chicagosun-times--2020-05-10--Illinois reports another 57 coronavirus-related deaths as state’s total case count nears 78,000 (LIV

Illinois reports another 57 coronavirus-related deaths as state’s total case count nears 78,000 (LIVE UPDATES)

Illinois officials on Sunday announced 1,656 new cases of COVID-19 , with 57 additional deaths reported .
After five days of reporting at least 100 deaths , the number of fatalities in the state dropped significantly .
The state ’ s death toll has now jumped to 3,406 as the number of cases reached 77,741 , according to the Illinois Department of Public Health .
The virus has now been detected in all but four of the state ’ s 102 counties .
All told , 13,656 tests were conducted statewide in the past 24 hours , with just over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the full report from Tom Schuba and Ben Pope here .
NEW YORK – Just 0.7 % of Major League Baseball employees tested positive for antibodies to COVID-19 , the illness caused by the new coronavirus .
Results were based from about 5,600 completed records from employees of 26 clubs .
Samples were obtained on April 14 and 15 .
“ It allows us to get a peek of the nation-wide prevalence , ” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at Stanford , one the study ’ s leaders , said Sunday .
The start @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because of the virus outbreak .
There ’ s no timetable for when the season might begin .
2:30 p.m. Albany Park church hosts Sunday service in defiance of stay-at-home order after suing Pritzker Just three days after suing Gov .
J.B. Pritzker in federal court over his Restore Illinois plan , Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park defied the governor ’ s stay-at-home order by welcoming dozens of worshippers to a Sunday service .
On Thursday , Elim Romanian and Logos Baptist ministries in Niles asked for a temporary restraining order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hosting services while vowing to impose strict social distancing measures .
The churches were among six Romanian-American congregations in the Chicago area that were expected to welcome worshippers on Sunday .
Speaking in his native Romanian , Cristian Ionescu , Elim Romanian ’ s senior pastor , told his flock the move to hold services is “ not a rebellion for the sake of rebellion ” and claimed the Constitution grants them the right to worship during the COVID-19 pandemic .
“ We feel that we are discriminated against , ” Ionescu told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people are already allowed to shop at grocery and hardware stores .
“ We follow the same rules as other places that are also considered essential , and yet we can not have more than 10 people in a service , which is ridiculous.
” Read the full report from Tom Schuba here .
2:07 p.m .
Becoming ‘ King of Ventilators ’ may result in unexpected glut As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March , President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ within 100 days .
At the time , the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January .
But records show that over the following three weeks , the agency scrambled to turn Trump ’ s pledge into a reality , spending nearly $ 3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the breathing machines at an unprecedented pace .
An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the agency is now on track to exceed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27 .
By the end of 2020 , the administration is expected to take delivery of nearly 200,000 new ventilators , based on the AP ’ s review of current federal purchasing contracts .
That would more than double the estimated 160,000 ventilators hospitals across the U.S. had before the pandemic .
“ We became the king of ventilators , thousands and thousands of ventilators , ” Trump boasted in an April 29 speech .
But over the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even as the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus has surged past 75,000 .
After observing unusually high death rates for coronavirus victims who were put on ventilators , many doctors are using them only as a last resort .
That ’ s raising the unexpected prospect that the United States could soon be awash in surplus ventilators , so much so the White House is now planning to ship thousands overseas to help boost the virus response of other nations .
Daniel Adelman , a professor at the University of Chicago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care analytics , said the U.S. government is now buying more than twice the number of ventilators it needs , even under a worst-case scenario forecasting the spread of COVID-19 .
As families in the U.S. and elsewhere marked Mother ’ s Day in a time of social distancing and isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic , world leaders projected optimism they could loosen lockdowns while controlling a potential second wave of infections .
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted the American economy would rebound in the second half of this year from unemployment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Another 3.2 million U.S. workers applied for jobless benefits last week , bringing the total over the last seven weeks to 33.5 million .
“ I think you ’ re going to see a bounce-back from a low standpoint , ” said Mnuchin , speaking on “ Fox News Sunday.
” But the director of the University of Washington institute that created a White House-endorsed coronavirus model said states ’ moves to reopen businesses “ will translate into more cases and deaths in 10 days from now.
” Dr. Christopher Murray of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states where cases and deaths are going up more than expected include Illinois , Arizona , Florida and California .
At the age of 24 , Francy Sandoval has unwittingly become the sole breadwinner for her family , after her mom , dad and brother — a nanny , a painter and a server — all lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic .
Her family needs the money , so the aspiring nurse feels she has no choice but to keep her high-risk job at the front desk of a suburban Chicago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But her home hardly feels like a haven either .
“ Working during this time is not as stressful as coming home , ” she said .
“ You were surrounded with patients who could have been or are positive and you might get your parents sick by just opening the door.
” Sandoval , an immigrant from Colombia , is among tens of millions of Americans living in multigenerational homes where one of the main strategies for avoiding infection — following social distancing protocols — can be near impossible .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where families from different generations live together at much higher rates , in some cases nearly double that of white families .
Joint living also often intersects with factors like poverty , health issues and jobs that can ’ t be done from home , offering another glimpse of what fuels the troubling racial disparities of COVID-19 .
11:45 a.m. COVID-19 outbreak among inmates at MCC in Chicago among largest across the system In the month that passed since the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center reported its first positive test of an inmate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there has grown into one of the largest among Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities , records show .
There have been no reported deaths , and the MCC ’ s numbers are still dwarfed by the hundreds reported by BOP facilities in California and Texas .
Still , roughly 20 percent of the high-rise jail ’ s population appeared to have tested positive as of Friday .
That ’ s based not only on court filings but also on more detailed numbers released from the Bureau of Prisons .
A federal judge , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases there to a decision to test two floors at the facility .
Given that only seven detainees have been hospitalized , U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall wrote that “ it can not be said that the facility is not properly caring for the detainees.
” “ When looking at whether the MCC can properly control the situation and treat sick detainees the focus must be on the number of symptomatic detainees and whether they are receiving the proper treatment , not on an increase in positive tests , ” Kendall wrote in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ full story from Jon Seidel here .
11:00 a.m.
Mother ’ s Day this year means getting creative from afar Treats made and delivered by neighbors .
Fresh garden plantings dug from a safe 6 feet away .
Trips around the world set up room-to-room at home .
Mother ’ s Day this year is a mix of love and extra imagination as families do without their usual brunches and huggy meet-ups .
As the pandemic persists in keeping families indoors or a safe social distance apart , online searches have increased for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ special .
Absent help from schools and babysitters , uninitiated dads are on homemade craft duty with the kids .
Other loved ones are navigating around no-visitor rules at hospitals and senior-living facilities .
Some medical facilities are pitching in by collecting voice and video recordings from locked-out relatives when patients are unable to manage the technology on their own .
10:45 a.m. Pritzker says he ’ s ‘ going it alone ’ to ramp up COVID-19 testing , state won ’ t reopen without ‘ standards ’ met Illinois Gov J.B. Pritzker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not counting on the White House to help Illinois ramp up its coronavirus testing capabilities – and he vowed that Illinois won ’ t see an economic reopening until the state meets “ all the standards ” he ’ s set in his phased plan .
Speaking on CNN ’ s “ State of the Union ” with Jake Tapper , the Democratic governor said states continue to “ go it alone ” to ramp up testing .
According to a Harvard University analysis , Illinois should reach 64,000 tests a day before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last week achieved a goal of receiving more than 20,000 tests results back in one day .
The governor has said more testing is fundamental to the state ’ s ability to reopen the economy while controlling the spread of the virus .
“ I have not been counting on the White House because there have been too many situations in which they ’ ve made promises not delivered , ” Pritzker said when asked whether he needs Trump to help Illinois ramp up testing .
“ Very recently they promised a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to arrive today , the first shipment of those .
I ’ m looking forward to that .
But what we ’ re doing is we ’ re going it alone , as the White House has led all the states to do.
” Read the full report from Tina Sfondeles here .
10:17 a.m. Low-rated nursing homes in Cook County fare worst in COVID-19 deaths The worst rated nursing homes in Cook County have the highest concentration of deaths from the coronavirus — and some have failed inspections during the pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ newspaper studied about 120 longterm-care facilities listed by the state as having at least one resident who came down with the disease or died .
About 28 % of the deaths from COVID-19 complications have happened in nursing homes with the lowest federal rating and only 6 % in the facilities with the highest rating .
That disparity shows the state should focus testing and inspections in poorly rated nursing homes , experts said .
As of Friday , 1,553 COVID-19 deaths in Illinois were tied to nursing homes — nearly half of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the disease , according to the Illinois Department of Public Health .
Nursing homes have captured the public ’ s attention in Illinois and nationally because of the large clusters of coronavirus cases appearing in many of them .
Read the full story from Frank Main , Lauren FitzPatrick and Caroline Hurley here .
9:42 a.m. Barbers share frustrations about being ‘ sidelined ’ in the state ’ s road to recovery Sean Santa felt bitter last week when he learned golf courses were allowed to reopen but his barbershop wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told his business , Tonsor Barbershop , 3935 N. Pulaski Rd.
, was non-essential and should be closed to limit the spread of COVID-19 .
Now , somehow , golf are more important ?
“ I mean , the whole essential and non-essential thing bugs me because I ’ ve seen people in the media and people in government with new haircuts , ” Santa said .
“ Why are their haircuts more important than that of grocery workers and nurses ?
” On Tuesday , Gov .
J.B. Pritzker unveiled a five-phased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won ’ t be until the third phase — called “ recovery ” — that barbershops and salons will be able to reopen , with restrictions .
A Chicago plan unveiled Friday by Mayor Lori Lightfoot has similar steps .
There isn ’ t a timetable for implementing Phase Three .
It depends on how many COVID-19 patients are admitted to hospitals or need ICU beds ; both numbers must be stable or declining .
“ It doesn ’ t make sense to me that we have to stay on the sideline , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve been trained in the highest levels of sanitation and sterilization.
” Read the full story from Manny Ramos here .
9:02 a.m. Cook County team targets myths , historic health care shortcomings — and ‘ every possible patient who is at risk ’ On top of caring for high-risk patients , Dr. Nimmi Rajagopal has taken on a new role for some : myth buster .
She has one patient who “ probably every week ” sends her a text passing along info from an article or a friend suggesting ways to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Listerine twice a day keep the COVID-19 away ?
“ I think most of it is harmless — things like if you drink citrus everyday or if you take these pills , these vitamins , then it will keep you from getting COVID , ” Rajagopal said .
“ I think it ’ s just people looking for things that will help them feel better , but I think it ’ s important for patients to know it ’ s not that simple , and when they do show symptoms , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ especially if there ’ s elderly patients or patients with other illnesses living in the same home.
” Providing credible information and advice – and debunking the myths – is just part of what Rajagopal and a team that includes other doctors , clinical managers and data analysts provide as they reach out to people who are at a higher risk of contracting the virus .
Read the full story from Rachel Hinton here .
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump ’ s handling of the coronavirus pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during a conversation with ex-members of his administration , according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News .
Obama also reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trump ’ s first national security adviser , Michael Flynn , saying he worried that the “ basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.
” More than 78,400 people with COVID-19 have died in the United States and more than 1.3 million people have tested positive , according to the latest estimates from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people have died of COVID-19 in Illinois , state health officials announced Saturday , bringing the state ’ s total pandemic death toll to 3,342 .
The state also reported 2,325 new cases , bringing the total to 76,085 — although most of those have since recovered — with at least one recorded case in 98 of the state ’ s 102 counties .
• The office of the Chief Judge of Cook County announced Friday an employee and a detainee at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center tested positive for COVID-19 .
• @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chicago Police Department .
• Two people are dead among 85 workers at CPS schools who have tested positive for COVID-19 , officials say .
8:04 a.m. Time for Illinois Legislature to get back to work — safety and remotely The Illinois Legislature must get back to work — safely and remotely .
Other state legislatures have begun to reconvene online and the Illinois Legislature should do so as well .
And we can ’ t agree with those who say there ’ s an insurmountable legal obstacle to doing so .
Yes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Legislature meet in the seat of government — Springfield .
But the statute also says the governor can convene a session of the Legislature elsewhere “ in times of pestilence or public danger.
” If this is not a time of pestilence and public danger , we don ’ t know what would be .
Illinois lawmakers have not met in the Capitol since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic , though the spring session was scheduled to run through May 31 .
As a result , important legislation , including a vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fiscal year 2021 , which begins July 1 , is stalled .
Nobody wants to put state lawmakers in physical peril .
Many of them run a particular risk from the coronavirus because of their age or health .
But we have learned during this pandemic that online meeting technology can work reasonably well .
And if the usual Springfield windbagging is curbed , who ’ s to complain ?
Read the today ’ s Sun-Times ’ editorial in its entirety here .
7:15 a.m .
If you reopen for business early and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your insurance company to bail you out Gov .
J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly said he ’ s delegating enforcement of his stay-at-home order to local governments .
That stance has frustrated some folks who want him to get tougher with violators ( although he ’ d undoubtedly risk making martyrs out of them if he did crack down hard ) .
And the governor ’ s position seems to have emboldened some local officials to defy the governor ’ s executive order and open up their economies on their own .
But when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s order , it appears that trial lawyers might step in and insurance companies might take a walk .
A growing number of Downstate sheriffs , state ’ s attorneys and other officials have declared they won ’ t be enforcing the governor ’ s stay-at-home order .
The Woodford County state ’ s attorney has said he won ’ t prosecute violators , as has the White County state ’ s attorney .
Johnson County ’ s sheriff is one of several who ’ ve said he also wouldn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ East Peoria ’ s mayor has gone beyond even that , officially allowing the “ opening ” of several businesses in his city on May 1 that were ordered closed by the governor ’ s executive order , including hair salons , spas , gyms and indoor recreational facilities .
On May 15 , bars and restaurants will be allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity , and churches and theaters also will be allowed to reopen on that date .
But the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association has a message for those renegade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their doors : Watch out for lawsuits .
Read the full column from Rich Miller here .

