved us.
Testing in broad strokes in nursing homes didn’t begin until this week, prior to that centers had to request tests on a case by case basis, and in spite of the increased threat the virus poses to our residents, they were frequently denied. Nursing homes were not included on the initial priority list for PPE, rather they were told to individually request of their local health departments to be included, by which point the initial supplies were depleted. No funding has gone to facilities for the wildly increased costs of PPE and staffing during the crisis, though increases have been discussed by HFS.
* So, I asked the administration for a response. It came in not long before yesterday’s daily press conference and I didn’t have enough time to put something together. From deputy comms director Jason Rubin…
Hey Rich,
If the Illinois Health Care Association has concerns about the Governor’s statements we recommend they reach out to us directly so we can clarify. We have provided Matt and his team with a multitude of channels through which we can share information, guidance, and concerns during this pandemic. In fact, Deputy Governor Sol Flores and her team have a call with Matt and his team later this afternoon, one of the many calls that now take place every week, and I know they’re looking forward to another productive conversation.
On the substance, I would strongly encourage the association give the Governor’s remarks another listen before claiming the Governor is mischaracterizing reality. On testing, the Governor clearly laid out the fact that we have been able to secure more testing supplies, like VTM and swabs, and are therefore now able to more aggressively deploy testing at our long term care facilities. In facilities with known cases, we will continue to operate under the assumption that residents showing symptoms have COVID-19 and should be isolated and treated accordingly, but we will more aggressively test staff to understand who can safely continue working and who should isolate. In facilities without cases, we will test both residents and staff to isolate cases before widespread transmission. The Governor made clear in his remarks that we tested our first two homes over the weekend and an additional ten facilities yesterday. I’m not sure what was unclear about that timeline for Matt, but I’m sure the Deputy Governor and her team can help clear up any confusion this afternoon.
On PPE, everyone has to request PPE from their local health departments and county emergency management agencies. Those requests are all filled at the local level and when local stockpiles are depleted, county emergency management agencies make requests for additional PPE from IEMA. The state has made clear to local health departments that long term care facilities should be made a priority along with health care workers and first responders, who engage in this same process. If the association is suggesting long term care facilities be provided with a separate process than hospital workers and first responders, they are welcome to raise that on the call this afternoon.
On funding, as Matt Knows, Nursing Homes received initial funding from the CARES Act and will likely receive additional funding as soon as the federal government issues guidance. In the meantime, the state has provided a rate increase for nursing homes providing COVID-19 positive only care and we have streamlined the process for eligibility and admissions approvals to bring additional funding into all nursing homes at this time. This is in addition to the $240 million increase in funding the industry received less than a year ago, which represented a 10% rate increase.
Long term care facilities care for some of our most vulnerable residents. As the governor said, we are deeply grateful to the staff at these facilities who are on the frontlines, dedicating their days and nights to keeping our seniors safe. We look forward to continued dialogue with the Illinois Health Care Association as to how best we can all support that critical work.
We revised Illinois’ outlook to negative because it aligns with Moody’s view of the probable effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which will reduce tax collections and likely cause current-year pension investment losses, both of which would weigh more heavily on Illinois, given its existing weaknesses relative to other states. Federal government support will mitigate some of the direct budgetary burden, but the state will face liquidity pressure that may lead it to near-term actions such as adding to its balance of unpaid bills. The state is also increasingly likely to take actions that worsen its long-term liabilities, in view of revenue shortfalls and growing health and social burdens.
How Illinois’ fares now will depend on not only the track of the epidemic but how much financial relief it gets from the federal government, something that certainly was on the mind of Illinois Senate President Don Harmon with that controversial letter a few days ago, in which he pleaded for a bailout.
Another is whether voters in November approve Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal to authorize a graduated income tax.
“Voter approval, which is far from assured, would add some revenue volatility but would greatly improve flexibility to respond to pension contribution and other spending needs as well as shifting economic conditions,” the agency wrote in a comment Pritzker surely noticed. “Rejection of the amendment probably will force the state to consider other alternatives, such as aggressive spending reductions, an increase in the existing flat income tax rate or application of the state sales taxes to services.”
Overall, it concludes, the state generally should fare about as well as other large-economy states in the recession that’s now underway. And liquidity is good—at the moment.
* I read the initial press release and asked a Moody’s spokesperson if the firm had any evidence that Illinois would skip bond payments. The emailed reply…
The short answer is “no.”
* So, I said, if there’s no evidence of that happening, why put Illinois a hair above junk status? The reply…
Well, that goes back to our rating scale. I can talk you through it at some point if you want but there’s 21 total ratings with about half considered “investment grade” (Aaa to Baa3) and the rest below (Ba1 and lower). We call the latter “speculative grade” but everyone else calls it “junk.”
At the end of the day, the ratings translate to bondholders how risky a bond is and what the chances are they’ll be fully repaid with interest. The higher the rating, the greater the likelihood and vice versa. Since there’s multiple levels of speculative grade ratings, the lower the rating the higher the chance of default (and the higher the risk to bondholders).
