THE ILLINOIZE: LaSalle death toll now 31..Veterans' Homes may not get vaccine...Feds offered help...Obfuscation from administration...Is Pritzker on his own for budget cuts?...Shimkus exit interview
December 4, 2020
LaSALLE DEATH TOLL IS 31
The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs reported last night that a 31st resident of the home has died from COVID-19. There remain 108 positive tests among residents and another 97 among staff.
Since I last wrote you on Tuesday, I’ve continued to grow more frustrated at the situation.
Let’s start with the vaccine issue.
NO VETS HOME VACCINE PLAN?
I’ve had two different sources tell me the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs has not submitted a plan to the Department of Public Health on vaccine distribution at the Veterans’ Homes in Anna, LaSalle, Manteno, and Quincy.
I’m told plans were due to IDPH last week to be forwarded to the Centers for Disease Control so first doses of the vaccine could be distributed to places where they’re needed (like in a cramped home filled with aging vets and people bringing COVID-19 in from the community) when the first doses of the vaccine are ready for distribution later this month.
I asked a spokesperson for IDVA if the plan was indeed required and if it has been submitted yet. She did not know and said she would get back to us. I also submitted a question to Governor JB Pritzker and IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike on the topic yesterday, but the Governor’s staff chose not to ask our question. I asked the Governor’s Press Secretary in a follow-up email yesterday and she did not respond. (More on that in a minute.)
There are also concerns, apparently, as to how to distribute the vaccine, especially because at least one of the vaccines requires storage in a freezer at something like -100° F. For comparison, our home freezers get as low as about -5° F.
Obviously, one would think getting the vaccine to the other three homes would be a priority, especially when we see what happened in LaSalle.
But, we don’t actually know if IDVA is ready for the vaccine.
FEDS OFFERED HELP
Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Channahon), who represents the LaSalle Veterans’ Home, revealed in a radio interview yesterday that the federal Department of Veterans Affairs had offered its assistance in stopping further spread at the LaSalle facility.
That offer was apparently declined.
“How come you would not take federal government support,” Kinzinger asked. “I do think its kind of interesting that, in the middle of the federal government offering help to the State of Illinois, you had this situation where the Governor constantly about how the federal government’s failing because we were in the middle of an election.”
The outbreak at the facility was first reported on November 1st, two days before the election.
The Governor’s spokesperson, Jordan Abudayyeh, denied the claim.
“The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA) was in regular communication with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (USVA). In fact, on November 5, USVA asked if the home needed assistance with PPE and the home administrator asked for additional N95 masks. USVA provided thousands of masks to be used at LaSalle and other veterans homes. On November 9, USVA asked IDVA if they would like to have an infection control consultation and IDVA responded yes. IDVA also asked for IDPH to conduct an onsite consultation as well. Both of those visits were completed just three days later, the recommendations were implemented and the reports were made public. After the site visit, USVA offered to make infection control experts available for further assistance and IDVA has requested that assistance.”
Kinzinger spokesperson Maura Gillespie said later requests were declined.
“The [VA] was offering assistance to the LaSalle Veterans' Home to send infection control experts to assist. Our staff was briefed on that, on November 19th during a phone call with the VISN Network Director who confirmed that the USVA had been checking in daily to see if the State needed help. They were not taken up on their offer until the State finally requested that help at the end of November.”
The current role of the VA in managing the outbreak isn’t clear.
BLOCKING INFO RELEASE?
It’s not clear who, exactly, may be making the order, but it sure feels like all of our requests for information on the outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home are being either denied or simply ignored.
Since we first started working on this story before Thanksgiving, we’ve submitted questions on at least five different days on the outbreak at LaSalle. The Governor’s Press Secretary typically chooses the questions that are asked, and ours on the topic haven’t been selected.