The latest
Illinois announces 57 additional deaths, 1,656 new cases of coronavirus
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times file
Illinois officials on Sunday announced 1,656 new cases of COVID-19, with 57 additional deaths reported.
After five days of reporting at least 100 deaths, the number of fatalities in the state dropped significantly. The state’s death toll has now jumped to 3,406 as the number of cases reached 77,741, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The virus has now been detected in all but four of the state’s 102 counties.
All told, 13,656 tests were conducted statewide in the past 24 hours, with just over 12% coming back positive.
Read the full report from Tom Schuba and Ben Pope here.
News
8:07 p.m Blue Angels announce Chicago flyover planned for Tuesday
The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels will perform a flyover of Chicago on Tuesday, the Blue Angels announced on social media Sunday.
Known for participating in Chicago Air and Water shows, the pilot squadron’s surprise Tuesday flyover will honor front-line workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We salute and thank all healthcare workers, first responders and other essential personnel serving on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19,” a release said.
Exact routes and times will be announced Monday.
Read the full story from reporter Ben Pope.
4:40 p.m. MLB’s coronavirus antibody test for employees yields 0.7% positive rate
NEW YORK – Just 0.7% of Major League Baseball employees tested positive for antibodies to COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
Results were based from about 5,600 completed records from employees of 26 clubs. Samples were obtained on April 14 and 15.
“It allows us to get a peek of the nation-wide prevalence,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at Stanford, one the study’s leaders, said Sunday.
The start of the baseball season has been delayed because of the virus outbreak. There’s no timetable for when the season might begin.
Read the full story here.
2:30 p.m. Albany Park church hosts Sunday service in defiance of stay-at-home order after suing Pritzker
Just three days after suing Gov. J.B. Pritzker in federal court over his Restore Illinois plan, Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park defied the governor’s stay-at-home order by welcoming dozens of worshippers to a Sunday service.
On Thursday, Elim Romanian and Logos Baptist ministries in Niles asked for a temporary restraining order preventing them from facing criminal repercussions for hosting services while vowing to impose strict social distancing measures. The churches were among six Romanian-American congregations in the Chicago area that were expected to welcome worshippers on Sunday.
Speaking in his native Romanian, Cristian Ionescu, Elim Romanian’s senior pastor, told his flock the move to hold services is “not a rebellion for the sake of rebellion” and claimed the Constitution grants them the right to worship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We feel that we are discriminated against,” Ionescu told the Sun-Times, noting that large groups of people are already allowed to shop at grocery and hardware stores. “We follow the same rules as other places that are also considered essential, and yet we cannot have more than 10 people in a service, which is ridiculous.”
Read the full report from Tom Schuba here.
2:07 p.m. Becoming ‘King of Ventilators’ may result in unexpected glut
As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March, President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim: His administration would provide 100,000 within 100 days.
At the time, the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January. But records show that over the following three weeks, the agency scrambled to turn Trump’s pledge into a reality, spending nearly $3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the breathing machines at an unprecedented pace.
An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the agency is now on track to exceed 100,000 new ventilators by around July 13, about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27.
By the end of 2020, the administration is expected to take delivery of nearly 200,000 new ventilators, based on the AP’s review of current federal purchasing contracts. That would more than double the estimated 160,000 ventilators hospitals across the U.S. had before the pandemic.
“We became the king of ventilators, thousands and thousands of ventilators,” Trump boasted in an April 29 speech.
But over the past month, demand for ventilators has decreased even as the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus has surged past 75,000. After observing unusually high death rates for coronavirus victims who were put on ventilators, many doctors are using them only as a last resort.
That’s raising the unexpected prospect that the United States could soon be awash in surplus ventilators, so much so the White House is now planning to ship thousands overseas to help boost the virus response of other nations.
Daniel Adelman, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who teaches health care analytics, said the U.S. government is now buying more than twice the number of ventilators it needs, even under a worst-case scenario forecasting the spread of COVID-19.
Read the full report here.
1:18 p.m. On Mother’s Day, leaders search for optimism amid pandemic
As families in the U.S. and elsewhere marked Mother’s Day in a time of social distancing and isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, world leaders projected optimism they could loosen lockdowns while controlling a potential second wave of infections.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted the American economy would rebound in the second half of this year from unemployment rates that rival the Great Depression. Another 3.2 million U.S. workers applied for jobless benefits last week, bringing the total over the last seven weeks to 33.5 million.
“I think you’re going to see a bounce-back from a low standpoint,” said Mnuchin, speaking on “Fox News Sunday.”
But the director of the University of Washington institute that created a White House-endorsed coronavirus model said states’ moves to reopen businesses “will translate into more cases and deaths in 10 days from now.” Dr. Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said states where cases and deaths are going up more than expected include Illinois, Arizona, Florida and California.
Read the full report here.
12:15 p.m. Coronavirus complicates safety for families living together
At the age of 24, Francy Sandoval has unwittingly become the sole breadwinner for her family, after her mom, dad and brother — a nanny, a painter and a server — all lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic.
Her family needs the money, so the aspiring nurse feels she has no choice but to keep her high-risk job at the front desk of a suburban Chicago community health clinic treating many COVID-19 patients. But her home hardly feels like a haven either.
“Working during this time is not as stressful as coming home,” she said. “You were surrounded with patients who could have been or are positive and you might get your parents sick by just opening the door.”
Sandoval, an immigrant from Colombia, is among tens of millions of Americans living in multigenerational homes where one of the main strategies for avoiding infection — following social distancing protocols — can be near impossible.
The problem reverberates deepest in communities of color, where families from different generations live together at much higher rates, in some cases nearly double that of white families. Joint living also often intersects with factors like poverty, health issues and jobs that can’t be done from home, offering another glimpse of what fuels the troubling racial disparities of COVID-19.
Read the full story here.
11:45 a.m. COVID-19 outbreak among inmates at MCC in Chicago among largest across the system
In the month that passed since the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center reported its first positive test of an inmate for coronavirus, the outbreak among detainees there has grown into one of the largest among Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, records show.
There have been no reported deaths, and the MCC’s numbers are still dwarfed by the hundreds reported by BOP facilities in California and Texas. Still, roughly 20 percent of the high-rise jail’s population appeared to have tested positive as of Friday. That’s based not only on court filings but also on more detailed numbers released from the Bureau of Prisons.
A federal judge, though, recently attributed the rise of cases there to a decision to test two floors at the facility. Given that only seven detainees have been hospitalized, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall wrote that “it cannot be said that the facility is not properly caring for the detainees.”
“When looking at whether the MCC can properly control the situation and treat sick detainees the focus must be on the number of symptomatic detainees and whether they are receiving the proper treatment, not on an increase in positive tests,” Kendall wrote in the order published Friday.
Read the full story from Jon Seidel here.
11:00 a.m. Mother’s Day this year means getting creative from afar
Treats made and delivered by neighbors. Fresh garden plantings dug from a safe 6 feet away. Trips around the world set up room-to-room at home.