We rate about 8500 municipal issuers across the country and I’d be surprised if we had 400 ratings below investment grade. Municipal issuers are extremely resilient and defaults and bankruptcies are very rare. But if a rating is downgraded below investment grade that does not automatically translate to default. It means we think the chances are higher than before.
Remember Chicago is rated Ba1, the highest “junk” bond level and one below the state. But Chicago has been at that position for a few years now and has not defaulted. CPS is rated three notches lower than the city at B1 because we consider them a much higher risk than the city. But at its nadir a couple of years ago CPS was rated two notches lower at B3 and may have defaulted if the state had not assisted.
This might be too wonky already, but in speculative grade the ratings also translate into likely recovery rates for bondholders if there is a default. The lower the rating the lower the recovery expected. Puerto Rico’s debt is rated either Ca (35-65% recovery expected) or C (35% or less) and Puerto Rico has defaulted on almost all its debt.
One last item to note: Our records go back to 1970 and we’ve never had a state rated below investment grade. The median state rating is Aa1, our second highest and eight notches higher than Illinois.
Thanks for reading and hope that clears things up,
The onetime head of Fitch Ratings’ Public Finance Group is blasting the firm’s decision [last week] to immediately downgrade Illinois debt, calling it “premature,” instead of giving officials a chance to resolve financial woes amid a fast-moving COVID-19 pandemic.
Mike Belsky said the pandemic still has too many uncertainties to make a judgement on its fiscal impact here. Belsky is now executive director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. […]
Belsky said Fitch apparently did not follow its normal course of sitting down with management—in this case, state financial officials—to discuss what sort of response they might make to souring finances. “Management now is stretched, drinking from a fire hose” and properly focused on medical issues, he said. “There’s no doubt that Illinois is going to be challenged.”
U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, a Clinton appointee, [yesterday] discussed the substantial relief she intends to order for minor party and independent candidates for the Illinois 2020 election. The Libertarian and Green Presidential Candidates will be on the ballot in Illinois, as will all “minor” party candidates who were on the ballot in 2016 or 2018. Unfortunately there were no Libertarians on the ballot in 2016 or 2018 for legislative seats in Illinois. The Libertarian candidate for Senate will also be on the ballot.
Judge Pallmeyer also offered relief to the Libertarians who are running for congress in 2020. They will only need 10% of their original signature requirement, and the petition deadline is extended from June 12th to August 7th. Signatures can be obtained via a computer and an electronic signature, though a paper version of the signature must be printed and brought to election officials.
The judge’s order is currently being drafted.
“This legal victory is the first of many for the Libertarian Party as we fight for fair access to the ballot in an era when traditional petitioning is impossible and a threat to public health. We think Judge Pallmeyer’s precedent will be a beacon for other justices as they hear the other Libertarian Party cases,” said Libertarian Party Executive Director Daniel Fishman
The judge also dictated candidates may collect signatures remotely. Voters would be able to print out a petition from the candidate’s website, sign it and either send a hard copy to the candidate through the mail or electronically in an emailed attachment or as a photograph.
Alternatively, voters would be able to electronically sign petition forms from their smartphone or laptop’s trackpad. […]
The parties asked Illinois’ signature collection mandates be waived or suspended this general election cycle so their candidates could appear on the November ballot. In a remote court hearing Friday, Pallmeyer said that “is beyond the power of the court.”
“In other words, no test that I adopt is going to be, if you file a lawsuit, you get on the ballot. That’s not appropriate,” she said, according to a court transcription.
As I understand the order, it will be that if, for example, the Green Party qualified to have a candidate on the ballot in the Fifth Congressional district in one of the last two elections, so they would be — they would meet this qualification to nominate a candidate in the Green Party candidate without any signatures, but the fact that they nominated any Congressional candidate doesn’t mean that they can do that in every district where they didn’t have candidates.
Judge Pallmeyer said that interpretation was correct.
And it also means the two parties can nominate US Senate candidates and put them on the ballot without circulating petitions.
As of today, nearly 140,000 more student loan borrowers in Illinois will now get relief. IDFPR has worked tirelessly to secure loan relief options with 20 student loan servicers, allowing borrowers to request a 90 day forbearance, waived late fees, no negative credit reporting, the pause of debt collection lawsuits for 90 days and enrollment in other borrower assistance programs.
* And…
I’m so proud today to share another critical update from another of our agencies and that’s the Department of Human Services. Illinois requested an expansion of benefits to help put additional food on the table for all Illinois SNAP households with school aged children, more than 300,000 in all, and that expansion has now been approved, delivering an additional $112 million in food assistance to children across the state. … This increased assistance will be automatically added to family link cards.
As always, please pardon transcription errors.
* Dr. Ezike…
As of last night, 4776 individuals in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 1226 patients are in the ICU and 781 patients were on ventilators. 30% of hospital ICU beds across the state are open and available. Should anyone need intensive care of the ICU beds that are currently in use, 55% of all of them are being used by patients with COVID-19.
