-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Pritzker has effectively been saying, “Just trust us. Never mind the numbers behind the curtain.” He has been stage managing the facts and data since the crisis started. These are not matters we should blindly entrust to any government.
IHME projections show Illinois has already passed its peak resource needs for hospital beds, ICU beds and ventilators. As the curve flattens and the economic damage grows, Pritzker won’t be able to keep shrugging off questions about the models and the data he’s using to make the state’s big health and economic decisions.
For more than a month now, Illinois’ public has largely been in the dark about the state health care system’s capacity to handle the Coronavirus crisis. The state finally began collecting and releasing hospitalization data on April 3rd.
Illinois Governor Pritzker has accused effectively accused the White House of nothing less than reckless homicide. California Governor Newsom has a different view and a different philosophy. Take your pick.
“We should be looking at trends over time in three measures: new hospitalizations, new ICU admissions and the daily number of deaths. These indicators reflect the true prevalence of infection, not just of our ability to find them through testing, and they also are measures of the burden on the healthcare system. Not one of the 11 states with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths (Illinois among them) provides daily trends in even two of those numbers while reporting on cases in copious detail.”
Former Comptroller Munger: When Pritzker was asked about removing the tax increase from the November ballot, his response was tone-deaf to the needs of Illinois businesses: “This isn’t a time for politics. … We have too much to do to save people’s lives.”
Why is it political to protect small businesses and the livelihoods of employees as part of the state’s actions to combat the chaos created by COVID-19?
What is political
Michael Lucci, president of the 50 Economy Foundation: “There is an army of investors armed with capital ready to pour into Illinois. And the federal government might help if Illinois cuts its debt and gets its fiscal house in order. In the meantime, investment dollars will flow into the growth of better managed states, and Illinois residents will follow.”
“That means widespread testing, contact tracing, and we got to see not just a flattening of the curve but a bending down. We are trending in the right direction here in Chicago,” Lightfoot said.
Preckwinkle heightened the drama by closing the emergency room at Provident Hospital for a month to figure out a better way to handle the “large volume of patients” and the “challenges of a pandemic” at the South Side hospital.“We sent an infectious disease team over to Provident to look at the space to try to figure out what was going on there. What they determined is there was no way to practice social distancing given the way the emergency department was configured.”
“Alarming outbreaks in just the past few weeks have included one at a nursing home in suburban Richmond that has killed 39 and infected 84…And those are just the outbreaks we know about. Most states provide only total numbers of nursing home deaths and don’t give details of specific outbreaks.”
In the past, consumers have become very risk-averse when faced with uncertainties about the economy,” Hewings said. “The difference with the current crisis is the limitations on interactions and fear of infection. This may prove to have a very significant impact on the housing market over the next two to three months.”
Illinois’ financial outlook was changed from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ by two major ratings firms, raising the risk the state’s credit rating will formally fall to non-investment grade status.
The Illinois Department of Human Services’ Mental Health Division launched a free text line to provide emotional support to those dealing with stress related to COVID-19. Pritzker also announced a remote patient monitoring system to help those with COVID-19 who don’t need to go to the hospital.
“The second quarter hole is so deep that it’s going to take several quarters to get back, and that’s going to have an impact on state and local government budgets because that has a direct correlation to tax receipts. The economy is not going to get back to that level for two years or three years, and tax receipts are going to be weak for quite some time.”
Activists had begged the city not to allow the demolition, but it instead proceeded with representatives from the city’s Department of Health, Buildings and Fire Department on hand to watch. The city had an active role in the demolition, Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged, by approving permits and overseeing the work Saturday.
But overall, the data could be a call for government officials to make more efforts to reach vulnerable populations and to avoid confusing, conflicting messages.
Comment: This legislation is more appropriately labeled the Green New Deal for Illinois. Let’s hope it dies.
“The report said ‘recession-induced declines in asset values could result in a sharp and sudden increase’ in unfunded liabilities. That could require ‘increased pension contributions,’ making even less money available for the state to fund core state functions like highways, law enforcement and education.”