Mother’s Day this year is a mix of love and extra imagination as families do without their usual brunches and huggy meet-ups.
As the pandemic persists in keeping families indoors or a safe social distance apart, online searches have increased for creative ways to still make moms feel special.
Absent help from schools and babysitters, uninitiated dads are on homemade craft duty with the kids. Other loved ones are navigating around no-visitor rules at hospitals and senior-living facilities.
Some medical facilities are pitching in by collecting voice and video recordings from locked-out relatives when patients are unable to manage the technology on their own.
Read the full story here.
10:45 a.m. Pritzker says he’s ‘going it alone’ to ramp up COVID-19 testing, state won’t reopen without ‘standards’ met
Screenshot
Illinois Gov J.B. Pritzker on Sunday morning said he’s not counting on the White House to help Illinois ramp up its coronavirus testing capabilities – and he vowed that Illinois won’t see an economic reopening until the state meets “all the standards” he’s set in his phased plan.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, the Democratic governor said states continue to “go it alone” to ramp up testing. According to a Harvard University analysis, Illinois should reach 64,000 tests a day before stay-at-home regulations are further relaxed. Pritzker last week achieved a goal of receiving more than 20,000 tests results back in one day.
The governor has said more testing is fundamental to the state’s ability to reopen the economy while controlling the spread of the virus.
“I have not been counting on the White House because there have been too many situations in which they’ve made promises not delivered,” Pritzker said when asked whether he needs Trump to help Illinois ramp up testing.
“Very recently they promised a lot of swabs. They’re supposed to arrive today, the first shipment of those. I’m looking forward to that. But what we’re doing is we’re going it alone, as the White House has led all the states to do.”
Read the full report from Tina Sfondeles here.
10:17 a.m. Low-rated nursing homes in Cook County fare worst in COVID-19 deaths
The worst rated nursing homes in Cook County have the highest concentration of deaths from the coronavirus — and some have failed inspections during the pandemic, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found.
The newspaper studied about 120 longterm-care facilities listed by the state as having at least one resident who came down with the disease or died.
About 28% of the deaths from COVID-19 complications have happened in nursing homes with the lowest federal rating and only 6% in the facilities with the highest rating.
That disparity shows the state should focus testing and inspections in poorly rated nursing homes, experts said.
As of Friday, 1,553 COVID-19 deaths in Illinois were tied to nursing homes — nearly half of the 3,241 deaths in the state from the disease, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Nursing homes have captured the public’s attention in Illinois and nationally because of the large clusters of coronavirus cases appearing in many of them.
Read the full story from Frank Main, Lauren FitzPatrick and Caroline Hurley here.
9:42 a.m. Barbers share frustrations about being ‘sidelined’ in the state’s road to recovery
Sean Santa felt bitter last week when he learned golf courses were allowed to reopen but his barbershop wasn’t.
Since mid-March he’s been told his business, Tonsor Barbershop, 3935 N. Pulaski Rd., was non-essential and should be closed to limit the spread of COVID-19. Now, somehow, golf are more important?
“I mean, the whole essential and non-essential thing bugs me because I’ve seen people in the media and people in government with new haircuts,” Santa said. “Why are their haircuts more important than that of grocery workers and nurses?”
On Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled a five-phased plan for reopening the state. It won’t be until the third phase — called “recovery” — that barbershops and salons will be able to reopen, with restrictions. A Chicago plan unveiled Friday by Mayor Lori Lightfoot has similar steps.
There isn’t a timetable for implementing Phase Three. It depends on how many COVID-19 patients are admitted to hospitals or need ICU beds; both numbers must be stable or declining.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that we have to stay on the sideline,” Santa said. “We’ve been trained in the highest levels of sanitation and sterilization.”
Read the full story from Manny Ramos here.
9:02 a.m. Cook County team targets myths, historic health care shortcomings — and ‘every possible patient who is at risk’
On top of caring for high-risk patients, Dr. Nimmi Rajagopal has taken on a new role for some: myth buster.
She has one patient who “probably every week” sends her a text passing along info from an article or a friend suggesting ways to avoid getting the coronavirus.
Does gargling with Listerine twice a day keep the COVID-19 away?
“I think most of it is harmless — things like if you drink citrus everyday or if you take these pills, these vitamins, then it will keep you from getting COVID,” Rajagopal said.
“I think it’s just people looking for things that will help them feel better, but I think it’s important for patients to know it’s not that simple, and when they do show symptoms, it’s really important to isolate, especially if there’s elderly patients or patients with other illnesses living in the same home.”
Providing credible information and advice – and debunking the myths – is just part of what Rajagopal and a team that includes other doctors, clinical managers and data analysts provide as they reach out to people who are at a higher risk of contracting the virus.
Read the full story from Rachel Hinton here.
7:03 a.m. Obama calls Trump Administration’s handling of pandemic “chaotic disaster”
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a conversation with ex-members of his administration, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo News.
Obama also reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the “basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.”
More than 78,400 people with COVID-19 have died in the United States and more than 1.3 million people have tested positive, according to the latest estimates from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Read the full report here.
New cases
Analysis & Commentary
8:04 a.m. Time for Illinois Legislature to get back to work — safely and remotely
The Illinois Legislature must get back to work — safely and remotely.
Other state legislatures have begun to reconvene online and the Illinois Legislature should do so as well. And we can’t agree with those who say there’s an insurmountable legal obstacle to doing so.
Yes, a state statute requires that the Legislature meet in the seat of government — Springfield. But the statute also says the governor can convene a session of the Legislature elsewhere “in times of pestilence or public danger.”
If this is not a time of pestilence and public danger, we don’t know what would be.
Illinois lawmakers have not met in the Capitol since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, though the spring session was scheduled to run through May 31. As a result, important legislation, including a vote on the state’s budget for fiscal year 2021, which begins July 1, is stalled.
Nobody wants to put state lawmakers in physical peril. Many of them run a particular risk from the coronavirus because of their age or health. But we have learned during this pandemic that online meeting technology can work reasonably well. And if the usual Springfield windbagging is curbed, who’s to complain?
Read the today’s Sun-Times’ editorial in its entirety here.
7:15 a.m. If you reopen for business early and somebody dies, don’t expect your insurance company to bail you out
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly said he’s delegating enforcement of his stay-at-home order to local governments.
That stance has frustrated some folks who want him to get tougher with violators (although he’d undoubtedly risk making martyrs out of them if he did crack down hard). And the governor’s position seems to have emboldened some local officials to defy the governor’s executive order and open up their economies on their own.
But when local governments refuse to enforce the governor’s order, it appears that trial lawyers might step in and insurance companies might take a walk.
A growing number of Downstate sheriffs, state’s attorneys and other officials have declared they won’t be enforcing the governor’s stay-at-home order. The Woodford County state’s attorney has said he won’t prosecute violators, as has the White County state’s attorney. Johnson County’s sheriff is one of several who’ve said he also wouldn’t arrest anyone for violating the order.
East Peoria’s mayor has gone beyond even that, officially allowing the “opening” of several businesses in his city on May 1 that were ordered closed by the governor’s executive order, including hair salons, spas, gyms and indoor recreational facilities. On May 15, bars and restaurants will be allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity, and churches and theaters also will be allowed to reopen on that date.
But the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association has a message for those renegade municipalities and businesses preparing to throw open their doors: Watch out for lawsuits.
Read the full column from Rich Miller here.


