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COVID-19 roundup

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* From the Freedom Fighters of Adams County Facebook page…

The cases have been reassigned. Click here. But Sangamon County is no slam dunk by any means for the plaintiffs…

* Nov. 2020: Sangamon County judge dismisses lawsuits challenging Pritzker’s coronavirus orders

* Nov. 2020: 4 central Illinois restaurants ordered to close temporarily for violating COVID-19 mitigations

* Dec. 2020: Sangamon County judge tosses decision voiding Pritzker’s executive orders

* August 2021: Judge sides with Springfield hospital refusing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patient

* Sept. 2021: Illinois judge to rule on Pritzker’s latest motion to dismiss dining prohibition lawsuit

I assume that the governor’s and attorney general’s offices are fairly pleased. Cook would’ve been better, but Sangamon has been dealing with these cases because the Supreme Court has transferred so many of them to the county. It’s almost become a specialized rocket docket.

* Considering what we already knew, this is predictable…


📣 PUT ALL 3,144 COUNTIES TOGETHER AND HERE'S AMERICA AS OF NOVEMBER 2021: pic.twitter.com/1uVbDmYYiz

— Charles #GetCovered-ba 🩺 (@charles_gaba) November 23, 2021

ILLINOIS. pic.twitter.com/CprN1AevbL

— Charles #GetCovered-ba 🩺 (@charles_gaba) November 22, 2021

* This Tribune story mainly focuses on a tiny handful of refuseniks, but check out the actual stats

Under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s directive, all city employees had until Oct. 15 to report their vaccination status but could choose to undergo regular COVID-19 testing, rather than get shots, through the end of the year. After police unions challenged the vaccine mandate in court, though, a judge suspended the Dec. 31 date for members to be fully inoculated, saying that needed to go through arbitration. Other unions representing city workers are also now seeking the same. […]

(A)s of Friday, 35 police and 26 Fire Department workers were on no-pay status. […]

As of Monday, 84% of Chicago police had reported their vaccination status on the city portal, including the lieutenant. But he is also among the 23% of respondents who indicated they are not fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the Fire Department was at a 97% response rate and, like police, about 23% of them said they aren’t completely inoculated

The vast majority of Chicago cops and firefighters are fully vaccinated and we don’t know how many more are waiting on their second shot. There’s more ground to cover (and will be once the arbitrator rules), but that’s still good news. The paranoid whiners are outliers.

* The big problem here is that infected kids can infect people like their grandparents, who are most susceptible to breakthrough cases. And if the oldsters aren’t vaxed, well, it can be really bad

Coronavirus cases in children in the United States have risen 32% from about two weeks ago, a spike that comes as the country rushes to inoculate children before the winter holiday season, pediatricians said.

More than 140,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus from Nov. 11-18, up from 107,000 in the week ending Nov. 4, according to a statement Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

* It’s getting out of control in Michigan

Over the previous seven days including Friday, Michigan reported 53,575 new COVID-19 cases, the highest weekly caseload since the pandemic began in March 2020.

As of Sunday, 3,785 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized across the state, including 784 in intensive care units. The vast majority of patients in the ICU and on ventilators, the MHA noted, are unvaccinated.

The state’s record for most adult hospitalizations with confirmed cases of the virus occurred on April 19 with 4,158 inpatients.

* And it’s worse in Minnesota

Federal emergency relief teams from the U.S. Department of Defense are on their way to Minnesota to help doctors and nurses at two Minnesota hospitals. When the rest of the state is celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, they’ll be fighting the state’s COVID-19 surge.

The shortage of ICU beds is so severe, doctors warn emergency care across the state is being compromised. Hennepin Healthcare says they are turning down up to 50 transfer requests a day for their advanced trauma facilities, as Minnesota grapples with one of the worst infection rates in the country.

“If you get into a car accident in rural Minnesota and are in need of complex trauma care, the additional 12 to 24 hours you have to wait for a bed to open up might mean the difference in long-term functional outcomes,” Dr. Daniel Hoody said. “If you are critically ill with non-COVID illness or COVID illness in a rural hospital not equipped to care for you, the additional wait times might be the difference between life and death.”

Hennepin Healthcare is the state’s largest Level 1 trauma center, and it’s so backed up it had five patients on ventilators in the emergency room Monday. HCMC says it has cancelled or postponed most non-emergency surgeries and procedures.

The National Guard has also been activated.

* On a lighter note, I’m pretty sure my friends and I would’ve done this to get out of going to school back in the day. So I have to admire the effort

A school in the U.K. has warned parents to monitor their children while taking lateral flow COVID tests, after word spread that fruit juice can cause false positive results.

Gateacre School, in the English city of Liverpool, emailed parents on Wednesday to alert them that it had emerged children had become aware that orange juice and other similar drinks can trigger a false positive result on a lateral flow test.