We requested an interview with IDVA Director Linda Chapa LaVia. It was denied. We requested an interview with the Governor. It has not been responded to. We reached out to the administrator of the facility. She has not called us back. We even reached out to the Democratic State Representative for the area, Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa), to see what he knows, and he didn’t return my call.
I’m not going away, and continuing to refuse to answer simple inquiries just adds more questions. I’ll be attending the Governor’s press conference in person today. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some answers. We’ll keep you in the loop.
ONE LAST THING ON LaSALLE
It appears the Governor’s office is sure trying to stop enough information from flowing out to prevent them a couple of days of bad stories about mismanagement or screw-ups that led to the deaths at the home.
Instead, they’re dragging it out and we’ve got the “drip, drip, drip” as I talk to sources and folks who understand what’s going on.
This could have been a one or two day story with a full mea culpa and an explanation as to how it won’t happen again. But, alas, everyone has dug in.
But, more than anything, 31 Veterans who served our country with honor and valor are dead. They survived bombs and gunfire and made it home, only to be killed because of bad hand sanitizer, poorly fitting masks, and a nasty little virus.
Our prayers are with the families of those lost.
GOING IT ALONE?
Last week, Governor JB Pritzker said he had requested budget cut suggestions from all four legislative leaders to help close a $2 billion hole in the remaining state budget.
But, if they’re telling him what he’s telling us, he may be going it alone.
We asked the spokespeople for all four legislative leaders if they had been asked for the cuts and what they and the caucus had suggested.
Not a single one responded.
So, we reached out to Ralph Martire of the leftward leaning Center for Tax and Budget Accountability to see if his group, which is more aligned with Pritzker’s ideology, supported any cuts.
He didn’t respond.
We moved on to the libertarian-leaning, right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute to see if it had a list of cuts for FY21, the current fiscal year, but they didn’t give us line item cuts. Instead, IPI suggested pension reform (and reduction), making school funding more efficient, and lowering labor costs.
Adam Schuster, IPI senior director of budget and tax research laid out the position of the group:
"Overall, we do not operate in the false-choice paradigm presented by Gov. Pritzker. There are better options than slashing services or hiking taxes across the board. Illinois must first pursue structural spending reforms such as constitutional pension reform and school district efficiency, where the largest savings can be found. Pritzker should also use all available options to find labor savings, seeking to negotiate changes such as rightsizing state worker health insurance costs or cancelling automatic raises. Additional savings can be found by leaving vacancies unfilled, furloughing or laying off non-essential employees.
"Any additional cuts should follow two principles: 1) Avoid cuts to programs that are critically important during a pandemic and economic crisis, protecting funding for DCFS and the state police 2) Use “Budgeting for Results” outcome metrics to target any remaining cuts to less effective and important programs.”
My guess is IPI isn’t on the Governor’s speed dial.
AFTER 24 YEARS, SHIMKUS “AT PEACE”
Southern Illinois Republican Congressman John Shimkus (R-Collinsville) is in his final few weeks in the seat he has held since 1997. He chose not to run for re-election, and he spent 30 minutes with us yesterday on Zoom talking about his time in office, the ways the GOP has changed, and how districts are getting too big.
Read our story here and you can watch the video on YouTube at the link.
I’M NOT ABOVE BEGGING
If you aren’t paying attention out there, people are hurting. The need all around our state is unbelievable right now. People are out of work, some can’t pay rent or the electric bill. Some can’t buy food. Salvation Army helps.
This winter, we won’t see as many of the iconic red kettles out, so, I’m humbly asking you to give just a few bucks to my Salvation Army Online Red Kettle? It’s an easy way to help and the money raised will stay local.
Click here to give $5, $10, or more.
As always, we appreciate your thoughts, concerns, comments, and suggestions. Drop me an email anytime at patrick@theillinoize.com. We hope you’ll like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
And please help us continue to spread the word. Share the newsletter to all of your friends, contacts, and family or share some of our posts on your own social media pages.
Have a great weekend, everyone.