chicagosun-times--2020-05-10--MLB’s coronavirus antibody test for employees yields 0.7% positive rate

NEW YORK — Just 0.7 % of Major League Baseball employees tested positive for antibodies to COVID-19 , the illness caused by the new coronavirus .
Results were based from about 5,600 completed records from employees of 26 clubs .
Samples were obtained on April 14 and 15 .
“ It allows us to get a peek of the nation-wide prevalence , ” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at Stanford , one the study ’ s leaders , said Sunday .
The start of the baseball season has been delayed because of the virus outbreak .
There ’ s no timetable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sixty people tested positive in the raw data , and adjustments were made for false positives and false negatives .
Bhattacharya said the survey had a 0.5 % false positive rate .
Antibodies are produced by a person ’ s immune system if they have been infected by a virus .
MLB employees have been less affected than their surrounding communities have been , Bhattacharya said .
The University of Southern California and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory in Salt Lake City also led the study .
Data for players was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not representative of the overall population , given 95 % of the participants were under 65 and few reported comorbidities .
MLB team doctors looked at results last month .
The goal of the study was to better determine how widespread COVID-19 is , which could aid governments and health professionals in their evaluation of when to lift stay-at-home orders .
The Chicago Cubs , Cincinnati , Colorado and Miami did not participate , Bhattacharya said .
“ The MLB population is a special population .
They ’ re not representative of every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Bhattacharya said .
“ They also are more well to do than a typical population , so it ’ s not representative .
...
They have an organization that allows us to sample in just two days time in so many places all at once .
And that ’ s unique.
” “ I don ’ t get the sense that they are doing it to benefit them , ” Bhattacharya said .
“ If the economy opens up , sports are huge gatherings .
So in a sense it benefits everybody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing it because they want to contribute to public health knowledge.
” Each club was given approximately 350 tests .
“ To be able to have a window into how widespread the epidemic is in so many places all at once is a really special thing , ” Bhattacharya said .

NEW YORK — Just 0.7% of Major League Baseball employees tested positive for antibodies to COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
Results were based from about 5,600 completed records from employees of 26 clubs. Samples were obtained on April 14 and 15.
“It allows us to get a peek of the nation-wide prevalence,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at Stanford, one the study’s leaders, said Sunday.
The start of the baseball season has been delayed because of the virus outbreak. There’s no timetable for when the season might begin.
Sixty people tested positive in the raw data, and adjustments were made for false positives and false negatives. Bhattacharya said the survey had a 0.5% false positive rate.
Antibodies are produced by a person’s immune system if they have been infected by a virus.
MLB employees have been less affected than their surrounding communities have been, Bhattacharya said.
The University of Southern California and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory in Salt Lake City also led the study.
Data for players was not broken out. The study was not representative of the overall population, given 95% of the participants were under 65 and few reported comorbidities.
MLB team doctors looked at results last month. The goal of the study was to better determine how widespread COVID-19 is, which could aid governments and health professionals in their evaluation of when to lift stay-at-home orders.
The Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Colorado and Miami did not participate, Bhattacharya said.
“The MLB population is a special population. They’re not representative of every city that they’re in,” Bhattacharya said. “They also are more well to do than a typical population, so it’s not representative. ... They have an organization that allows us to sample in just two days time in so many places all at once. And that’s unique.”
“I don’t get the sense that they are doing it to benefit them,” Bhattacharya said. “If the economy opens up, sports are huge gatherings. So in a sense it benefits everybody. I actually think they’re doing it because they want to contribute to public health knowledge.”
Each club was given approximately 350 tests.
“To be able to have a window into how widespread the epidemic is in so many places all at once is a really special thing,” Bhattacharya said.
AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.


chicagosun-times--2020-05-10--Becoming ‘King of Ventilators’ may result in unexpected glut