* Related…

* America isn’t headed toward lockdowns, say White House officials

* Treatments will change the pandemic, but they can’t end it alone: Antiviral pills will be a key part of a large toolkit needed to manage the coronavirus, not a silver bullet

* COVID-19 average infections grow by 27% in a week, including 47-student outbreak in Villa Park

* City officials say Chicago will reach 77% vaccination rate by the week’s end

* Despite labor shortages, suburban retailers say they’re ready for Black Friday

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 11:54 am

Comments

  1. Tell me there is some expedited emergency procedure for arbitration

    Comment by Bothanspied Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 12:03 pm

  2. Hennepin is interesting because Hennepin and Ramsey aren’t having horrible outbreaks, but the rural hospitals are full.

    Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 12:15 pm

  3. Everyone hold on tight. I’m sure there will be a DeVore Facebook Live with his spin how this is really what he wanted. Then how he’ll pick the Judge or some strange story that everyone will praise him for.

    Then he’ll tell them that’s why they need to join the Freedom Society to stay informed and let him tell them what everything means. Join now and get a free Turkey.

    Comment by Club J Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 12:19 pm

  4. =Join now and get a free Turkey*.=

    *For the low, low price of $5,000

    Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 12:28 pm

  5. Just last week it was reported here the Vandalia schools were going mask-optional, and how $100,000 was being set aside for the potential fight. Today a news outlet has reported covid cases are up among students and staff. The adjoining Brownstown school district has closed early for the holiday due to covid outbreaks. I believe only Alexander County is keeping Fayette from being at the bottom of the vaccinated list.

    Comment by Don't Bloc Me In Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 12:40 pm

  6. I want to believe the paranoid whiners are outliers but I’d like to see more from the vaccinated vast majority. Even anonymous statements. Something.

    Comment by Original Rambler Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 12:42 pm

  7. =Just last week it was reported here the Vandalia schools were going mask-optional, and how $100,000 was being set aside for the potential fight.=

    They are going to need a bigger boat.

    There are other grifters out there besides DeVore. He is penny-ante compared to some. Some personal injury attorney is going to get wise to this soon and sue based on a COVID infection. Their insurance won’t cover them, so that Tort fund and the uncapped ability to tax via the Tort Levy will get a serious increase to pay the tab on their “local control” freedoms and liberties.

    Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 1:00 pm

  8. Looking to the chart, the purple section might as well represent I-80.

    Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 1:18 pm

  9. Looks like we are competing with Alexander County to get to the top (or bottom) of the list. Devore, Bailey, and McHaney are seen as the Three Wise Men in this area and having the distinction of being the least vaccinated county is a badge of honor. The politicizing of the whole issue has gotten out of hand thanks in part to the previously mentioned trio and Mary Miller. Unfortunately, I don’t see anything changing.

    Comment by Fayette County Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 1:26 pm

  10. Freedom fighters? Gimme a break.

    Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 2:04 pm

  11. Michigan, Minnesota, Winnebago County shows a regional pattern and fits the notion of seasonal patterns.

    Comment by Blake Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 2:33 pm

  12. I am confused by Jo Daviess county. I checked into it because it stood out as a large outlier. The chart above shows their vaccination rate as nearly 70%, but IDPH lists it as 43%.

    Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 2:46 pm

  13. A cynical & political view of COVID vaccinations. A mapping of vaccinations to the death rates would be more educational and show more valuable trends. Get real and get less cynical please.

    Comment by spuwho Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 3:56 pm

  14. ==The chart above shows their vaccination rate as nearly 70%, but IDPH lists it as 43%.

    I asked the source of the graphs for clarification of the data and here is their response:

    “I use CDC data for most states. For some states I use the state health department website. For a handful, including Illinois, I use the @COVIDActNow database, which is pretty reliable.”

    Followed by:

    “I’m not saying that @COVIDActNow’s data is correct for Jo Daviess specifically–every source seems to have a few weird data glitches, such as Hudspeth County in Texas and, apparently, Baker County, Oregon.”

    Hope that helps.

    Comment by Big Jer Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 4:03 pm

  15. Thanks Big Jer for the follow-up. I am sure it is hard to get reliable data from 3,144 sources filtered through a few aggregators such as the CDC and COVIDActNow. I spot checked Champaign County, and his chart puts it at around 59% while IDPH has it at 56%, which is probably close enough for a general trend.

    Alexander as the other big outlier is interesting, because he actually underreports how much of an outlier it is. He has them at 30% while IDPH has them at 19%.

    Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 4:47 pm

  16. Generally speaking, taxpaying counties are vaxed, tax eating counties aren’t.

    Comment by West Side the Best Side Tuesday, Nov 23, 21 @ 7:27 pm

  17. Roni Quinn does not represent Adams county in any way. Just a loud mouth trying to make a name for herself. Most in the county wish she would go away already and take Devore out of here too>

    Comment by srm Wednesday, Nov 24, 21 @ 8:49 am

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