The latest
The high cost of quarantine
In a letter to the Sun-Times editors, Tom Gregg of Niles writes:
Before the quarantine, I was visiting my 99-year-old mother twice a day in our retirement home, and she was holding her own in terms of her health. She is vision-impaired, hearing-impaired, arthritic and suffering from mild dementia, certainly, but for 13 years in two homes she had largely been able to avoid hospital stays for life-threatening problems. Plus, her interaction with me seemed to greatly help in minimizing her spells of confusion.
But now, during our relatively brief period of enforced separation — I live on a lower floor while she lives up on an assisted living floor — she has contracted pneumonia, for which she has been in and out of hospital, and her spells of confusion seem to be worsening. Symptomatic, doubtless, of the unprecedented disorientation.
My mother remains among the living today, but for how long if she remains so isolated? Now multiply this single case by all the other seniors around the country who have seen their precious interactive routines disappear. It is a situation that many of them, given their cognitive limitations, have difficulty grasping.
This potentially lethal hardship is worth noting when we are formulating pandemic recovery plans. The cure of the quarantine shouldn’t cost more than the contagion itself, should it?
Read this and more letters here.
News
11:44 a.m. What’s the first meal you’ll want at a restaurant post-pandemic? We asked, Chicagoans answered.
With eat-in dining at restaurants on hold because of the state’s coronavirus stay-at-home order, the next time you’ll be waited on at a restaurant probably won’t be for a while.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s five-phase plan for reopening Illinois businesses puts restaurant reopenings in Phase 4. We’re now in Phase 2.
So with Chicagoans craving a meal out, we asked: Once restaurants reopen for dining in, what’s the first meal you’ll want to eat out, and from where? Some of these answers have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
“Breakfast at a Greek joint: feta cheese-and-spinach omelet, hashbrowns and an English muffin or pancakes.” — Rose Panieri
“A hamburger from Charlie Beinlich’s in Glencoe.” — Elena Zaremski
“Tango Sur — the filet with spinach mashed potatoes.” — Marcela Guzman
Read more answers from our readers here.
10:08 a.m. How we should honor our youngest COVID-19 victim
Ernesto Guzman, age 12, suffered from asthma and obstructive sleep apnea, two other underlying health problems with potentially serious consequences that have figured into many other COVID-19 deaths, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
But make no mistake, doctors say it was the coronavirus that caused the pneumonia that took Ernesto’s life early Thursday morning at Advocate Christ Medical Center, Oak Lawn.
Because his death occurred after midnight, it is not yet counted among the 3,928 official COVID-19 deaths in Illinois, but it was listed among the single-day record high of 126 deaths reported Thursday from Cook County by the medical examiner.
Will the death of a 12-year-old boy cause more people to take this disease seriously? Mark Brown says he doubts it. But he hopes that will change.
“Take this seriously, folks,” he wrote. “Take it very seriously, because the life you risk may not be your own.”
Read Mark Brown’s full column here.
8:49 a.m. Abbott rapid COVID-19 test may yield false negatives, FDA warns
The federal Food and Drug Administration issued a warning Thursday night that early data suggests Abbott Laboratories’ rapid coronavirus test, touted by the Trump administration as a game changer, may return inaccurate and false negative results — findings the Chicago-area firm vehemently denied.
The Abbott ID NOW test — which can provide results in minutes — is used by the White House to quickly test anyone who comes into proximity of President Donald Trump. Trump has lavished attention on the Abbott ID NOW test and featured it at a White House event three days after the FDA fast-tracked its approval by granting an emergency use authorization on March 27.
In just a few weeks time, Abbott has shipped 1.8 million of the ID NOW tests, which is used at several Chicago-area testing sites.
The FDA warning came a day after a New York University preliminary study raised questions about its accuracy. The study was not subject to peer review, a process that checks on the procedures used for a study as well as its findings.
7:03 a.m. ‘Grandstanding’ by Grand Old Party? Or is Pritzker masking his decisions?
SPRINGFIELD — After weeks of nudges from Republican legislators, the General Assembly is planning to return to Springfield to get back to work.
And as they prepare for the Legislature’s long-sought session next week, Republicans said Thursday they are willing to comply with safety guidelines issued by the Democrats – but they want an examination of their own.
GOP lawmakers said they will wear face coverings, submit to COVID-19 tests and temperature checks and follow other safety measures when they return to Springfield, but they balked at signing a pledge to follow those recommendations as requested by House Speaker Mike Madigan.
And Republicans want to put Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan under the microscope with a public hearing.
GOP lawmakers have criticized Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan as “arbitrary,” saying the dates in which parts of the states can begin to reopen don’t make sense, and its metrics ignore geographical differences in COVID-19’s impact.
Read the full story by Neal Earley here.
6:45 a.m. With the focus on the coronavirus, Lightfoot opts for bare-bones capital plan
Singularly focused on the war against the coronavirus, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has opted for a $100 million, bare bones capital plan — bankrolled by an existing line of credit — to pay for new vehicles, sidewalks and the treasured aldermanic menu program.
Normally, the city issues general obligation bonds backed by property taxes to cover a more sweeping capital program. But these are not normal times.
The Lightfoot administration is preoccupied with the city’s response to the coronavirus and the budget crisis triggered by the stay-at-home shutdown of the Chicago economy.
So the decision was made to proceed only with those capital projects and purchases that absolutely needed to get done and to finance it with a line of credit that remained, even after Lightfoot saved $22 million by eliminating a $1.4 billion line of credit negotiated by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Read the full story by Fran Spielman here.
New cases
Analysis & Commentary
6:53 a.m. Chicago’s flag, civic pride and the fight against COVID-19
If Chicago were to add a fifth star to the city’s flag, an awful lot of hipsters would have to get their tattoos reworked.
Maybe it’s best we just leave the flag as it is, even if the city manages to prevail against COVID-19.
Last Friday and again on Wednesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot floated the idea of adding a fifth red star to Chicago’s flag to mark the city’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. She was trying to rally the city. If Chicago’s effort to beat the virus is terrifically successful, she said Friday, it will “truly warrant a fifth star on our flag.”
But let’s be blunt. Chicago’s not about to be terrifically successful anytime soon. Nobody is. This is a global public health war that’s sure to be fought for years, and a lot of people are setting us up to lose.
Read the full Sun-Times editorial here.
6:10 a.m. Navy Pier is an arm of government, no matter what it claims — so let’s see every contract
Now that the nonprofit that runs Navy Pier is getting a federal stimulus loan of nearly $2.5 million, it’s really way past time that it opened its books to the public completely.
Navy Pier Inc., which leases the 104-year-old pier from the public, is a government body that masquerades as a nonprofit organization. As such, it has been allowed to hide its workings from public scrutiny while benefiting from public support.
Navy Pier Inc. pays just $1 a year to the state and city to lease the pier.
And just this week, Sun-Times reporters Tim Novak and Robert Herguth revealed that the organization, whose president is paid more than $540,000 a year, has received a nearly $2.5 million coronavirus stimulus loan from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program.
Like all nonprofits, Navy Pier Inc. must disclose much of its finances by filing 990 forms, but it does not have to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests or disclose the terms of contracts.