WASHINGTON — As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March , President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim : His administration would have 100,000 within 100 days .
At the time , the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January .
But records show that over the following three weeks , the agency scrambled to turn Trump ’ s pledge into a reality , spending nearly $ 3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the agency is now on track to exceed 100,000 new ventilators by around July 13 , about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27 .
By the end of 2020 , the administration is expected to take delivery of nearly 200,000 new ventilators , based on the AP ’ s review of current federal purchasing contracts .
That would more than double the estimated 160,000 ventilators hospitals across the U.S. had before the pandemic .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thousands and thousands of ventilators , ” Trump boasted in an April 29 speech .
But over the past month , demand for ventilators has decreased even as the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus has surged past 80,000 .
After observing unusually high death rates for coronavirus victims who were put on ventilators , many doctors are using them only as a last resort .
That ’ s raising the unexpected prospect that the United States could soon be awash in surplus ventilators , so much so the White House is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help boost the virus response of other nations .
In a speech to Republican members of Congress on Friday , the president credited his son-in-law , White House senior adviser Jared Kushner , with heading up the effort to purchase the ventilators .
“ We built , and we built , and we built , ” Trump said .
“ Now we have nine factories that are throwing out ventilators at numbers that nobody can believe .
It was really — there ’ s not been anything like that , since the Second @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same thing with other types of product.
” Daniel Adelman , a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who teaches health care analytics , said the U.S. government is now buying more than twice the number of ventilators it needs , even under a worst-case scenario forecasting the spread of COVID-19 .
But Adelman said mathematical models can not predict with certainty how many ventilators will be needed if there is a resurgence of the coronavirus later in the year or if there is another pandemic in the future @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forecasts that you ’ re seeing , ” Adelman said of the government purchases .
“ I ’ d probably rather they order too many rather than ordering too few.
” In patients with severe cases of COVID-19 , the virus attacks the lungs , causing fluid to collect in tiny air sacs called alveoli .
That makes it difficult for the lungs to transfer oxygen from the air to the blood , which can be deadly .
To treat these low oxygen levels , doctors have historically relied on ventilators .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s emergency reserve of medical supplies , had about 16,660 ventilators ready to deploy at the start of March , with an additional 2,400 out for maintenance .
By the middle of the month , health officials and governors in states with the worst virus outbreaks began expressing concerns that the supply of breathing machines could run out , potentially leaving thousands of critically ill patients gasping for air .
Among those calling for additional ventilators was Gov .
Andrew Cuomo ( D-N.Y. ) , who predicted on March 24 that all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be in use , and patients in need would be left without proper treatment .
Cuomo said projections showed New York would need at least 30,000 additional ventilators to get through the mid-April peak of the outbreak .
At that point , FEMA had sent New York 400 .
Trump expressed skepticism at Cuomo ’ s figures even as his administration rushed to send New York 4,000 additional ventilators — about one-quarter of the nation ’ s entire emergency stockpile .
Still , Cuomo pleaded for more .
“ You pick the 26,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Cuomo said at a news conference , It wasn ’ t just New York , however .
Similarly dire projections of a ventilator shortfall were also then circulating within the White House .
“ The scariest day of my life was about a month ago when , after a long day of meetings , my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators ; that we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators , ” Trump recounted in an April 14 briefing .
“ I had governors requesting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t have.
” By late March , a bipartisan chorus of state governors and members of Congress were calling on the president to exercise his emergency authority under the Defense Production Act to force U.S. companies to produce ventilators .
Trump had resisted invoking the Korean War-era law , which grants the president sole authority to direct U.S. industrial production of critical supplies in times of national emergency , saying the private sector was stepping up production of ventilators and other medical supplies on its own .
But on March 27 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he would invoke the Defense Production Act to produce ventilators , which meant companies would have to give priority to federal orders over other customers .
“ In the next 100 days — well , first of all , we ’ ve already delivered thousands of them — but within the next 100 days , we will either make or get , in some form , over 100,000 additional units , ” Trump said .
By the start of April , FEMA officials confirmed to the House Oversight and Reform Committee that demand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supply .
To ration what was left , FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor directed that the remaining ventilators in the national stockpile be designated as a “ strategic national asset ” — to be provided to states only on a case-by-case basis where hospitals could demonstrate an “ exigent need ” to sustain life within 72 hours .
Federal purchasing records show that three months into the pandemic , HHS , which includes the Strategic National Stockpile , had not yet placed any orders for new ventilators in 2020 .
That changed within three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ edict , with HSS signing a $ 350 million deal with Zoll Medical Corp. Records show a flurry of about a dozen big orders with other ventilator makers over the next two weeks , most of them no-bid contracts exempted from the typical federal purchasing rules due to the national emergency .
In a typical year , U.S. companies produce about 29,000 ventilators , according to data cited by the White House .
Though several domestic manufacturers had already announced they were adding extra shifts and hiring additional workers to ramp up production @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contracts show that even with the emergency no-bid orders the traditional medical device makers would deliver about 73,990 new ventilators by July 6 — the 100-day mark since Trump ’ s March 27 pledge .
It was clear additional industrial capacity would be needed to get 100,000 units by the president ’ s deadline .
General Motors , which had shut down auto production , had already entered into a partnership on March 20 with Ventec Life Systems , a small ventilator company , to simplify an off-the-shelf design for rapid production at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plant .
Though GM had announced it was “ working night and day ” to launch production , Trump accused CEO Mary Barra via Twitter of dragging her feet , and revived his long-running feud with the company over its 2019 closure of an Ohio factory that Trump had pledged to save .
“ As usual with ‘ this ’ General Motors , things just never seem to work out , ” Trump tweeted on March 27 .
“ General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ VENTILATORS , NOW !
!
!
!
!
!
” GM had sold the Lordstown factory in 2019 .
The president also took aim at Ford Motor Co. , tweeting that the rival automaker should also “ GET GOING ON VENTILATORS , FAST !
!
!
!
!
!
” On April 8 , HHS announced it had reached a $ 489.4 million deal with GM to produce 30,000 ventilators by the end of August , with the first 6,132 delivered by June 1 .
The following week , HHS announced a $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Electric , which teamed up to make 50,000 of GE Healthcare ’ s ventilators by July 13 .
Assuming all the companies meet their deadlines , AP ’ s analysis shows the national stockpile should surpass 100,000 new ventilators by mid-July .
HHS declined to release to AP its contracts with ventilator producers without a Freedom of Information Act request , a legal process that can often take months or even years .
But AP ’ s analysis of the limited contract data available online and figures taken from HHS media releases shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2.9 billion for 198,890 ventilators by the end of 2020 , an average per-unit cost of $ 14,618 .
Whether that ’ s a good deal for U.S. taxpayers is difficult to determine because medical device makers generally don ’ t publish their prices .
HHS is buying at least 13 different models of ventilators from 10 different companies , all with different capabilities , features and accessories .
When AP sought details from HHS about the per-unit cost of four models from manufacturer Hamilton Medical , the agency ’ s press office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the totals announced in earlier media releases .
An HHS spokesperson said the previously provided figures were wrong and would be corrected on the agency ’ s website .
AP found several instances where the U.S. government had purchased the same models of ventilators before the pandemic .
For example , contracting data does show that in December the Department of Defense bought a single , portable ventilator from Zoll Medical for $ 12,260 .
Under its current contract with Zoll , HHS is purchasing 18,900 of the same model for slightly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ works out to about $ 18,500 each , which would be a more than 50 percent increase from what the Pentagon paid less than five months ago .
A HHS spokeswoman said Friday the government was paying about $ 12,100 for each ventilator , and that the additional money was for hoses , face masks and other related supplies needed to treat COVID-19 patients .
The ventilators also came with a wheeled plastic case with power port , which cost an additional $ 722 each , according to HHS .
The Defense Department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whether its 2019 ventilator deliveries also included accessories .
Zoll ’ s top executive said his company ’ s pricing had remained consistent .
“ Zoll is supplying the U.S. government with its requested products at our usual and customary government pricing , absorbing the additional costs associated with Zoll ’ s rapid increase in production capacity , ” Zoll CEO Jonathan Rennert said Friday .
“ We are focused on fulfilling the government ’ s order on time and meeting this urgent public need.
” Erik Gordon , a business professor at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical device industry , said ventilator companies are probably incurring increased costs as they ramp up production to meet high demand .
Manufacturers haven ’ t had time to bulk buy additional parts and probably had to add workers to make more of the machines , he said .
U.S. ventilator makers have raised production from a rate of about 700 per week in February to about 5,000 per week by early April , according to the Advanced Medical Technology Association , an industry trade group .
“ If you don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get those economies of scale , you get there by brute force , extra labor , ” said Gordon , who teaches a course in monetizing medical device ideas .
“ Your costs actually go up , not down.
” With the federal government buying most of the new ventilators being made in the U.S. , state governments and hospital systems urgently seeking the machines have often been forced to go through middlemen or foreign suppliers .
Cuomo has compared the free-for-all bidding to going on eBay , and said during a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ordered 17,000 ventilators from China for $ 25,000 each .
“ We are paying $ 25,000 per ventilator , and we are broke , ” Cuomo said .
“ The last thing I want to do is buy a single ventilator I don ’ t need.
” More than a month later , only 2,500 of the Chinese machines have been delivered , according to Cuomo ’ s office .
In a separate case , New York officials are trying to recover another $ 69.1 million paid to a Silicon Valley electrical engineer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
With nearly 200,000 new ventilators set for delivery to the federal stockpile by the end of the year , Trump is declaring victory .
But it is now unclear whether the stockpile of new ventilators will be needed .
In the little more than a month since Trump announced the buying spree , a series of medical studies has spurred questions about whether ventilators are effective at saving the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients .
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 30 found that only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who were put on a ventilator survived .
For patients younger than 70 , just 36 % lived .
In New York City , state officials say 80 % or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines died .
The studies have caused doctors to reevaluate the use of ventilators in favor of less intensive forms of respiratory support .
Trump administration officials say the new ventilators could still prove valuable if the virus outbreak were to intensify into a second wave after the warm summer months .
“ It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refreshed and a comprehensive stockpile going into the fall , ” Dr. Deborah Birx , a medical adviser on the White House Coronavirus Task Force , said at a briefing on April 21 .
“ I think that ’ s why we ’ ve continued to bring in those shipments and work on the ventilators so that those would be available not only for the United States but certainly if other partner countries have this level of tragedy.
” Trump said he intends to ship thousands of the breathing machines overseas , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Mexico said it received a shipment of ventilators from the United States .
Trump said last week Russia is also set to receive U.S. ventilators , along with other countries .
“ People dying because they don ’ t have ventilators , and they ’ re not equipped to do what we did , ” Trump said Friday .
“ So we ’ re giving thousands and thousands of these ventilators away to many countries that have suffered greatly : Italy , France , Spain , so many countries .
And Nigeria @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tremendous problems all over .
And so they ’ re very happy.
” Krisher reported from Detroit .
Associated Press writer Marina Villeneuve in Albany , New York , contributed to this report .

