His 10-bed ICU has been at capacity for weeks. At the moment, there are nine confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases. Eight patients are on ventilators. Many of them have organs threatening to fail. “And I’ve got three more in the emergency room who are waiting for a bed up here," Kirugulige says after leaving the patient’s room. “I know the city has all the data, but it doesn’t feel like anything is flattening for us.”
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.