Cary67

Already seeing restaurants and bars defying closing orders in the Chicago burbs

Would agree with this. Spent time in Door County, Lake Pepin area, and near Green Lake over the summer. The more rural areas you wouldn't know covid exists

I heard Pritzker has stated he could pull their liquor licenses if there are blatant multiple violations. Not sure that will happen. They really need a federal bail out for the restaurant/bar industry like they did for the airlines.

The colder drier air settling in across the northern states definitely is a factor. The viral transmission of covid and other coronaviruses for that matter spread more readily in these conditions. Lower humidity and cooler temperatures keep the virus stable longer along with driving people indoors to share the same air.Hence more colds in general over the winter months.Probably responsible in part to surges seen in Europe also.

Its Gods country buddy. Come out for a visit when they lower the bridges again so you can leave the loop.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Lightfoot impose restrictions also. They are concerned with case numbers up to 500/day in the city. My county Mchenry on the verge of restrictions too. Positivity around 7-9%

Pritzker imposed restrictions on four collar Chicago counties as of Friday. No indoor dining/bars and limited gatherings to 25.

I think a high enough percentage of people are living their lives to keep the baseline level of infection to the point you are seeing the surges this fall. Private gatherings,club sports, along with activities that drive the spread like indoor dining and bars. For an example, Pritzker is considering adding restrictions to our area for restaurants etc. One of my friends upon learning this stated he was going out everyday to eat till then. In June restaurants were sparsely populated with indoor diners, today they are packed in my suburb area.

The unfortunate reality is heading to the movies,going out to eat, having private get togethers with friends at your house, and going to sporting events can't wait another 3-4 months. Americans have determined that .4% of the population is worth sacrificing to keep these precious liberties. This isn't about going to work, or even opening schools if masks and safety protocols are in place. Apparently the overall mental health of America is dependent on entertainment activities being available now. Heck even flying may become reasonably safe if they start rapid testing passengers as a screening process

That maybe the case. I know they were in need of minorities to volunteer for the vaccine trials.

Yeah being a little further east of my location you may have ended up on the warm side of more of those cutters in 2007-08. My area ended up with about 88" that year

Hopefully school aged kids and teachers would have access to vaccinations by late winter or early spring. Would be nice to see my kids back in school for the last quarter at least

That winter was awesome. Let's hope this cold end to October doesn't translate to a mild DJF like last year.

Careful where that 3.5 weeks of cold, snowy chances are placed. Don't want to use it all up in October.

Also would think those who don't want to wear masks but do so only in mandated areas also try to find venues wear they don't have to wear them. ie restaurants, bars, and having people over privately.

I am not disputing the benefits of mask wearing. Was looking for an explanation as to why the non mask crowd was trying to spin this into a rationalization to not wear them.

Any thoughts on the supposed study by the CDC that 85% of habitual mask wearers contracted Covid anyways. Seems to be another reason for anti maskers to be up in arms

I think another question is of those reinfected are they having severe cases or just mild effects the second time around. The immune system does create memory cells capable of producing more antibodies to a specific antigen its been exposed to previously.

Late October snows bring mid winter woes

I didn't know Lobster fest was back on again at Red Lobster.

A harsh reality is that a significant percentage of Americans don't want to sacrifice what they consider their entitled to. They put up with strict lock downs for 4-6 weeks then had enough. Whether it is indoor dining, heading to bars(hello Wisconsin), or catching a movie. Or perhaps like in IL screaming to play high school sports or receive in person sc hooling. Or in my case your kids would need to travel to another state to play soccer. Some of the most hated governors are the ones with stricter covid policies(hello Pritzker and Whitmer). The ugly truth is this disease's infection mortality rate is around .35%-.65% give or take. So too many people have milder versions or don't know the possible long term effects of having it. Thus even though .35% of 320 million would kill about 1.12 million people if allowed to run its course, most people figure it won't be them. They look at the deaths as numbers on a page and figure if your vulnerable hide in your basement till a vaccine comes out. But don't make me sacrifice what I want to do. Trump has some blame for this but alot of people have been given choices with enough info at hand and have made them. And this doesn't mean you have more lockdowns it just means Americans need to wear masks and not engage in activities where you hang out with people not wearing them. As for restaurants and bars order take out and demand the govt give these types of businesses a huge bailout into the spring to keep them afloat till a vaccine does arrive. Also believe in person education can be done or at least given the chance with the right safety protocols in place.

Looks like some of your comments were "phased" out?lol

A failure of the US to acknowledge and push cloth and disposable mask usage early on was a problem. Asian countries have been using masks for years having to deal with SARS and MERS. Americans have a social stigma when it comes to wearing them and were slow to adopt them. Perhaps a little hubris factored in also. By that I mean our scientific and medical community may have been reluctant to admit other areas of the world knew more than we did about respiratory viruses

Most of the info I've looked at placed the infection mortality rate at around .40-.65% averaged across the entire age spectrum. Those aged 0-20 much lower at .003% up to 1-3% for those over 70. This is not even counting the numbers of individuals who recover but may have lingering issues or just plain go through one of the most difficult illnesses of their lives. This pandemic has exposed our country's lagging education in the sciences and the damage misinformation can cause on social media. The same attacks can be seen with climate change. While most will come down with milder cases its interesting to see the lack of patience our community has in following simple mask mandates to help lower community spread. I was just up in rural Wisconsin just north of Portage and many people at bars and restaurants were not adhering to any of the guidelines. I think Wisconsin's positivity rate hit 27% on Saturday. I want the economy and businesses to stay open as much as possible with reasonable safety precautions in place.

Wisconsin trending up in positivity. Another question. IL puts out state positivity rates daily that show rates between 3.5% and 4.2%for the last month. However when you look at the IDPH regional metrics or the county level rates they always come in much higher. The county data lags by at least a week but here in McHenry the positivity rate hovers from 5.7%-7.7% mostly. Region metrics show almost all the regions consistently higher than the state average. Any reasons? Do they calculate the case burden differently?