WASHINGTON — As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March, President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim: His administration would have 100,000 within 100 days.
At the time, the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January. But records show that over the following three weeks, the agency scrambled to turn Trump’s pledge into a reality, spending nearly $3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the breathing machines at an unprecedented pace.
An analysis of federal contracting data by The Associated Press shows the agency is now on track to exceed 100,000 new ventilators by around July 13, about a week later than the 100-day deadline Trump first gave on March 27.
By the end of 2020, the administration is expected to take delivery of nearly 200,000 new ventilators, based on the AP’s review of current federal purchasing contracts. That would more than double the estimated 160,000 ventilators hospitals across the U.S. had before the pandemic.
“We became the king of ventilators, thousands and thousands of ventilators,” Trump boasted in an April 29 speech.
But over the past month, demand for ventilators has decreased even as the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus has surged past 80,000. After observing unusually high death rates for coronavirus victims who were put on ventilators, many doctors are using them only as a last resort.
That’s raising the unexpected prospect that the United States could soon be awash in surplus ventilators, so much so the White House is now planning to ship thousands overseas to help boost the virus response of other nations.
In a speech to Republican members of Congresson Friday, the president credited his son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, with heading up the effort to purchase the ventilators.
“We built, and we built, and we built,” Trump said. “Now we have nine factories that are throwing out ventilators at numbers that nobody can believe. It was really — there’s not been anything like that, since the Second World War, where we did the same thing with other types of product.”
Daniel Adelman, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who teaches health care analytics, said the U.S. government is now buying more than twice the number of ventilators it needs, even under a worst-case scenario forecasting the spread of COVID-19.
But Adelman said mathematical models cannot predict with certainty how many ventilators will be needed if there is a resurgence of the coronavirus later in the year or if there is another pandemic in the future.
“It seems incongruent with the forecasts that you’re seeing,” Adelman said of the government purchases. “I’d probably rather they order too many rather than ordering too few.”
In patients with severe cases of COVID-19, the virus attacks the lungs, causing fluid to collect in tiny air sacs called alveoli. That makes it difficult for the lungs to transfer oxygen from the air to the blood, which can be deadly. To treat these low oxygen levels, doctors have historically relied on ventilators.
The Strategic National Stockpile, the federal government’s emergency reserve of medical supplies, had about 16,660 ventilators ready to deploy at the start of March, with an additional 2,400 out for maintenance.
By the middle of the month, health officials and governors in states with the worst virus outbreaks began expressing concerns that the supply of breathing machines could run out, potentially leaving thousands of critically ill patients gasping for air.
Among those calling for additional ventilators was Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), who predicted on March 24 that all of the ventilators in his state would be in use, and patients in need would be left without proper treatment. Cuomo said projections showed New York would need at least 30,000 additional ventilators to get through the mid-April peak of the outbreak. At that point, FEMA had sent New York 400.
Trump expressed skepticism at Cuomo’s figures even as his administration rushed to send New York 4,000 additional ventilators — about one-quarter of the nation’s entire emergency stockpile. Still, Cuomo pleaded for more.
“You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die,” Cuomo said at a news conference,
It wasn’t just New York, however. Similarly dire projections of a ventilator shortfall were also then circulating within the White House.
“The scariest day of my life was about a month ago when, after a long day of meetings, my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators; that we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators,” Trump recounted in an April 14 briefing. “I had governors requesting unreasonable sums that the federal government just didn’t have.”
By late March, a bipartisan chorus of state governors and members of Congress were calling on the president to exercise his emergency authority under the Defense Production Act to force U.S. companies to produce ventilators.
Trump had resisted invoking the Korean War-era law, which grants the president sole authority to direct U.S. industrial production of critical supplies in times of national emergency, saying the private sector was stepping up production of ventilators and other medical supplies on its own.
But on March 27, Trump changed course, announcing that he would invoke the Defense Production Act to produce ventilators, which meant companies would have to give priority to federal orders over other customers.
“In the next 100 days — well, first of all, we’ve already delivered thousands of them — but within the next 100 days, we will either make or get, in some form, over 100,000 additional units,” Trump said.
By the start of April, FEMA officials confirmed to the House Oversight and Reform Committee that demand for ventilators would soon outpace the available supply. To ration what was left, FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor directed that the remaining ventilators in the national stockpile be designated as a “strategic national asset” — to be provided to states only on a case-by-case basis where hospitals could demonstrate an “exigent need” to sustain life within 72 hours.
Federal purchasing records show that three months into the pandemic, HHS, which includes the Strategic National Stockpile, had not yet placed any orders for new ventilators in 2020.
That changed within three days of Trump’s March 27 edict, with HSS signing a $350 million deal with Zoll Medical Corp. Records show a flurry of about a dozen big orders with other ventilator makers over the next two weeks, most of them no-bid contracts exempted from the typical federal purchasing rules due to the national emergency.
In a typical year, U.S. companies produce about 29,000 ventilators, according to data cited by the White House. Though several domestic manufacturers had already announced they were adding extra shifts and hiring additional workers to ramp up production, AP’s analysis of HHS contracts show that even with the emergency no-bid orders the traditional medical device makers would deliver about 73,990 new ventilators by July 6 — the 100-day mark since Trump’s March 27 pledge.
It was clear additional industrial capacity would be needed to get 100,000 units by the president’s deadline.
General Motors, which had shut down auto production, had already entered into a partnership on March 20 with Ventec Life Systems, a small ventilator company, to simplify an off-the-shelf design for rapid production at GM’s Kokomo, Indiana, plant.
Though GM had announced it was “working night and day” to launch production, Trump accused CEO Mary Barra via Twitter of dragging her feet, and revived his long-running feud with the company over its 2019 closure of an Ohio factory that Trump had pledged to save.
“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out,” Trump tweeted on March 27. “General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!!”
GM had sold the Lordstown factory in 2019.
The president also took aim at Ford Motor Co., tweeting that the rival automaker should also “GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!!”
On April 8, HHS announced it had reached a $489.4 million deal with GM to produce 30,000 ventilators by the end of August, with the first 6,132 delivered by June 1.
The following week, HHS announced a $336 million contract with Ford and General Electric, which teamed up to make 50,000 of GE Healthcare’s ventilators by July 13.
Assuming all the companies meet their deadlines, AP’s analysis shows the national stockpile should surpass 100,000 new ventilators by mid-July.
HHS declined to release to AP its contracts with ventilator producers without a Freedom of Information Act request, a legal process that can often take months or even years.
But AP’s analysis of the limited contract data available online and figures taken from HHS media releases shows the agency will spend more than $2.9 billion for 198,890 ventilators by the end of 2020, an average per-unit cost of $14,618.
Whether that’s a good deal for U.S. taxpayers is difficult to determine because medical device makers generally don’t publish their prices. HHS is buying at least 13 different models of ventilators from 10 different companies, all with different capabilities, features and accessories.
When AP sought details from HHS about the per-unit cost of four models from manufacturer Hamilton Medical, the agency’s press office provided figures that did not add up to the totals announced in earlier media releases. An HHS spokesperson said the previously provided figures were wrong and would be corrected on the agency’s website.
AP found several instances where the U.S. government had purchased the same models of ventilators before the pandemic. For example, contracting data does show that in December the Department of Defense bought a single, portable ventilator from Zoll Medical for $12,260.
Under its current contract with Zoll, HHS is purchasing 18,900 of the same model for slightly more than $350 million. That works out to about $18,500 each, which would be a more than 50 percent increase from what the Pentagon paid less than five months ago.
A HHS spokeswoman said Friday the government was paying about $12,100 for each ventilator, and that the additional money was for hoses, face masks and other related supplies needed to treat COVID-19 patients. The ventilators also came with a wheeled plastic case with power port, which cost an additional $722 each, according to HHS.
The Defense Department did not respond to questions Friday about whether its 2019 ventilator deliveries also included accessories.
Zoll’s top executive said his company’s pricing had remained consistent.
“Zoll is supplying the U.S. government with its requested products at our usual and customary government pricing, absorbing the additional costs associated with Zoll’s rapid increase in production capacity,” Zoll CEO Jonathan Rennert said Friday. “We are focused on fulfilling the government’s order on time and meeting this urgent public need.”
Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan who studies the medical device industry, said ventilator companies are probably incurring increased costs as they ramp up production to meet high demand. Manufacturers haven’t had time to bulk buy additional parts and probably had to add workers to make more of the machines, he said.
U.S. ventilator makers have raised production from a rate of about 700 per week in February to about 5,000 per week by early April, according to the Advanced Medical Technology Association, an industry trade group.
“If you don’t have time to change your manufacturing processes to get those economies of scale, you get there by brute force, extra labor,” said Gordon, who teaches a course in monetizing medical device ideas. “Your costs actually go up, not down.”
With the federal government buying most of the new ventilators being made in the U.S., state governments and hospital systems urgently seeking the machines have often been forced to go through middlemen or foreign suppliers.
Cuomo has compared the free-for-all bidding to going on eBay, and said during a March 31 briefing that New York had ordered 17,000 ventilators from China for $25,000 each.
“We are paying $25,000 per ventilator, and we are broke,” Cuomo said. “The last thing I want to do is buy a single ventilator I don’t need.”
More than a month later, only 2,500 of the Chinese machines have been delivered, according to Cuomo’s office. In a separate case, New York officials are trying to recover another $69.1 million paid to a Silicon Valley electrical engineer who promised 1,450 ventilators that never materialized.
With nearly 200,000 new ventilators set for delivery to the federal stockpile by the end of the year, Trump is declaring victory. But it is now unclear whether the stockpile of new ventilators will be needed.
In the little more than a month since Trump announced the buying spree, a series of medical studies has spurred questions about whether ventilators are effective at saving the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 30 found that only 1 of 7 patients older than 70 who were put on a ventilator survived. For patients younger than 70, just 36% lived.
In New York City, state officials say 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines died.
The studies have caused doctors to reevaluate the use of ventilators in favor of less intensive forms of respiratory support.
Trump administration officials say the new ventilators could still prove valuable if the virus outbreak were to intensify into a second wave after the warm summer months.
“It’s very important that we have a completely refreshed and a comprehensive stockpile going into the fall,” Dr. Deborah Birx, a medical adviser on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said at a briefing on April 21. “I think that’s why we’ve continued to bring in those shipments and work on the ventilators so that those would be available not only for the United States but certainly if other partner countries have this level of tragedy.”
Trump said he intends to ship thousands of the breathing machines overseas, where the needs are greater.
On Tuesday, Mexico said it received a shipment of ventilators from the United States. Trump said last week Russia is also set to receive U.S. ventilators, along with other countries.
“People dying because they don’t have ventilators, and they’re not equipped to do what we did,” Trump said Friday. “So we’re giving thousands and thousands of these ventilators away to many countries that have suffered greatly: Italy, France, Spain, so many countries. And Nigeria called. Tremendous problems in Nigeria. Tremendous problems all over. And so they’re very happy.”
Krisher reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.


