By: Mark Glennon*
A “continuity of government” exception is allowing every member of Congress to jump the line to get vaccinated ahead of the only groups who face material risk from COVID-19, which are primarily the elderly. Many in Congress have already taken advantage of the exception, including at least six from Illinois.
Better to call it continuity of avarice.
In Illinois, as in most states, the vaccine for now is available only to healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents. That group alone will likely take a month and a half to finish.
The next group to be vaccinated will be other frontline workers, then adults with high-risk medical conditions and those over 65 years of age. Following them will be certain essential workers and those with mild comorbidities.
Nobody knows, however, how many months it will take to reach and complete those next stages.
In the meantime, many members of Congress have already taken advantage of their unique priority and cut in front of all those groups.
The list of politicians publicly reported to have been vaccinated includes at least six from Illinois: U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Representatives Sean Casten, Lauren Underwood, Jesús García, Bill Foster and Robin Kelly.
There may be others from Illinois, but they are the only ones we have found reported.
Each of those officeholders is 65 or under so their chances death even if they got infected are well less than 1%. Survival chances are better than 99.5% for people even as old as 50 to 69, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Duckworth is 52. Casten is 49. Underwood is just 34, making her survival chances if infected far greater — 99.98%.
None of them to my knowledge has comorbidities that increase risk.
They cut in front of those who are at far greater risk, particularly those who are over age 70. Their chance of survival if infected is just 94.6%. One in twenty of them, in other words, would die if infected. Here are the full survival chances by age group published by the CDC:
Why is this allowed to happen?
“Members of Congress were offered the vaccine under continuity of government protocol starting last week,” explained Duckworth.
“Continuity of government.” Ah, yes, that’s the rationale.
To illustrate the absurdity of that rationale, bear with me for just a few more numbers by asking this question: How many members of Congress would have to get infected for the probabilities to say that one would die?
Answer: 200 – 37% of Congress — which is extraordinarily unlikely.** Sorry, but that is not a threat to the continuity of government. Not when the vaccines they are using would be far more likely to save more lives if deployed to those at greater risk.
The Illinois members of Congress who got vaccinated are Democrats but this travesty is bipartisan. Some of the Republican offenders from other states, including some who downplayed the virus, are reported here.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin also got the vaccine but, at age 76 and perhaps being the next Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he’s off the hook.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
**The fatality rate for their age group is 0.5% according to the CDC because the average age of House and Senate members is 58 and 62, respectively.
Well the answer is that they are trying to get everyone else to take it. So they have to set up these propaganda stunts to get everything to think it’s healthy and safe and it’s going to protect us all, so we should get it too when it’s available for us. I’m all for throwing these liberal clowns under the bus, but I urge all to do a lot of research on these vaccines before taking them. We’ve been lied too all year long (and over the last 100+ years by our federal government) but 2020 takes the cake. Why… Read more »
should be an eye opening article on all this stuff.
https://www.aier.org/article/who-deletes-naturally-acquired-immunity-from-its-website/
Well stated – the “privileged” get special treatment! Oh – I forgot, I’m the privileged one who works for a living. Unlike the elite political officials DICTATING policy. All the liberals that vote for these scum had better come to terms with the fact that they are part of the “masses” and not the “elite” when communism becomes the norm!
She always is tooting her own horn and putting herself infront of others. She has NEVER done anything for the bettering of ILLINOIS or the US. She and the other D senator are useless wastes of air.
I’m a 72 year old college teacher, cancer survivor who has to wait for a vaccine while the pro blm , anti American , cop hating scum jump the line. They should all be voted out. The two biggest scum are Lauren Underwood and Robin Kelly. They said the blm burning, looting was a a beautiful protest. Wait for Lori to prioritize vaccines for the west and south side ghetto dwellers because of the racial disparities fantasy that will be used to buy votes for Lori. The west side witch doctor and dirty filthy hair Arwady will lead the charge.
Stay save until you get the vaccine.
You don’t want this or any other vaccine they produce.
You want to boost your immunities and take therapeutics if you’re at risk and you contract china virus.
Duckworth is part of continuity of government? She hasn’t done a thing since she arrived in DC. The only thing she has done is feed at the same trough that the rest of the legislators frequent.
Where’s her Biden job? Everyone knows she’s a lazy joke machine democrat.
I expect that out of our politicians to get the shot first. Now I feel more comfortable than just being a Guinea Pig. Get over it with the nit-picking.
Without any type of long term testing and other assorted issues with this unproven virus vaccine I am happy the politicians line up to be the test guinea pigs. Some dark clouds do in fact have silver linings and this situation may be one of them.
As a solid member of the most vilified demographic in America, there is absolutely no valid argument for Sean Casten getting vaccinated before anyone. All healthy middle-aged white males proceed to the end of the line.
More of the WE not thee
It’s like giving the guns to Congress and sending the soldiers to war without weapons. I am 68 working in a dialysis unit serving 146 patients and never know who walks through the door infected without symptoms. Shame on all of them.
Standing ovation for you, Sharon. Thank you.
All politicians should be the first guinea pigs for the rest of us.
Just a small part of The Great Reset , the New Feudalism , where the Lords and Ladies live large while the Little People struggle and suffer
This is exactly how the Soviet Union would have distributed the vaccine. Some animals are more equal than others
Another example of how the elite political class will take advantage of everything this country produces to get theirs while leaving everyone else to flounder on their own. Then they make excuses on how they are trying to make everything better for everyone. Pure BS! Throw them all overboard.
She’s more special than you
It’s infuriating. I lost my uncle to covid in July, my Father died of cancer a few years back (right after my grandmother), and I’m taking care of my Mother who was severely disabled when a drunk hit her when I was a child. Getting her to doctors, worrying if she falls and has to go to the hospital and get covid, my work situation is taking a toll and I now find myself with anxiety attacks and depression. I have to have a house inspection to refinance a loan I took out for my brother who stopped making payments… Read more »
Duckworth another piece of political crap who is she gonna save big hero
She’s not a hero. She was severely wounded on a training mission. We over use the word hero these days. Since military service, she’s been a reliable identity politics political hack
I actually was being sarcastic when I said big hero, my dad use to say that to me when I was younger, just a sarcastic jab.
Her helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade in Iraq. Some training mission.
She’s also completely insane. She was artificially inseminated with IVF at age 50 to have her second child. And as someone above says, she is Identity Politics, so as she explains her pregnancy, she rips on America in general and asserts that any criticism is misogyny. She completely ignores the fact that she’s 50 years old, and disabled, and has a really time consuming job far away from home, and maybe, just maybe, it’s not a good idea to use science to conceive a child in the 5th decade of life. But no, those criticisms are truthful, so she ignores… Read more »
Duckworth has no honor!
Will we ever know who died because these filthy scum stole their vaccine?
Typical politician trash. Must be Rauner’s fault people are cynical