It’s also important to note that 60% of all the ventilators in the state are available for use, just over half of the ventilators that are currently being used are being used by patients with COVID-19. […]
As we continue to survey individuals with COVID-19, we have found that 54% of the cases reported to public health less than two weeks ago,report no longer having symptoms and being recovered. For those who reported a positive test four weeks ago, 77% of those reported being recovered.
This is encouraging news and I hope it will strengthen our resolve to continue the very tough sacrifices that we continue to make.
* On to questions for the governor. He was asked about the new modeling showing that the peak may occur in mid-May. He said he will be explaining that in more details in the next couple of days. “So say we don’t hit that peak until mid May… Do we have to be in a, in your belief, do we have to be in a stay at home order until we hit that peak? [Because he’d lift it earlier than the peak? I don’t get it.]…
Well, again, we will be making some changes to the stay at home order as it is. But it is true that it is working. And so to pull it off, he stay at home order, it seems to me you know to remove it, as I see some other governors may want to do, to remove it entirely is to simply open everything back up to infection. We heard Dr. Ezike saying in the last couple of days that the R0, the number of people that are getting infected by a single person who is infected has gone down significantly since we put the stay at home order in place. That will go right back up again if you remove all the restrictions.
* He was asked about the cost of keeping up the McCormick Place facility and said much would be handled by the federal government…
The consequence of being underprepared would be the loss of life and the consequence of being over prepared would be that we built out more than we may have needed and nobody can know exactly where we’ll end up until much after we’ve hit the peak and moved off of it.
* The New York Times has a front page story today reporting could take years before New York City completely recovers from the pandemic, in particular theater, restaurants, tourism related industry. Are we going to see that in Chicago as well?…
Well I don’t know and I don’t think anybody really knows, but I certainly have said to you that I think if we can get a treatment and a vaccine, ultimately that the damage that is suggested by an article like that wouldn’t be visited as dangerously or as difficult on the economies of our state. So I can’t really answer it and we can see what’s happened to the economy already. In this short period of time I’m hoping that we’ll be able to recover, much more quickly.
* We have a number of concerts that were set to take place in the month of May. Is it safe to say that they’re canceled?…
I think I just did read actually that a number of them were canceled in Chicago. So I think that probably answers the question.
* Even as you begin to reopen businesses on May 1, are there enough hand sanitizers, cleansers for a lot of these businesses especially small mom and pop places? You know, large companies can get their hands on enough hand sanitizers and cleanser. Is there enough of that type of material to be able to help businesses reopen?…
Yeah, so I want to caution that there isn’t, I don’t think there’s going to be some mass opening of lots and lots and lots of businesses on May 1.
But to the point, do we have enough hand sanitizer or dispensers? I don’t think anybody has been fully prepared for this and even each industry, and I’ve asked industry CEOs to look at how would you reopen, how would it work.
There’s no doubt that hand sanitizer and the use of PPE is going to be an important part of that. Will businesses provide PPE? That’s a question, will hand sanitizer be available to everybody that walks in the door, you know, should it be required. I agree that right now I don’t think anybody would say that there’s enough of that going on. We’re also going to have to develop some norms that people just understand that as you’re walking into a place you know getting hand sanitizer and making sure that you’ve used it, or making sure your mask is on as you enter someplace. I think those are all things that people are going to have to get used to and businesses are going to have to adjust to to make sure that their customers are protected.
* Last question from me. A lot of people have been asking about this and other states are starting to open, obviously other states are in different, you know, phases when it comes to this. Golf courses. People are so anxious just to get out on the green to be outside. Golf courses. Maybe you could do it in a socially distant kind of way. Is there, is there any talk about opening up those type of sectors when we go into that, does that all kind of come into your decision making?…
Yeah, we’re looking at lots of things. We understand summer is different than what we’ve had up to now, which has been colder weather. So we want to consider all of those things. That’s just one of the many, many things that we’ve tried to take into consideration.
But I do want to remind everybody that once again, we have bent the curve, because we have had a stay at home order. And so the fact of a stay at home order in general, being a very positive thing before we ever have enough testing, because there isn’t enough testing and there won’t be for some time to really open everything up. And the fact [is] that we’re going to need a whole lot more.
* We see Senate President Harmon has asked for financial aid from Congress, to what extent are you asking for financial help lobbying Congress members talking on the phone, how many people are assigned to these tasks?…
I don’t think there’s anything that can be more effective than a governor calling… talking to them about reaching out to their delegations. A Governor does have the ear of members of their delegation. And so I’ve made many many calls like that, on behalf of our common interests in all the 50 states to get the federal government to help us with support for our states and for the industries in our states and so on. I do that quite often and a number of members of my staff have also been on the phone with staff members of those various representatives and senators across the nation.
* How much has the state spent on former vibra Hospital in Springfield?…
I can’t do that for you right here at the podium I don’t have it in front of me. But at this moment there’s been no work done on Bibra so at least that part of any expenditure has not been undertaken.
