Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Lori Lightfoot is making good on her extraordinary threat to shut down the lakefront and all of its parks and beaches to prevent Chicagoans from defying a statewide stay-at-home order aimed at slowing community spread of the coronavirus,” the Sun-Times reports.


“On Wednesday, Lightfoot instructed Chicago police officers to shut down large gatherings and threatened to use what she called ‘every lever at my disposal’ to compel compliance.

She was moved to action by the large gatherings that she saw along the lakefront, the crowds at Chicago playgrounds and basketball courts and the warm weather that is luring stir-crazy Chicagoans outside even though they’re supposed to be staying at home.
“Way too many people gathering like it’s just another day. This is not just another day. And no day will be just another day until we are on the other side of this virus, which is weeks away,” the mayor said.
“I understand people are frustrated at being stuck in their homes and anxious to get out outside and move around. And you can do that. But, you must do it in a way that is smart, that is maintaining social distance and not congregating in other locations with lots of other people. That’s where the danger lies.”
Lightfoot warned then that, if police warnings and citations were not successful in shutting down large gatherings. She was prepared to go even further.
“If we have to – because you are not educating yourselves into compliance and if you are not abiding by these very clear, but necessary stay at home orders – we will be forced to shut down parks and the entire lakefront,” the mayor said.
“Let me be clear. That’s the last thing any of us want and that’s the last thing that I want to do as mayor. But make no mistake: If people don’t take this in a serious way in which they must, I’m not gonna hesitate to pull every lever at my disposal to force compliance if necessary. But, let’s not get to that point. We don’t need to. Stay at home. Only go out for essentials. If you want to exercise, do it in a way that you are not congregating with other people.”

I’m afraid the mayor is right – only because those folks gathering on the lakefront and the 606 and in other park space are so wrong. Funny, it’s always the same people ruining it for the rest of us.


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Hypocritical Oath
“A nationwide shortage of two drugs touted as possible treatments for the coronavirus is being driven in part by doctors inappropriately prescribing the medicines for family, friends and themselves, according to pharmacists and state regulators,” ProPublica reports.

“It’s disgraceful, is what it is,” said Garth Reynolds, executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, which started getting calls and e-mails Saturday from members saying they were receiving questionable prescriptions. “And completely selfish.”
Demand for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine surged over the past several days as President Donald Trump promoted them as possible treatments for the coronavirus and online forums buzzed with excitement over a small study suggesting the combination of hydroxychloroquine and a commonly used antibiotic could be effective in treating COVID-19.
Reynolds said the Illinois Pharmacists Association has started reaching out to pharmacists and medical groups throughout the state to urge doctors, nurses and physician assistants not to write prescriptions for themselves and those close to them.
“We even had a couple of examples of prescribers trying to say that the individual they were calling in for had rheumatoid arthritis,” he said, explaining that pharmacists suspected that wasn’t true. “I mean, that’s fraud.”
In one case, Reynolds said, the prescriber initially tried to get the pills without an explanation and only offered up that the individual had rheumatoid arthritis after the pharmacist questioned the prescription.
In a bulletin to pharmacists on Sunday, the state association wrote that it was “disturbed by the current actions of prescribers” and instructed members on how to file a complaint against physicians and nurses who were doing it.

See also:


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Garth Reynolds on LinkedIn.
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Meanwhile . . .
“Trump Touts Lupus Medication As Coronavirus Treatment, Leaving Patients Facing Severe Shortage,” ABC7 News reports.

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Shooters Distancing
“Chicago’s gun violence has slowed as the city battles COVID-19 and residents practice social distancing and isolation,” WBEZ reports.
“The city has had only one homicide in the last seven days. Chicago has not had a one-homicide week in more than five years, according to a WBEZ analysis of data from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.”
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However . . .
“Chicago saw a significant increase in gun violence Wednesday with 12 people shot, the most violent day since the city issued a stay-at-home order over the weekend to combat the spread of COVID-19,” the Sun-Times reports.
On Tuesday, though, just two people were shot – in the entire city.
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The high jumped 10 degrees to 56 on Wednesday, fyi.
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See also, from WGN:
How The Stay-At-Home Order Has Affected Chicago’s Crime Statistics.

Of course, the important thing isn’t how crime statistics are affected, but crime itself!
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ChicagoReddit

PPE Donations for Area Hospitals from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
The Art Of Chicago-Style Walking.

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BeachBook
Zoom Is For Normies. Here’s Why The Whole Art World Is Getting Together On The Chaotic, Anything-Goes Video Chat App Houseparty.

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Golf Rounds Surged As Coronavirus Advanced. Now The Game Is Retreating.

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Can Machines Detect Lies?

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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Great for pizza nights.

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Posted on March 26, 2020