Pritzker Calls Out Local Officials for Lack of Mitigation Enforcement
Governor JB Pritzker attacked local officials who he says aren’t helping the state battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his daily news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor JB Pritzker let some of his frustration out on local officials he says “aren’t doing enough” to help enforce his mitigations like closing bars and restaurants to indoor dining.
To the elected officials who have chosen to disregard public health guidance; those who have stood up at press conferences to question the data and fuel conspiracy theories, those who have taken their absurd crusade to the courts and lost nearly every single time. Those who have flat out told the businesses in their communities to ignore what their local and state public health departments and experts, some of the best in the nation, are telling them: What is it going to take to get you to be a part of the solution? Dr. [Ngozi] Ezike, [IDPH Director] and I have stood up here everyday telling you the facts. We’ve had dozens of the nation’s leading experts present and giving you the information, their epidemiological information, their modeling information. They’ve stood here with us to show you how bad things can get. We’ve given you the data here in Illinois and the best studies from across the nation and the globe. We’ve shown you what this looked like in the spring and how this wave is already worse than that in many regions of the state. What will it take to make this real for you? Do we have to reach a positivity rate of 50% like we’re seeing in Iowa today? 50%. Are you waiting for health care workers to get sick to a point where you don’t have enough staff in the local hospital to cover the next shift? What about if the hospitals become so overrun that the sick and the dying have nowhere left to turn? Because I promise you, while you fail to take responsibility in your city and your county, that day is coming closer. And it will be on you. Meanwhile, the rest of us will still do our jobs. The state will do all that it can to help hospitals surge their capacity and find additional staff. Health care workers will take up their posts on the front lines as they have every single day since this began. But more people will get sick, more people will struggle to breathe, and more people will die because you’ve failed to do your job. While good people do the right thing by wearing masks to keep each other safe, elected leaders in some communities have allowed others to infect their constituents because they’re afraid of the few loud anti-maskers, or because the elected leaders themselves are anti-maskers. In too many of these communities, responsible business owners have followed public health guidelines only to see competitors flout the rules and prolong the mitigations for everyone else. There may be a vaccine on the way in just a few months, but a lot of lives can be saved before that happens. And when this is over, there will be an accounting by your constituents of who worked to keep the public safe and who just ignored the science. This is the moment to step up and get it right. Winter is coming.
Pritzker clearly intended his remarks partially at Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, who issued a city-paid video Tuesday attempting to discredit data the state is issuing on positive tests and hospitalizations.
“Using “COVID like illnesses” [as part of hospitalization statistics], means that the state and Governor will shut [down] businesses, schools, and order you to stay home because of the annual flu,” Pekau said in his video.
He also claimed Pritzker is not using “data or science” in his decision to close restaurants and bars to indoor service. Pekau also inferred the second wave of the pandemic is less severe than the first wave this spring.
Meanwhile, Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), who was elected to the State Senate November 3, accused Pritzker of “stripping away at freedoms” in a video posted to his Facebook page Tuesday.
“What we’re being told to be concerned about, we’re not given any data or proof for what the concerns are,” Bailey said, even though the state posts detailed positivity data on the Illinois Department of Public Health website daily.
Bailey previously sued Pritzker over his executive orders, but withdrew the case before the Appellate Court could rule on it.
Meanwhile, Thursday, the state reported around 12,700 new positive COVID-19 cases in the state that included 43 deaths.
The statewide total death toll from the pandemic is approaching 10,500.