* For Dr. Ezike: How worried are you for a second wave of COVID-19 this fall?…
I think we should be concerned. Obviously, we’re following information and data that’s coming from all around the world. We know that the Fall is already traditionally an established time for flu outbreaks. So, the flu is is our epidemic that we see on a scheduled basis. so if there was supposed to be any resurgence, we could see why that would be at that time and so if you had COVID, as well as flu. It’s very concerning that there could be a significant second wave or a second surge and so that’s why without treatment without a vaccine for COVID, those two overlaid could be very, very problematic.
* If masks are required in cities like Chicago, how will your administration ensure everyone particularly low income people have access to face coverings and can go into public?…
It was pointed out to me yesterday by one of the elected officials I was talking to that I really should stop using the word mask and I should start using the word face covering.
Because the truth is that you don’t need to have an official mask. That’s not what everybody is suggesting, what doctors are saying. You do need to cover your nose and mouth with a, can be a T shirt. I saw a video of how you can prepare a T shirt for yourself as a mask and there are lots of different things fabric masks that you can create for yourself there. […]
And for people who cannot afford them I agree with you that I would like very much to make face coverings more available. I think that would probably be more in the disposable types. And so we’re looking at that and how we would do that, again industry by industry, and then for people who just want to go outside. I’d like to make it more available so we’ll be thinking and talking about that.
* We were told by the Fulton County Board Chair the five correctional officers from the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton, were promised a 14 day paid quarantine plus a COVID-19 test after volunteering to work at state Correctional Center. Can the governor confirm this and tell us what conversations he’s had with DOC about this matter?…
That is a subject of labor negotiation so that’s, that’s an ongoing conversation.
* Rock River Times: What would you say to people who feel the shutdown is a punishment, driven largely by the COVID situation in Chicago, one that has no chance of affecting them when they are many many miles from the city?…
Punishment. That is awkward to use.
We are in a global pandemic. When this broke out, nobody, nobody knew how fast this would travel. Nobody knew who was most susceptible to it. Nobody knew how to counter its effects. And much of that information, although we’ve discovered, some is still unknown to experts. And so, in, you know, all due caution to protect all of the people of the state of Illinois we put orders in place that would keep people healthy and safe and, and hopefully prevent people from getting COVID-19 who otherwise might.
So, you know, in terms of the different effects in different parts of the state, you’re, you know it’s correct to, to say that in more rural areas there have been fewer cases. The interesting thing to look at and I there are places you can go online to look at this to the, you know what, number of days. the doubling time is for different counties, you can find that online, and you’ll find different areas of the state, even though they have smaller populations have a higher doubling time than some very urban areas of the state.
So there’s no punishment involved. The goal here is to do the right thing for everybody. And it’s true that in some areas of the state there’s been a lower infection rate, and a lower doubling time. And so, that needs to be taken into consideration as we make changes.
* How do you respond to concerns from nursing home groups that their facilities were not prioritized soon enough by the administration including testing and PPE? They argue that this has led to even worse shortages of PPE and more positive cases and facilities as many cases went undiagnosed for limited access to testing…
Who is it that made the, not the question, but made the statement about PPE not being real? I think it’s an association. So I would just say this, that we have been from very early on and I spoke about this yesterday I hope you’ll go back and look at it because I’m not sure I can repeat it all for you right now but we’re from very early on I mean we started talking about and dealing with the problem in nursing homes in early March. This is before we ever had a disaster proclamation in the state, and long before we ever had a stay at home order. We shut down visitation at nursing homes and begin to do wellness checks of the personnel there. And then, as you know, more was known about how outbreaks in nursing homes occur. We made sure that everybody understood not just that there’s PPE available and by the way your local county Department of Public Health is provided with all of the PPE that they asked for from the state. That’s why we’ve been out acquiring PPE, they provide it to the local nursing home, and then we’ve been training nursing home personnel about how to put on that PPE, where that PPE properly and making sure that you know all precautions are taken to separate out people who are COVID positive from those who are not, and doing testing, and we’re doing even more testing now so there’s quite a lot being done. I don’t think it would be fair to say that we have not provided PPE to nursing homes or to the counties to provide to their nursing homes. But we certainly want to know when there are nursing homes where you believe there is not PPE being made available every day to the people in those nursing homes where there are COVID positive patients, you should let our IDPH know. Dr. Ezike and her staff are all over this and they want to make sure that every one of our seniors is protected.
We’ll have more on this soon.
* Have antibody test been made available to medical practitioners? What are healthcare workers advise to do if they test positive for COVID-19, or if the COVID-19 antibodies is it safe for them to continue practicing medicine?…
So a couple things I want to make sure you understand. The antibody tests are as yet a bit unproven, or at least some are and some are more effective, some are less. It is not widely used by states, or really anywhere, there is a body of researchers who are using antibody tests right now to determine whether people who have the antibodies in fact are immune. So it’s that is not even a proven fact yet. So that’s why we’re not providing antibody tests widely, we don’t provide that right now.
What we want to know is, where are there outbreaks? Where are people getting COVID-19? And then we want to make sure to contact trace all the people that are associated with all those who are tested positive, so that we can keep this from spreading and get that number of people who get infected by a single infected person down.
