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* WBBM Radio…

A west suburban restaurant owner fighting state COVID restrictions says Gov. JB Pritzker’s phased plan to fully reopen the Illinois economy will do more harm than good.

KC Gulbro, owner of Foxfire in Geneva, says linking the full reopening to restaurants with vaccination rates is a needless delay, given the dropping rates of coronavirus infections.

Um, yeah, about that infection rate. He filed a lawsuit against the state in October when his county’s average positivity rate was 11.5 percent.

* Sen. Darren Bailey…

“This week it’s a bridge, tomorrow it’s a ferry, maybe next week it could be another flight to Florida for his family. Despite declining numbers of people who are sick and increasing numbers of those who are vaccinated, the Governor continues to drag his feet on the process of letting Illinoisans get back to work and live their daily lives. The Governor is continuing to make decisions behind closed doors that affect every part of people’s lives. He refuses to engage the legislature in the process or offer transparency about how he decided to set what seems like more arbitrary metrics. The Governor has spent the last year running the state alone through executive orders. It’s time for that to end and for Illinois to reopen.”

So classy to drag in the man’s family.

* But, hey, the notoriously grumpy Tribune editorial board was almost giddy…

But for the first time in months, the state and the city seem to be waking up. Making plans. Putting dates on the calendar.

Maybe it was the warmer weather last week, which quickly disappeared, as March in Chicago would have it. Maybe it was the restart of high school sports or the announcement that baseball is coming. Maybe it was higher vaccination rates giving the homebound more confidence to venture out. Maybe it was a few optimistic headlines.

Whatever it was, we’ll take it. And hope it lasts. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Mark today on your calendars, kids. You might not see the likes of this again soon.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 6:13 am

Comments

Well, that light at the end of the tunnel might be a train if the variants spread outpaces vaccination. The vaccines are helping, but positivity rates have flattened out, and we had an uptick yesterday. I’m hoping that was a blip, and not a trend. It’s alright to celebrate progress, but prematurely declaring pandemic victory at this point is foolish, but fools gonna be fools.

Comment by PublicServant Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 7:22 am
I feel like the old maxim “any publicity is good publicity” isn’t accurate for Foxfire, but what do I know. Those of us that say we wouldn’t go there aren’t stepping into any restaurant right now.

Comment by Montrose Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 7:27 am
Gulbro is opening another restaurant in Geneva called The Copper Fox. I’ll be sure to stay out of there too and continue to give my business to the more reasonable restaurant owners in the area.

Comment by Blue to the Bone Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 9:01 am
Within my broad collection of neighbors, friends and relatives, (some of which who have rarely left their homes in over a year) I sense that there is suddenly greater optimism about “getting back to normal” and a willingness to test the waters outside their cocoon. I believe the vaccine is the source of the optimism coupled with the need many people have to re-connect with society- whether that is a sports venue, a classroom, a church, a restaurant, a library book group or a funeral.

I believe both the governor and mayor have seen that the tide has turned and are slowly moving toward a safe and full reopening strategy. This is good for everybody.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 9:11 am
The Governor could announce today that we are fully reopened and Bailey would still find a way to complain about it and offer no alternative of his own. The ILGOP needs serious thinkers and reformers if we’re ever going to be competitive in the future or the ILGOP will be the Downstate GOP.

Comment by SuburbanRepublican Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 9:24 am
I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but Champaign-Urbana Public Health District announced yesterday that several cases of covid-19 variant B.1.1.7 have been found in Champaign County.

Apparently New Jersey is at 287 cases per 100,000 population. New York 233 per.
Minnesota 131. Illinois 88.

This ain’t over yet, folks, and it may get bad again. (The 1918 flu pandemic ran into 1921.)

Get your shot, but realize that B.1.1.7 seems to be more contagious, and the South African and Brazilian variants seem to slip around the vaccine protections.

(And variants will keep brewing and causing trouble until vaccination rates in the developing world closely match the developed world.)

Comment by Lynn S. Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 9:26 am
I just posted this on the open thread, but it’s worthy to share and a reminder on this thread too.

NBC 5 is reporting that a Northbrook woman who received her second vaccine dose in late January still ended up contracting COVID-19 in early March. Six weeks after being fully vaccinated.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/it-hit-me-hard-northbrook-mom-gets-covid-after-second-vaccine-dose/2465900/

The story didn’t say whether or not this woman contracted a variant strain, however.

Looks like COVID is here to stay even after receiving our two vaccines.

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 10:22 am
=Looks like COVID is here to stay even after receiving our two vaccines.=

You can still get Covid after receiving two vaccines. The goal of any vaccine is not the complete elimination or prevention of the disease. However, what you likely won’t experience is a stay in the hospital (or worse). This needs to be part of the discussion. Otherwise we’ll have Covidiots claim that the vaccine “doesn’t work.”

Comment by Pundent Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 11:01 am
No vaccine is 100%.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 11:30 am
7 day Positivity rate at UIUC for the past 7 days is .07%

https://splunk-public.machinedata.illinois.edu/en-US/app/uofi_shield_public_APP/home

Comment by Lucky Pierre Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 11:40 am
The vaccine is designed to keep you out of the hospital and prevent you from dying.

The vaccine is VERY effective against two of the variants.

Testing numbers will at some point be a secondary metric once the vaccine takes hold and provides protection against a trip to the ICU and death.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 11:59 am
The vaccination process, though not flawless, has kept Illinois on track to be in a good place by end of May. That doesn’t mean game over, and the new normal may very well include booster shots, but given the uncertainty that a vaccine could even be developed, people can feel pretty positive.

Comment by SSL Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 12:09 pm
=That doesn’t mean game over, and the new normal may very well include booster shots=

I’m no scientist, but it is possible that future years’ annual Flu Vaccines could include COVID vaccine (and variant) chemicals? IIRC after the Swine Flu outbreak (2009) later years’ flu vaccines included Swine flu vaccine chemicals. Maybe the same for H1N1 after the outbreak in 2003.

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 12:17 pm
@Essential - The mixing of vaccines or compounding of medicines is a rather intricate process (as you might guess). Some vaccines can be combined - think about the MMR. But otherwise it’s not standard practice to so at this point largely because the need isn’t there to do so.

Vaccine schedules and the desire to get specific shots at the same time don’t always line up. For example - no need to combine an HPV vaccine with tetanus. Also as you have seen this year, not all vaccines are stored the same way.

That is a long way to say - don’t bet on the flu shot and COVID shot to be compounded just yet. Perhaps in a few years the desire and demand and technology will bring it along.

And you do seem very concerned about the variants or the mutations. Generally a virus will tend to lean to less deadly as it mutates because it wants to survive. It can’t if it keeps killing it’s hosts. So keep that in mind. COVID also mutates differently than the flu, that will make it a little easier to keep up with vs. a flu virus.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 12:32 pm
Cool Papa Bell. Thank you for that. Even I understood thatt very informative

Comment by DuPage Saint Friday, Mar 19, 21 @ 4:08 pm