THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All
August 23, 2021
Good morning and welcome to our Monday Free for All.
A quick note before we get started. Our best wishes to Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie, who announced Friday he has a breakthrough case of COVID-19. Senate President Don Harmon also came down with a breakthrough case last week.
As of Thursday, 2,000 people are in the hospital with COVID-19. There were 4,900 new cases reported Friday alone.
The good news about getting vaccinated is that, if you’re like President Harmon or Leader McConchie and you have a breakthrough infection, there’s a pretty good chance you have flu-like symptoms for a couple of days and then you’re good to go.
Get the shot, guys.
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Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Illinois COVID-19 cases hit seven-month high (Sun-Times)
The 4,904 new infections reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health were the most logged in a day since Jan. 23, and viral transmission is now considered high in all 102 counties, according to metrics set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitals statewide were treating 2,000 coronavirus patients Thursday night, the most since early May. Intensive care wards were 95% full in the southern tip of the state, with just four beds available for the entire region, home to more than 400,000 Illinoisans.
“We are living in a very dangerous moment of coronavirus and upswing of the Delta variant across the nation and here in Illinois,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference.
The state is now averaging more than 3,500 new cases every day over the past week, a rate that has jumped 16% compared to the previous week — and multiplied by eight since early July.
Related: Archdiocese of Chicago requires vaccines, denies religious exemptions (Crain’s Chicago Business)
In rural Illinois, getting some people to take the COVID-19 vaccine first takes trust (Kaiser Health News)
More than half of Kinzinger's GOP primary challengers believe Trump won the 2020 election (Daily Herald)
All four maintain Democrat Joe Biden holds the Oval Office only through chicanery.
"I believe that is likely," said James Marter, an Oswego software consultant running for the 16th District post. "There were serious irregularities across the nation."
As have many Trump loyalists, Marter has taken his stolen election narrative to social media.
"I stand by President Trump, do you?" Marter, who sought the 14th District seat in 2020, tweeted on Aug. 12. "There was fraud and we are working on proving it!"
Fellow 16th District candidates Teresa Pfaff and Geno Young also ardently believe Biden wrongfully occupies the White House.
"It was stolen," said Young, a musician from Chicago. "And yes, President Trump was the winner."
Pfaff, a Machesney Park resident who works at a home improvement distribution center, went even further.
"I do believe President Trump is the legitimate president of the United States of America," she said.
"Those who wish to peddle in conspiracy theories and outright lies are not leaders," Kinzinger told the Daily Herald last month.
Two other Republicans in the race -- Catalina Lauf of Woodstock and Jack Lombardi of Manhattan -- suspect the election was marred by fraud and believe investigations are warranted.
Sadly, this crazy position is more in line with rank-and-file Republican voters than Kinzinger is at this point.
State agency apologizes for asking for Carle doctor's stance on school mask mandate (News-Gazette)
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has apologized for inquiring about a Mahomet-Seymour school board member's views on the state mask mandate and for telling Dr. Jeremy Henrichs that "an official investigation" would be launched under the Medical Practice Act.
Late Friday afternoon, a day after Republican state Sen. Chapin Rose told The News-Gazette that he planned to call for a probe into the agency's actions against Henrichs, who's also a Carle Health sports-medicine physician, a Senate GOP staffer released a letter of apology from IDFPR general counsel Dina Torrisi Martin.
It read in part: "The initial response to your inquiry requested information that the Department does not need. Please disregard the questions posed in the emails of August 11 and 17, 2021. On behalf of the Department, I sincerely apologize for the tone and content of those communications."
We had something on this in the subscriber newsletter on this Friday. There are a couple of things to consider here: Had Dr. Henrichs used his elected position to say masks don’t work or to argue against the vaccine, the state may have had due cause to investigate him on a professional level. They surely would have had that cause if he were telling patients those things.
But, he wasn’t. His position was against mask mandates. He’s entitled to an opinion that government shouldn’t mandate masks, shoes, or outlawing tapioca pudding. He (or his school board) never voted to violate the Governor’s executive order and will enforce the mask mandate.
This sure looks like a political witch hunt by the administration, and I’d like to know if IDFPR got a directive from anyone in the Governor’s office to investigate Dr. Henrichs or other people like him.
Some of our top links from the week:
More school districts being penalized for defying Governor’s mask order
Former State Rep, current Appellate Judge Mary K. O’Brien to run for Supreme Court
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