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Church summer camp case count grows to 85 as an apparently related outbreak emerges

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Illinois

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is now reporting 85 teens and adult staff at a summer youth camp held in mid-June in central Illinois tested positive for COVID-19. One unvaccinated, young adult was hospitalized. Although all campers and staff were eligible for vaccination, IDPH is aware of only a handful of campers and staff receiving the vaccine. The camp was not checking vaccination status and masking was not required while indoors. IDPH is reminding people about the importance of vaccination, including youth, as the Delta variant and other variants continue to spread.

“The majority of the 85 COVID-19 cases associated with the youth camp are among teens,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “The perceived risk to children may seem small, but even a mild case of COVID-19 can cause long-term health issues. Additionally, infected youth who may not experience severe illness can still spread the virus to others, including those who are too young to be vaccinated or those who don’t build the strong expected immune response to the vaccine.”

A couple individuals who were at the camp also attended a nearby conference, which resulted in 11 additional cases. At least 70% of those cases were unvaccinated. The vaccines currently authorized in the U.S. have been shown to be effective among individuals who are fully vaccinated, even against the more transmissible and serious variants. Schuyler and Adams counties, where the outbreaks occurred, are seeing approximately 40% of their population fully vaccinated.

IDPH continues to assist local health departments involved in the youth camp and conference outbreaks and is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Specimens are being sought for genomic sequencing to determine if any of the cases were caused by variants.

* The Crossing Camp in Rushville has rules for what boys and girls can wear, but did not demand that they bring face masks. From the girls regulations…

• Modest shirts that cover the shoulders (no tight-fitting, low, spaghetti-strap, or midriff-showing shirts or shirts with writing or pictures that are contrary to biblical principles)
• Knee-length shorts (loose-fitting walking or athletic style that come to the top of the knee when sitting and standing)
• Knee-length shirts, dresses, and shorts are appropriate for evening services
• Wind/athletic pants
• Swimsuits are to be modest
• T-shirt to wear over swimsuit

Because freedom, apparently.

* Tribune the other day…

[The summer camp outbreak] is the second instance this month of possible community exposure to COVID-19 linked to the church affiliated with the camp, The Crossing, a “multi-campus, nondenominational church,” with locations in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.

The downstate Adams County Health Department recently warned of possible community exposure to COVID-19 at a conference held June 18 and 19 at a church’s Quincy location, according to media reports; the health department required those in attendance to quarantine for 10 days after their last exposure.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 1:39 pm

Comments

“Because freedom, apparently “

Too bad you have no clue what that actually means.

Comment by Double Dog Dare Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 1:45 pm
I will never understand why so-called Christians think it’s ok to ignore a global pandemic because why? God doesn’t want them to protect children? Just bonkers.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 1:51 pm
“We’ll show em… one infection at a time… freedom… ‘Merica”

I feel so truly saddened for those kids, and those families.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 1:55 pm
===Too bad you have no clue what that actually means.===

“Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of spreading a global pandemic, infecting kids”?

Is that what it means?

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 1:58 pm
===Too bad you have no clue what that actually means===

lol

As someone who has traveled through actual dictatorships, dating back to the Cold War, I can assure you that I have some idea.

But apparently, your feelings are hurt because of masks. What did y’all used to say about others’ feelings? Right back at ya.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 1:58 pm
=Too bad you have no clue what that actually means.=
I’ll bite. Want to explain it to the group?

Comment by LakeCo Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 1:59 pm
This is why IDPH and ISBE will require masks in schools next year.

Comment by Reality check Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:00 pm
Modest shirts and knee-length shorts because god forbid someone ever be ‘tempted’ by a kneecap or a little bit of thigh.

But masks? vaccines? How dare you.

Comment by Nick Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:02 pm
——
Too bad you have no clue what that actually means.
——

Stop for like 5 minutes and just think about what these people are doing to these kids. I get it. Mom and Dad aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. But imagine, as a parent, saying “I don’t want my kids to be smart”.

Comment by dan l Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:07 pm
==== For boys, they might be more endangered from an experimental vaccine (myocarditis) than the disease itself.

You realize myocarditis is more common young people who have COVID-19 than those for those who get the vaccine, right? It was identified last summer not to mention an even greater percent get periocarditis.

Comment by ArchPundit Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:08 pm
“I would rather my son be exposed to a deadly virus than to a glimpse of a young girl’s shoulder!”

Comment by wildcat12 Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:15 pm
Spreading diseases for Jesus.

Now I’m not the most religious guy in the world, but I do recall from reading the Old Testament that plagues were considered bad.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:16 pm
This one time, at church camp …

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:22 pm
== Because why give your child a vaccine for something a virus has a far less than 1% chance of hurting them. For boys, they might be more endangered from an experimental vaccine (myocarditis) than the disease itself. ==

One unvaccinated, young adult was hospitalized. So, out of personal curiosity, is hospitalization considered ‘hurting’? Let’s take that a step further if your child is “not being hurt” (let’s even say asymptomatic) but then passing it to someone else who then gets ill, hurting? For reference that is how my 22 year old got it, made her sick for two weeks. Is her being laid up for two weeks and unable to work ‘hurting’? Wasn’t for the kid who infected her (and three others), but they all missed work and 2 required additional medical care.