chicagosun-times--2020-05-11--Dear Abby: I miss the friend who blocked my messages and then disappeared

DEAR ABBY : I had this friend who I met eight months ago at a local boxing gym here in Chicago .
We got along extremely well and even hung out a couple of times .
However , she left her job at the gym two months later and things started falling apart .
I started sending excessive messages on her social media , and she didn ’ t like it .
By the following month , she had enough .
She told me I have an unhealthy attachment to her and we would go our separate ways .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and she hasn ’ t contacted me since .
Four months later , I am better , but she is still in my head .
I really want to write her a nice and sincere letter and reconcile with her and have her be my friend again .
I didn ’ t know that I was doing something wrong .
I have tried reaching out to her multiple times recently via email , to no avail .
In the meantime , one of her friends told me she has moved to Texas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ How can I show her I can be her friend again without exhibiting those same “ toxic ” behaviors ?
— GUY WITH A WOUNDED HEART DEAR GUY : You have already done enough .
You have done so much , in fact , that the young woman felt she was being stalked .
She has sent you clear signals that she ’ s not interested in being friends — or anything more — with you .
For your own sake , take the hint , leave her alone and , please , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t repeat it with someone else .
DEAR ABBY : I am 60 , and my husband is 64 .
We lost everything in the recession .
A dear friend helped us get back on our feet , and my son and husband built a home on land we purchased with our last dollar .
We have a mortgage and all the bills that come with it .
We have no savings , pension or life insurance .
I work 40 hours a week , and my husband is partially disabled from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who is studying to become an RN , is 33 .
He lives with us and pays $ 550 a month , which pays the property taxes .
He has slowly brought his girlfriend into our home , whom we like , but she does not contribute financially .
I have asked my son for some extra money , and he refused .
We will always appreciate how he pitched in and helped us in creating a new home .
What can I do without starting a family war ?
— KEEPING THE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been interesting to know what reason your son gave you for his refusal .
Continue talking with him about it .
Unless the girlfriend is unemployed , she should at least pay for her food and a share of the utilities if she is living in your home .
DEAR READERS : This is National Women ’ s Health Week .
Because of the current crisis , taking care of your health is now more important than ever .
Make it a priority .
Eat healthy , give yourself the gift of exercise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sleep you need , and schedule that appointment to see your doctor or dentist as soon as they are seeing patients again .
Take steps to eliminate behaviors that put you at risk : smoking , texting while driving and not wearing a seatbelt .
Your health is your most precious possession , so please , take care of it .
For more information , visit womenshealth.gov .
— Love , ABBY Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren , also known as Jeanne Phillips , and was founded by her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O .
Box 69440 , Los Angeles , CA 90069 .
What teens need to know about sex , drugs , AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in “ What Every Teen Should Know.
” Send your name and mailing address , plus check or money order for $ 8 ( U.S. funds ) , to : Dear Abby , Teen Booklet , P.O .
Box 447 , Mount Morris , IL 61054-0447 .
( Shipping and handling are included in the price . )