* Governors in Georgia, Tennessee South Carolina will let most businesses reopen May 1, even as COVID case loads and deaths rise. Have you ruled that out here and would you consider limiting travel to Illinois from the States?…
I have ruled out what they’re doing in Georgia and I’m not sure about all the other states but if they’re all doing the same thing which is essentially opening everything up. Yes, I have ruled that out for the time being. Because, as I have said time and time again, in order for us to truly open things up we need tracing, we need testing we need a treatment available and we need a widespread availability of PPE. And we don’t have those things available to us today. And the treatment of course is something that’s not in our control.
We are working on all the other three of those things to make sure that we are ready. But remember, Illinois is not even close to its peak, I mean we’re weeks away now. And you won’t really know you hit your peak until you’re on the other side of it, and are going down.
* Can you comment on how Illinois is going to close this projected budget deficits, what tools are you considering such as bonds for pension payments, do you expect service cuts or layoffs to state employees…
Well some of that I hope will get answered by the federal government. The Congress is considering a package, as I understand, that would provide more aid to the states and local governments and that will have a big impact on our decision making with regard to our budget.
But of course everything is on the table for consideration in the sense that I’m discussing with members of the House and the Senate how they want to proceed and what ideas we have and they have. This is an all hands on deck challenge, the state of our budget for the state of Illinois and so we’re looking at everything.
* Center Square: How long do you feel comfortable governing by executive order without checks on your authority from the legislature, or any potential legal action in the judicial branch?…
I don’t feel comfortable at all. … We’re in a worldwide pandemic we’re in an emergency situation we’re under disaster proclamation because people are dying and people are getting sick. And so as soon as we can get on the other side of this challenge.
Listen, I want regular order. There’s so many things that you’ve heard me talk about, the things that I want to accomplish for the people of the state of Illinois and those can’t be accomplished in the context of a pandemic.
* Why release convicted killers?…
I think some of you may know and understand that, because I’ve said it many times from this podium, that I want to keep the risk to people across the state of Illinois as low as possible. The risk of catching COVID-19, and the risk that might occur from somebody who has done something wrong in their past.
And so every time I consider a situation of somebody who’s asking for a pardon or commutation of their sentence, I’m taking into account how to make sure that we’re keeping the risk extraordinarily low.
For example, I have granted commutations to people who have been diagnosed with stage four cancer and are likely to die in three months. Hence, and they’re there. They’re confined to a bed. They can’t move around very much. And in the last three months of their life. It seemed to me that it would not be inappropriate for me to let them be with their family.
Again, you know they’re they’re suffering. And it’s also an alleviation of burden upon our prison system. So, you know, I think this is, it’s the right and the constitutional privilege granted to a governor to consider pardons and commutations. And in the context of a pandemic, in the context of what we’re going through now with COVID-19, trying to make sure that we keep our prison officials our officers who are working in the prisons and the people who are in prison who, some of them, are non violent criminals who were going to be led out in the next year anyway. To make sure that we’re making space in those prisons and keeping everybody safe as possible. Those are all some considerations that I give to pardons and commutations in this moment.
Hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans have filed record-setting claims for unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of them is a struggling single mom who told us Tuesday night that she is out of cash – but the state is putting her money on hold for months.
As CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported, Marissa Strickland said she has to wait almost five months to see any money at all – a wait that could leave her out of a home – all because of an issue she had two years ago and thought she had rectified.
It turns out the pandemic is not going to change that.
The governor was asked about this last week during a press conference and he said they’d check into it.
CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov had new information Monday about the penalty weeks that have been issued because of previous unemployment claims, which are costing some people their benefits – big time.
“Trying to do little odd jobs to take care of my family – best as I can,” said Anthony Gordon.
Gordon’s anxiety is running high as his money runs low. Almost a month after being laid off from his Ford job at the plant near 126th Street and Torrence Avenue, he is being told he cannot get any unemployment benefits until his penalty weeks are over. The weeks were slapped onto his account after he got $1,700 more than he should have.
“But I already had paid that money back already, so I’m trying to figure out what was going on, and all I’m getting is they’re saying I have a penalty, so I don’t know what to do,” Gordon said.
* I asked the governor’s office about these stories and they sent me what IDES sent the station…
Individuals who commit unemployment fraud and defraud the unemployment system are required by law to repay the benefits they received, pay a penalty fee, and serve penalty weeks. This is a statutory requirement that IDES is mandated by Illinois state and federal law to implement.
Claimants who have stolen someone else’s identity to receive benefits will receive a determination that they have committed unemployment fraud. Claimants who have been working while certifying that they have not been working in order to continue receiving unemployment benefits will also receive a determination that they have committed unemployment fraud. To be clear, claimants certify every two weeks, legally telling the department that for the two weeks prior they have not been working or receiving wages. A claimant who has developed a pattern of legally certifying that they have not been working or receiving wages when, in fact, they have been, will receive a determination of unemployment fraud. If the claimant appeals the determination, they will participate in a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge. If, at this hearing, the determination of unemployment fraud is upheld, the claimant will receive the total number of penalty weeks they must serve, in addition to paying back the benefits they received and paying a penalty fee.