==- In fact, the CDC’s own data shows that for every 100,000 vaccines given to young people, more than 25,000 will have temporary side effects that prevent them from “normal activities,” 700 will require medical care and 200 will be hospitalized. ==

Well a quick search of google does not seem to bring that up. Can you please cite a CDC source on that, not some website that says the CDC says that?

I on the other hand have actual data.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-06/05-COVID-Wallace-508.pdf

I will point you to page 30 of the CDC document that shows, the ratio of prevented hospitalizations vs Cases of Myocarditis (significantly more hospitalizations prevented)

I will give you this nugget off of page 41

• Currently, the benefits still clearly outweigh the risks for COVID-19
vaccination in adolescents and young adults

— There are very effective treatments if you do get anything more than very mild symptoms.

Page 15

Limited data in adolescents/young adults, but recent cross-sectional studies have
shown evidence of new or persisting COVID symptoms in this age group1,2
– Up to one-half of study participants had symptoms 1 month post-diagnosis
– Symptoms reported include fatigue, insomnia, rhinorrhea, muscle pain, headache,
lack of concentration, exercise intolerance, dyspnea, chest pain

Page 16
4,018 Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrom in Chidren (MIS-C) reported. 36% of those cases are aged 12-20

That all aside, there are effective treatments for a broken arm, doesn’t mean I am going to let Timmy hit his brother in the arm with a bat.

Comment by OneMan Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:22 pm
Ignore the science, and it will come back to bite you.

Comment by Ares Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:23 pm
Okay, OneMan did the actual work there.

The thing about the girls dress code is the boys dress code is pretty much no cut off shirts and says nothing of modesty. Apparently girls don’t lust. Or gay boys.

Comment by ArchPundit Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:29 pm
-I will never understand why so-called Christians think it’s ok to ignore a global pandemic because why?-

Well some of them have enough trouble with the Love Thy Neighbor and Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged parts.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:30 pm
Summer camps are the land of liability. The fact that this summer camp has so gleefully waded into a situation where they could be hit with a ton of liability is an indication of how politicized this issue has become.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:30 pm
-The thing about the girls dress code is-

As is typical for these things it treats the girls as if they are the problem instead of teaching the boys to behave properly.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:33 pm
=shirts with writing or pictures that are contrary to biblical principles=

For some reason, I really want to make some biblical-principled camp tshirts:

Stone to death all adulterers
Ezekiel 25:17
It’s ok to eat your children
If 42 kids call you names, curse them so bears can kill them.

And I’m not even including the NC-17 ones.

Comment by Steve Rogers Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:38 pm
Thank you Ron.

Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:39 pm
Ignore reality and it will come back to bite you…unless you wear a T-shirt over your swimsuit over your head?…Oh Lord, the flesh.

Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:41 pm
I hope that camp gets the bejezus sued out of them. Granted they probably had all the guests sign a disclaimer but if any of their guests infected others then those people did not sign on.

Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:50 pm
To put this in a bit of perspective, the cases at the camp and the conference make up almost 2% of the total population of Schuyler County, and over 3% of the town of Rushville itself.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:51 pm
Let’s cut through the malarkey. Myocarditis is just the latest excuse for politically motivated ignorance. The talking points are easy to recognize and simply variations on a theme. What I don’t get is that they insist that Trump gets credit for the vaccine then they refuse to take it. I know consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds but it also is the soul of logic.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:52 pm
===it also is the soul of logic.===

Yes, but I wouldn’t expect much logic to be found in a church summer camp. Faith? Sure, but not much logic and even less reason.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 2:56 pm
-Let’s cut through the malarkey. Myocarditis is just the latest excuse for politically motivated ignorance. The talking points are easy to recognize-

Yep this and the EUA are just the latest excuses. Then there will be new ones. They won’t all of a sudden decide things are fine and take it. Anything to avoid just admitting “I won’t take it because I am ignorant.”

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 3:00 pm
On their website, their lodging looks like it packs 60 people into bunk beds in a single room.

This reminds me of the story of the man who lived by the rjver…

Comment by Ok Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 3:04 pm
=By the way, 78 people were gunned down over the weekend in Value City.=
Remind me again where people are in favor of gun control?

Comment by LakeCo Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 3:18 pm
I’d like to suggest to the people who run this camp, and other similar camps, that they are overlooking an obvious advantage of face coverings. If a camper should see a bit of shoulder or glance at a knee, it would be so easy to just pull that mask up over his eyes.

