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Emails, Secret Report Show Politics Of Science Guiding Pritzker
Evanston Patch ^ | October 28, 2020 | Mark Konkol

Posted on 11/01/2020 9:39:57 PM PST by PBRCat

J.B. Pritzker keeps telling Illinoisans that his coronavirus mitigation efforts are guided by science.

After combing though hundreds of emails and a confidential coronavirus report, the big takeaway is that scientists advising Pritzker say coronavirus test positivity rates that guide his pandemic response are unreliable.

Under the heading "The Limitations Of Data We Have Today," the report states: "Changes in the total number of test-positive cases are unreliable. These numbers should not be used to determine policy."

The same Pritzker pandemic metrics that a University of Chicago scientist who advises Pritzker's administration recently described to a newspaper as "not scientifically founded."

Associate professor Sarah Cobey said she told Pritzker's administration it risks "losing scientific accuracy credibility in the long run" by making policy decisions based on metrics such as COVID-19 positivity rates.

"Per the Governor's instructions, we want to merge the various models into one master model for the state for the purpose of helping inform policy decisions moving forward. This will be critical to helping us make decisions about when and how to loosen and tighten stay at home orders and other measures as we move forward. The Governor and I have asked Dan Wagner to help lead the discussion.

Wagner is best known as the analytics guru who crunched data for then-President Obama's 2012 re-election bid under the watchful eye of David Axelrod. He currently provides data analysis to Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign.

The firm prepared the confidential report that warned against basing public policy on coronavirus test positivity rates, a detail Pritzker has ignored.

The Illinois Department of Public Health's chief of staff emailed scientists to deliver a plan for pushing antibody testing.

University of Illinois associate professor Christopher Byron Brooke replied: "Pushing out a garbage just to say we are testing would be dangerous."

(Excerpt) Read more at patch.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: covid19; lockdown; pritzker; science
Pritzker has completely mismanaged the pandemic response and bases his decisions upon discredited junk science. An entire state is being held hostage by this nitwit.
1 posted on 11/01/2020 9:39:57 PM PST by PBRCat
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To: PBRCat

Replace Pritzker with any Dem governor and you get the same result.


2 posted on 11/01/2020 9:47:38 PM PST by matt04
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To: matt04

Quite true.


3 posted on 11/01/2020 9:49:51 PM PST by PBRCat
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To: PBRCat

Pritzy’s wife at least has the good sense to go to her Florida hideaway. Gov. Fat A$$ inflicts as much pain on Illinoians as he can.


4 posted on 11/01/2020 9:59:34 PM PST by teletech (you)
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To: matt04

I think few things can be kept secret for a long time on either side today.

Hackers and squealers and folks willing to take money to turn stuff over...there’s just too many ways to get “confidential” information.

Of course you can make examples out of them like dems did with Seth Rich and a hundred other folks.

But someone new always pops up to take their place.

On our side too, unfortunately.

That poor kid


5 posted on 11/01/2020 10:06:06 PM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

6 posted on 11/01/2020 10:29:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: matt04

Replace Gov. Pritzker with a can of lard and you still have the same thing as governor.


7 posted on 11/01/2020 10:46:10 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: PBRCat

Pritzker, a rich power-tripping Leftist pr*ck.


8 posted on 11/02/2020 12:13:13 AM PST by cranked
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To: PBRCat

“Positivity,” the # of positive tests out of the total number of tests, is not scientifically based. For numerous reasons, not least is that the population sample is self-selected.

Example: Scientists are worried that taller people might die sooner. Free testing sites abound to measure heights. Who goes? Taller people. Shorties stay home. Same with this cirus testing. People sick more likely to get tested. No symptoms? No upside to getting tested.

Also, SARS2-CoV is the virus, that SOMETIMES (but not often—less than 10%) leads to Covid-19 disease. Testing for live or dead virus fragments does NOT tell you who has, or is likely to get, Covid-19 disease.

Anyone using “Positivity” to estimate disease prevalence is either ignorant, or desires to mislead. Or just plain stupid.


9 posted on 11/02/2020 3:14:00 AM PST by Basket_of_Deplorables (This is all a Soros funded communist insurrection!)
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Only the can of lard is probably smarter.


10 posted on 11/02/2020 9:41:17 PM PST by Jacob Kell
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