Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) will not say when the statewide mask mandate will end.
“I couldn’t give you a date on when we might be able to alleviate some mitigations,” he said amid reports of rising coronavirus fatalities in the state, despite his administration’s reinstitution of certain mitigation measures.
According to the Daily Herald, coronavirus deaths hit 71 on Saturday, “the most since Feb. 18, reflecting an increase of fatalities from the virus in September.” Further, data shows average daily deaths essentially doubling from August to September, despite Pritzker’s mitigation measures. Late last month, he announced vaccination requirements for educators.
However, Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, Edward Hospital’s medical director of infection control and prevention, noted that deaths are “typically a delayed metric of infection activity” and believes that the spike in deaths is rooted in hospital admissions the month prior.
Despite that, however, the state’s average daily cases have remained virtually the same, even with the governor’s mandates. New cases topped 9,150 over the weekend.
Illinois reinstituted its statewide mask mandate on Monday, August 30, which even requires toddlers to mask up. All those two and older are required to wear a mask in indoor public settings, regardless of vaccination status. Additionally, masks are “strongly encouraged” in crowded outdoor settings.
“Masks work. Period,” the Democrat governor said at the time.
Citing substantial spread of the coronavirus across the state, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announces a statewide mandate requiring masks be worn in all Illinois public schools, preschool through high school, on August 04, 2021, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
It would come as no surprise that masks are not triggering a decrease in cases or fatalities, as a recent study shows that surgical and cotton masks are not very effective in blocking exhaled aerosols.
As Breitbart News reported:
“The results show that a standard surgical and three-ply cloth masks, which see current widespread use, filter at apparent efficiencies of only 12.4% and 9.8%, respectively,” the study concluded, noting that KN95 and N95 masks were far more effective at filtering out aerosols.
“Apparent efficiencies of 46.3% and 60.2% are found for KN95 and R95 masks, respectively, which are still notably lower than the verified 95% rated ideal efficiencies,” researchers continued in the data published last month prior to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reversing course, advising fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks if they are in high-risk areas.
In an email last year Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s White House medical adviser, also recognized that drugstore masks are “not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”