If a claimant wishes to appeal the Administrative Law Judge determination, there is an internal review process, and the final decision can be appealed in the circuit court.
The General Assembly would have to make a statutory change to defer serving penalty weeks during this crisis. At this time, IDES is unaware of any legislative proposal from the General Assembly to defer penalty weeks for those who have committed fraud. We would recommend reaching out to the General Assembly.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,551 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 119 additional deaths.
Boone County: 1 male 20s, 1 female 60s, 1 female 70s
Carroll County: 1 female 80s
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 female 40s, 2 males 40s, 2 females 50s, 9 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 10 males 60s, 1 unknown 60s, 9 females 70s, 14 males 70s, 5 females 80s, 17 males 80s, 8 females 90s, 5 males 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 40s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 3 males 90s
Jackson County: 1 male 80s
Kankakee County: 1 female 90s
Lake County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
Madison County: 1male 70s, 1 male 80s
McHenry County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 90s, 1 male 90s
Rock Island County: 1 female 70s
Will County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Winnebago County: 1 male 60s
Woodford County: 1 female 70s
Hardin County is now reporting a case. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 33,059 cases, including 1,468 deaths, in 96 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years.
* The governor also said this yesterday while appearing on CNBC and I told subscribers about it this morning. Here’s the Tribune…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday said models are now predicting the new coronavirus won’t peak in Illinois until mid-May, weeks later than previously projected. […]
“So it’s been pushed out now, according to the models, to maybe mid-May, but at a lower level, and so we’re moving, inching toward that date,” Pritzker said. “People are doing what they need to do in the state of Illinois, staying indoors or staying at home, wearing masks outside as I’ve urged everybody to do, making sure they’re washing their hands and all the other things that we’ve asked people to do.”
In the same interview, Pritzker again said he he is looking at regional differences across Illinois’ 102 counties as he weights adjustments to the state’s stay-at-home order.
“We put in stay-at-home orders that were really across -the-board very effective, and now we’ve looked at what the infection rate has been—different in Cook County than it is in our collar counties, and different in our Cook and collar counties that it is in other counties across the state,” Pritzker said. “And now I think we can make some adjustments based upon hospitalization rates, based upon ICU bed availability, based upon infection rates.”
The Illinois High School Association’s board of directors has announced the cancellation of the spring sports season. […]
“We support the decision by Governor Pritzker and the Illinois State Board of Education, and given the logistics, we simply felt we could not conduct state tournaments that meet the expectations of our member schools this spring, ” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said. “As disappointing as it may be for students, it is the right decision for their health and safety, as well as for the health and safety of the general public, as we cope with this unprecedented pandemic.”
Illinois’ R0, or R naught, value is decreasing, but hasn’t yet fallen enough yet to let up on the state’s stay-at-home order, Ezike said. The R0 value is the reproductive ratio of a virus.
If the average R0 value in a population is greater than 1, the infection will spread exponentially. If the R0 is less than 1, the infection will spread more slowly and eventually die out. The higher the R0 value in a given population, the faster a virus will spread.
R0 is affected by a population’s size and proportion of people susceptible to the virus in a given population, the infectiousness of a virus and the rate of disappearance of cases — either by recovery or death. The length of time an infected person is contagious also plays a role in a population’s R0 value.
At the beginning of Covid-19’s spread in Illinois, which Ezike characterized Sunday as the “exponential growth phase,” Illinois’ R0 value might have been 3.5,” she said. But the figure is now closer to 1, she said.
“If one person can infect three [people], and then each of those people infect three additional [people], and then those people all go on to [infect more people], within 10 rounds you get to 60,000 people,” Ezike said. “And so, obviously we brought that way down — we think our R naught is low in the ones — and so the transmission has slowed tremendously, but of course, it’s not enough to have completely made sure that it died out.”
Pritzker added that epidemiologists are looking for a R0 value below 1.
* Illinois Senate Republicans, including Schimpf, question Pritzker on prison sentence commutations: The Illinois Constitution states, “The Governor may grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses on such terms as he thinks proper. The manner of applying therefore may be regulated by law.” Pritzker pointed out Saturday that all cases also go through the Prisoner Review Board process.
For more than six years, we’ve called for reform of Illinois’ public pension system. Some days we begged legislators, some days we harangued them.
Today we’re pleased to list the names of House lawmakers who took responsible action Thursday and voted “yes” on Speaker Michael Madigan’s pension overhaul.
Madigan acknowledged during debate that his bill is not salvation: It won’t solve the state’s financial problems — the unpaid bills, the (surely understated) pension system liabilities, the imminent budget pressures — but it hurtles the ball forward. That is worth celebrating.
Sixty-two House members voted for reform. By pushing the green button, they acknowledged that the status quo is harming our state, hurting taxpayers, discouraging potential employers and denying services to the truly vulnerable.