Comment by Don't Bloc Me In Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 3:38 pm
“You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, yet she still will hurry back.” Horace - Epistles

Comment by atbat Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 3:49 pm
Good suggestion to camp authorities from Don’t Bloc Me In. This may be the path they can take to stop stop the self culling. Watching this from afar is like watching zombies eating brains in b-grade movies.

Comment by froganon Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 3:53 pm
Oneman with the win. Well done sir.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:05 pm
If no one ends up hospitalized, I do not see what the issue is. Kids get sick all the time. Are we saying we should no longer have kids in camps or mask kids all the time simply because they get sick? It happens, we need to stop living in fear.

Comment by Tired Of It Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:12 pm
=== If no one ends up hospitalized, I do not see what the issue is===

It’s who they then give it to is the issue

You’ve either learned nothing or you are too closed minded to grasp what’s going on.

Odds are, you’re tired of it because you’re one who… never wore a mask, won’t get vaccinated, and think this whole thing is a ruse.

Otherwise… you’d know why it’s a bigger deal than “kids get sick”

Geez, Louise.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:15 pm
=== If no one ends up hospitalized ===

Couldn’t even be bothered to read the story I see.

Kids die all the time, maybe we should use them for skeet shooting targets too?

This shouldn’t be a hard concept. Don’t put other people in danger with your actions.

If/When COVID becomes endemic in many of these rural areas, it will give the next generation some fun road trips to see some local ghost towns instead of having to travel all the way out west to see abandoned small mining towns.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:16 pm
/If no one ends up hospitalized, I do not see what the issue is-

Since someone was hospitalized, your whole statement goes out the window like a Russian scientist.

Also, a 17 year old in a town near mine with no known health issues died of COVID in a matter of days. No warning. See the issue now?

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:20 pm
Was there a sign up table for volunteering for the Bailey for Gov campaign? Just wondering ….

Comment by The Way I See It Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:23 pm
=== Couldn’t even be bothered to read the story I see.===

… and where did the camper get exposed, probably… a camper “not hospitalized” so it was ok…

The idiocy.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:23 pm
Don’t mess with my FrEDUMb.

Comment by Glengarry Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:31 pm
“If no one ends up hospitalized”

New COVID hospitalizations and deaths are reportedly almost exclusively happening to the unvaccinated.

https://consumer.healthday.com/amp/99-percent-of-new-u-s-covid-19-hospitalizations-deaths-occurring-among-unvaccinated-2653550498

Not a good election strategy for the “freedom and liberty” people, to keep resisting mitigation measures and vaccines. The US Senate minority leader—someone who knows how to win—is stressing the need to get vaccinated.

Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:42 pm
IDPH writes the rules for — and regulates — summer camps.

If IDPH believes that masks should have been required at summer camps, IDPH should have written the rules and enforced them.

This is a self-own that the liberals refuse to acknowledge and the conservatives want to ignore.

Comment by Hum Dinger Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:47 pm
“If no one ends up hospitalized, I do not see what the issue is. Kids get sick all the time. Are we saying we should no longer have kids in camps or mask kids all the time simply because they get sick? It happens, we need to stop living in fear.”

Yes, but if you get a cold, you generally don’t run the risk of life long health complications, reduced lung capacity and neural issues. All of the above can and have happened to young people who’ve developed Covid. Here’s a thought. Take the political lens off your eye and do a little research.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 5:09 pm
==If no one ends up hospitalized, I do not see what the issue is. ==

Well using that logic, as a football official I shouldn’t call any of the “safety fouls” targeting, facemask, roughing the passer, etc. because most of the time the kids of are on the end of the receiving end of these fouls are not hospitalized.

Until someone is.

That is why you practice safety continuously because you never know when that ‘one bad hit’ is going to be a problem.

Comment by OneMan Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 7:09 pm
=This is a self-own that the liberals refuse to acknowledge and the conservatives want to ignore.+

Umm, I see all of the rocket scientists are out H has continued to direct unvaccinated people to mask when in doors. The camp ignored this and their campers paid the price.

Sheesh.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 7:14 pm
So girls, we know it’s 90 degrees in the shade, but bring dresses for outdoor evening services at church camp.

But don’t bring masks to use while you are all crowded together for that service.

Parents, we will protect your daughters purity, but their health, and your health - well that’s just not our problem.

Priorities are somewhat skewed.

Comment by thoughts matter Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 7:56 pm
BTW. A M dough county youth who fell into this crowd was really sick after the covid exposure. I thought perhaps her mom is also now.
Her dad tried taking het to the hospital and they refused to admit her. Not sure why.

She refused the vaccine after hanging out with this group.

Comment by I gave up churches Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 8:01 pm
==This is a self-own that the liberals refuse to acknowledge and the conservatives want to ignore.==

Recommended, not required.

So if government requires, that’s bad, but if government recommends, that’s… bad?

Comment by Socially DIstant Watcher Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 8:30 pm