Raoul urged people to not respond to email messages, text messages, letters or phone calls regarding the CARES Act stimulus package that request personal information or ask recipients to click on a link. Such messages likely are sent by scammers to steal personal information.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, at his Sunday briefing, said the state of Illinois has to build a new web platform to process the gig and self-employed workers’ claims. The CARES Act should have created a unified system, he said, to “allow each of the states to immediately stand up an unemployment benefit process” for independent contractors.
But the massive infusion won’t be enough to cover declining revenues and rising costs tied to the coronavirus — in part, because the city has already spent $100 million.
As of Friday evening, 237 CPD employees have reported positive COVID-19 test results, the department said. The department has confirmed 170 of those reports: 163 police officers and seven civilian employees, according to a police media statement.
304 detainees and 174 correctional officers have tested positive for COVID-19. Two detainees have died as a result of the virus. The deaths come at a time where groups are protesting the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to release detainees as cases continue to swell.
Without real time updates on current capacity and utilization, projections almost certainly will be wrong. Both the federal government and State of Illinois failed.
The figures didn’t surprise the mayor of Park Forest, whose town has one identified cluster at a state center for people with developmental disabilities, along with three senior centers and many blue-collar residents who don’t have the luxury of working from home.
The nurses warned that the virus threatens not only staff and people behind bars, it threatens the entire county. The staff go home to their families and when staff or detainees get seriously sick, they go to the hospital, using valuable medical resources.
Business was so busy at his Des Plaines gun store, Eldridge said he had to close shop for a day.
”We were running three-five-times our normal volume, so much so that we ultimately had to close the store on Friday the 20th, just so we could get caught up with paperwork and organizing the pick-up guns when people’s background checks were approved,” he said.
“Most small businesses, even medium businesses, don’t have very much cash flow. The median business has 27 days of cash on hand and beyond that they would be struggling to pay debts and employees. Challenge No. 1 is how do businesses survive,” one business consultant said.
Pritzker’s office did not provide information on the 17 commutations, and he has not indicated if it was in response to the pandemic.
The Bears, partnering with their charitable arm Bears Care, committed a total of $1,920,000 to relief efforts throughout Illinois. The amount pays homage to the team’s founding in 1920.
“At its base, leadership is about making people want to do what you want them to do, rather than forcing them to do it. No mayor has ever asked Chicagoans to make the sacrifices Lightfoot is asking of us. Not even Prohibition could stop Chicago from drinking, but Lightfoot just announced she’s ending alcohol sales at 9 p.m. If turning herself into a comic figure is what it takes to get the city’s attention, that doesn’t make her a cartoon character, but a smart leader.”
“It’s not just about the peak that we’re potentially going through over the next several weeks,” the governor said. “There’s also the threat of a peak in the fall.”
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said the latest numbers show that Chicago has about 40 percent of the confirmed coronavirus cases in the state.
“The state’s share of the stimulus funds, $2.7 billion, won’t begin to make up for lost tax revenue or cover escalating expenses, such as the growing number of people being pushed by unemployment onto Medicaid.”
Said public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, “We’ve really asked that, especially where there are conversations that are happening with Chicago hospitals or Chicago healthcare facilities, that we are part of that conversation. Coordination is so important, especially right now.”
It turned out to be a false rumor, but its circulation illustrates the opaque process through which government officials are trying to line up buildings for use in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Most of the legal cases stem from a 2015 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the veterans home that killed 12 residents and sickened dozens more people. There were more cases at the home in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and two more deaths were connected to Legionnaires’.
Discussions and documents about payment plans and all other lease changes “shall not be disclosed to any third party for any reason whatsoever.” Tenants must also agree not to “disparage” Mac Properties in any way.
“They’re really an outlet to the existing hospital networks, so the hospitals are where you would initially go to be treated and be seen,” U.S. Army Col. Aaron Reisinger said. “These facilities would be where the hospital could send you if they no longer have capacity.”
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