For the General Assembly, State Employees, State Universities, and Downstate Teacher retirement systems, limits the salary of a Tier I member for benefit and contribution purposes to the greater of (i) the annual contribution and benefit base established for the applicable year by the Commissioner of Social Security under the federal Social Security Act or (ii) the annual salary of the member during the 365 days immediately preceding that effective date
For the General Assembly, State Employees, State Universities, and Downstate Teacher retirement systems, provides that, for a Tier I retiree, (i) the amount of each automatic annual increase in retirement annuity occurring on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act shall be the lesser of $750 ($600 if the annuity is based primarily upon service as a covered employee) or 3% of the total annuity payable at the time of the increase, including previous increases granted, and (ii) the monthly retirement annuity shall first be subject to annual increases on the January 1 occurring on or next after the attainment of age 67 or the January 1 occurring on or next after the fifth anniversary of the annuity start date, whichever occurs earlier.
Amends the General Assembly, State Employee, State Universities, and Downstate Teacher Articles of the Illinois Pension Code. Increases the retirement age by various amounts for certain Tier I members and participants, based on the person’s age on the effective date.
* On March 24, 2010, the Illinois House passed Senate Bill 1946, which created the Tier 2 system. The bill passed 92-17. Rep. Mike Bost was one of 7 “Present” votes.
* In December of 2015, Congressman Mike Bost began receiving his state legislative pension of $73,017.60, which increases at a compounded 3 percent rate every year.
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.
* Premier Broadcasting in Effingham has published a Facebook post by a local health care worker who was infected with COVID-19. Click here and read the whole thing. You do not want to go through what Morgan has experienced. Be safe.
After weeks of speculation over the fate of some of Chicago’s biggest summer festivals, the official word arrived Tuesday morning.
Out of an abundance of caution and adhering to state-mandated stay-at-home guidelines and social distancing guidelines from the CDC, the following events have been canceled according to the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE):
• 4th annual Chicago House Music Conference & Festival, May 21–24, various venues
• Chicago’s Memorial Day Parade and Wreath Laying Ceremony, May 23
• 35th Chicago Gospel Music Festival, May 27–30 in Millennium Park and the Chicago Cultural Center
• 37th annual Chicago Blues Festival, June 5-7 in Millennium Park
…The cancellations reflect only specific DCASE-run festivals through early June, and according to the official announcement, “is not official City guidance for other event producers; they should continue to follow the public health guidance of the CDC, City and State officials.”
* And even if late-summer events happen, large crowds may not show up. From one of those polls we discussed earlier…
Two-thirds of Americans (67 percent), including 66 percent of independents and 64 percent of Republicans, say they will continue to practice social distancing even after official restrictions are lifted; just 13 percent of Americans say they will not.
* The governor was asked yesterday how much testing needs to be done to reopen the economy. This was part of his answer…
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?
* The Question: What’s your answer to the governor’s question?
Tuesday, Apr 21, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Earlier today, Vice President Pence spoke with governors from all 50 states about our unified effort to defeat the virus. He had a great call. It was a great call, very positive in I’d say every way. Prior to the call, we provided each governor with a list of the names, addresses and phone numbers of the labs where they can find additional testing capacity within their states. Many, many labs. We’re providing you with the list. We’ll show it to you now if you need it. We’ll give you the details, but hundreds and hundreds of labs are ready, willing, and able. Some of the governors, like as an example, the governor from Maryland didn’t really understand the list. He didn’t understand too much about what was going on. So now I think he’ll be able to do that. It’s pretty simple, but they have tremendous capacity and we hope to be able to help him out. We’ll work with them and work with all of the governors.
Similar to the situation with ventilators, states need to assess their complete inventory of available capacity. Some states have far more capacity than they actually understand, and it is a complex subject, but some of the governors didn’t understand it. The governor, as an example Pritzker from Illinois, did not understand his capacity, not simply ask the federal government to provide unlimited support. I mean you have to take the support where you have it, but we are there to stand with the governors and to help the governors, and that’s what we’re doing and they have a tremendous capacity that we’ve already built up and you’ll be seeing that. We’re going to be introducing a couple of the folks in a little while to talk about it.
* I asked the governor’s office about this and was referred to Pritzker’s remarks yesterday at his own media briefing…
The main focus of that call was about testing. The White House is 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 24/7, what output could you get.
The problem is there’s a big difference between testing capacity and getting testing result and what’s the big difference in 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 24/7, 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.
And so, it was an interesting call because I think you can see what, how they’re thinking about what their responsibility is. But the fact of the matter is that when they say ‘There’s lots of testing available,’ it’s a far cry from testing capacity to actually getting testing results.
A lack of reagents, swabs, personal protective gear and specialized equipment has severely hampered testing capacity, according to an April 13 letter to Birx from AAMC Chief Executive Officer David Skorton. The association represents the academic medicine community that owns many of the 175 Abbott machines across the country.
“The inability to secure adequate quantities of any of these components will result in lower testing capacity,” Skorton said. “The absence of certain components could result in testing machines sitting unused.”
In some cases, labs trying to purchase parts, reagents and test cartridges to determine if patients have Covid-19 have been unable to do so, as they have been told that the federal government or other laboratories have a higher priority, the letter said.
* HuffPost/YouGov poll of 1,000 people conducted April 17-19…
Just 15% said there are too many coronavirus-related restrictions in place where they live, with 53% saying restrictions are at the right level, and 23% that there are not enough restrictions.
A 78% majority said state governments that have told residents to stay at home unless they have an essential reason for going out are making the right decision by issuing such orders, with just 9% saying those states are making the wrong decision. Americans said, 60% to 24%, that they’re more concerned that states will lift the restrictions too quickly than that they will not lift the restrictions quickly enough.
* Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted April 17-19 of 1,597 adults…
The survey, conducted April 17 to April 19, found that a full 60 percent of the public opposes the largely pro-Trump protesters whose calls for governors to “liberate” their states by lifting lockdown measures have attracted intense media attention in recent days — and whose message the president amplified Friday in a series of all-caps “LIBERATE” tweets about three swing states: Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia.
Only 22 percent of Americans say they support the protesters. Despite Trump’s messaging, even Republicans oppose the protests 47 percent to 36 percent. Asked whether they agree or disagree with Trump’s “LIBERATE” tweets, only a quarter of Americans say they agree. […]
Seventy-one percent of Americans — and 56 percent of Republicans — say they are more concerned about lifting the coronavirus restrictions too quickly than lifting them too slowly. Only 29 percent of Americans say the opposite. The same number (71 percent) say they want public health officials “to be fully able to test and trace new cases and outbreaks” before reopening; only 29 percent say they want the country to reopen “as soon as possible to prevent further economic damage.” And more than twice as many Americans say the U.S. is not conducting enough coronavirus testing to track future outbreaks of the virus (52 percent) than say it is (22 percent). […]
Two-thirds of Americans (67 percent), including 66 percent of independents and 64 percent of Republicans, say they will continue to practice social distancing even after official restrictions are lifted; just 13 percent of Americans say they will not.
Michigan residents prefer how Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has handled the coronavirus outbreak over President Trump’s response to the pandemic, according to a statewide poll released Monday.
The Detroit Regional Chamber’s survey found that 57 percent of residents approved of Whitmer’s handling of the pandemic, while 44 percent said the same about Trump. Disapproval of the governor’s response stood at 37 percent, compared with 50 percent for the president’s.
Approval for both political leaders was split along party lines. For Whitmer, 89 percent of Democrats backed her handling of the virus, compared with 22 percent of Republicans supporting her. Among independent voters, 56 percent approved of the governor’s efforts during the crisis.
* Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted April 14-19 of 1,013 adults…
How would you rate your state governor’s overall response to the coronavirus outbreak?
Excellent/Good 72
Not so good/Poor 26
No opinion 1
How would you rate President Trump’s overall response to the coronavirus outbreak?
Excellent/Good 44
Not so good/Poor 54
No opinion 2
* Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies conducted April 13-15 of 900 registered voters…
When do you think the coronavirus will be contained in the United States, to the point that the economy can return to normal and businesses can re-open and people can go back to work?
It has already 3
In the next few weeks 15
In the next few months 45
In the next year 26
Longer than the next year 6
Never 1
Not sure 4
Which worries you more about responding to the coronavirus and restrictions that require most Americans to shelter in place and only leave their homes for essential needs?
U.S. will move too quickly in loosening restrictions 58
U.S. will take too long in loosening restrictions 32
A bit of both (VOL) 3
Not sure 7
* Pew Research Center, conducted April 7 to 12 of 4,917 adults…
Democrats are largely united in their concerns over state governments easing bans on public activity; 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say their greater concern is that governments will lift these restrictions too quickly. Yet Republicans and Republican leaners are evenly divided. About half (51%) say their bigger concern is that state governments will act too quickly while slightly fewer (46%) worry more that restrictions on public movement will not be lifted quickly enough.
More than eight in 10 voters, 81 percent, say Americans “should continue to social distance for as long as is needed to curb the spread of coronavirus, even if it means continued damage to the economy.” Only 10 percent say Americans “should stop social distancing to stimulate the economy, even if it means increasing the spread of coronavirus.” Nine percent of voters have no opinion.
While Democrats (89 percent) are more likely than Republicans (72 percent) to say Americans should continue the “social distancing” measures, large majorities in all demographic groups say it’s more important to stop the spread of the virus than to resume economic activity that could undermine those mitigation efforts. […]
By a ratio of more than 2 to 1, voters say they are more concerned about “the public health impact of coronavirus, including the spread of the disease which would cause more deaths,” than they are about “the economic impact of coronavirus including the effect on the stock market and increased unemployment.” Overall, voters break toward the public-health impact, 64 percent to 29 percent — though it’s more narrow among Republicans, 51 percent to 43 percent.
Three in four, 75 percent, say it’s more important for the government to address the spread of the virus, while 17 percent say it’s more important for the government to manage the economy.
What zombie movies got wrong about the actual apocalypse, part 1,487: they omitted scenes of people on the street demanding the right to be eaten by zombies.