DEAR ABBY: I had this friend who I met eight months ago at a local boxing gym here in Chicago. We got along extremely well and even hung out a couple of times. However, she left her job at the gym two months later and things started falling apart.
I started sending excessive messages on her social media, and she didn’t like it. By the following month, she had enough. She told me I have an unhealthy attachment to her and we would go our separate ways. She blocked me from all social media, and she hasn’t contacted me since.
Four months later, I am better, but she is still in my head. I really want to write her a nice and sincere letter and reconcile with her and have her be my friend again. I didn’t know that I was doing something wrong.
I have tried reaching out to her multiple times recently via email, to no avail. In the meantime, one of her friends told me she has moved to Texas, which makes it even more heartbreaking. How can I show her I can be her friend again without exhibiting those same “toxic” behaviors? — GUY WITH A WOUNDED HEART
DEAR GUY: You have already done enough. You have done so much, in fact, that the young woman felt she was being stalked. She has sent you clear signals that she’s not interested in being friends — or anything more — with you. For your own sake, take the hint, leave her alone and, please, learn from this experience so you won’t repeat it with someone else.
DEAR ABBY: I am 60, and my husband is 64. We lost everything in the recession. A dear friend helped us get back on our feet, and my son and husband built a home on land we purchased with our last dollar. We have a mortgage and all the bills that come with it. We have no savings, pension or life insurance. I work 40 hours a week, and my husband is partially disabled from an autoimmune disease.
My son, who is studying to become an RN, is 33. He lives with us and pays $550 a month, which pays the property taxes. He has slowly brought his girlfriend into our home, whom we like, but she does not contribute financially. I have asked my son for some extra money, and he refused. We will always appreciate how he pitched in and helped us in creating a new home. What can I do without starting a family war? — KEEPING THE PEACE
DEAR KEEPING: It would have been interesting to know what reason your son gave you for his refusal. Continue talking with him about it. Unless the girlfriend is unemployed, she should at least pay for her food and a share of the utilities if she is living in your home.
DEAR READERS: This is National Women’s Health Week. Because of the current crisis, taking care of your health is now more important than ever. Make it a priority. Eat healthy, give yourself the gift of exercise, manage your stress levels, get the sleep you need, and schedule that appointment to see your doctor or dentist as soon as they are seeing patients again. Take steps to eliminate behaviors that put you at risk: smoking, texting while driving and not wearing a seatbelt. Your health is your most precious possession, so please, take care of it. For more information, visit womenshealth.gov. — Love, ABBY
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in “What Every Teen Should Know.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds), to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)


chicagosun-times--2020-05-11--Cook County correctional officer dies of COVID-19 complications: officials

Antoine Jones , 51 , worked for the Cook County sheriff ’ s office since July 2002 , according to a statement from the sheriff ’ s office .
He lived on the South Side and is survived by his wife and five adult children .
Officials said Jones was diagnosed with COVID-19 in late March and died from apparent complications of the virus , but an autopsy has not yet been performed to officially rule on his cause of death .
His death is considered a line-of-duty death and the sheriff ’ s office “ will be strongly advocating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that designation affords , ” the sheriff ’ s office said in the statement .
Jones is the third correctional officer to die of complications related to the coronavirus , the sheriff ’ s office said .
As of Sunday evening , 89 correctional officers at the jail are positive for the virus , in addition to 32 other sheriff ’ s office employees , officials said .
Another 275 employees who previously tested positive have since returned to work .
Seven detainees who tested positive for COVID-19 at the jail have died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office .
Currently , 236 detainees are positive for the virus , with six being treated at hospitals .
Another 291 are no longer considered positive for the virus and are being monitored at a recovery facility at the jail , the sheriff ’ s office said .

A second correctional officer at Cook County Jail has died from complications of COVID-19, according to the sheriff’s office, while an outbreak of the disease at the jail has already killed more than a half-dozen detainees and infected hundreds other detainees and staff.
Antoine Jones, who died Sunday, worked for the Cook County sheriff’s office since July 2002, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office. The 51-year-old lived on the South Side and is survived by his wife and five adult children.
Jones was diagnosed with COVID-19 in late March, the sheriff’s office said.
Autopsy results released Monday confirmed he died of a coronavirus infection, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
His death is considered a line-of-duty death and the sheriff’s office “will be strongly advocating that his family receive all the benefits that designation affords,” the sheriff’s office said in the statement.
“We mourn the loss of Officer Jones and send our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones for the irreplaceable loss of this husband, father and friend,” the sheriff’s office said.
As of Sunday evening, 89 correctional officers at the jail are positive for the virus, in addition to 32 other sheriff’s office employees, officials said. Another 275 employees who previously tested positive have since returned to work.
Seven detainees of the jail have died after testing positive for COVID-19, according to the sheriff’s office. Currently, 236 detainees are positive for the virus, with six being treated at hospitals.
Another 291 detainees are no longer considered positive for the virus and are being monitored at a recovery facility at the jail, the sheriff’s office said.
“Correctional staff like Officer Jones are the unseen heroes in the fight against this global pandemic, bravely working to keep their fellow colleagues, detainees, and the public safe from COVID-19,” the sheriff’s office said said. “We will honor his memory with our continued fight to confront this insidious and unrelenting disease.”


chicagosun-times--2020-05-11--Skokie development’s prospects improve with new partner

As with a lot of things in life , time and timing are of the essence .
Consider , for example , a real estate development in downtown Skokie that ’ s been eagerly awaited while being shadowed by bad luck , the latest case of which is tied to our commerce-crushing pandemic .
It ’ s a project at 8000 N. Lincoln Ave. , the northwest corner of Lincoln and Oakton Street in Skokie .
The $ 70 million project of luxury apartments with retail and a parking garage has strong backing from the village , which owns the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high-end rentals and a design by a well-known local architect , Lucien Lagrange .
Dignitaries broke ground at the site in 2018 , and a lot of foundation work went on .
Last year , an expensive tower crane went up and residents expected to see progress , but work stopped .
John Dragic of Winnetka-based Greenspire Capital said there were delays during construction season for an environmental cleanup — there used to be a dry cleaner on the property — and for a state permit to close a traffic lane on Lincoln @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to accommodate construction equipment .
Work on the parking garage proceeded , and the plan was to start on the 12-story apartment building around April 1 .
“ That was inelegant timing by us , ” Dragic said .
COVID-19 was turning everyone ’ s world upside down .
Lenders became nervous and wouldn ’ t OK a construction loan for the 153-unit building , which would become the tallest in downtown Skokie .
The crane came down .
Dragic and investor Norm Hassinger needed help .
They found it in downtown builder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Group , who has been responsible for some of the most interesting local developments in recent years .
Working with Cook County government , he ’ s wrapping up a renovation that ’ s putting two Hyatt hotel brands in the old Cook County Hospital .
Murphy worked with Lagrange on the posh Lincoln Park 2550 overlooking the lake .
In 2015 , Murphy finished a well-received renovation of the landmark Chicago Motor Club building at 68 E. Wacker Place , now a Hampton Inn .
The Skokie project “ was a fundamentally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for financing , ” Murphy said .
“ They needed balance sheet support and strength to get this done.
” He also has background in high-rise construction to mollify suddenly nervous lenders .
“ He will effectively manage the development , ” Dragic said .
Plans call for the parking garage to be done by late summer and for work to start within a couple of months on the apartment building , provided a roughly $ 45 million loan can be arranged .
Murphy said with a construction schedule of about 15 months @ @ @ @ @ @ @ late 2021 or early 2022 that will coincide with a robust recovery .
“ Hopefully , we can have a big party , ” Murphy said .
Skokie officials have backed the project with a $ 6 million commitment from tax increment financing plus about $ 10 million in bonds to support building the parking garage , which will include some free public spaces to support other businesses in its downtown .
Officials believe the subsidies are justified because the project will provide tax revenue from a half-block site that ’ s been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an enormous complication , but Murphy said he sees enduring demand for high-end residential .
“ We ’ ll see even higher demand for suburban rentals around this crisis , ” he said .
“ Suburban office demand may be picking up , too ” if people have less taste for crowded downtown settings .
But the projects that get loans will require investors with substantial equity and experience , Murphy said .
Anything else will be “ sidelined indefinitely , ” he said .
I asked him about the Standard Club at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ building from the 1920s that ’ s now on the market .
It seems like the kind of project right in his wheelhouse .
Murphy said he has looked the property over but was put off by the high , 20- to 30-foot ceilings on the lower floors .
The building can ’ t be easily converted to residential use , and financing for a hotel will be a problem in the current market , he said .
“ It ’ s going to be years before anyone opens a new hotel in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adding the best option for the Standard Club might be a teardown .
Dragic said new retail or office development will be the most difficult to pull off post-pandemic , with residential or warehouse projects perhaps faring better .
“ The financial markets are sorting themselves out , but I would say the panic has passed , ” he said .
These days , that qualifies as unbridled optimism .

As with a lot of things in life, time and timing are of the essence. Consider, for example, a real estate development in downtown Skokie that’s been eagerly awaited while being shadowed by bad luck, the latest case of which is tied to our commerce-crushing pandemic.
It’s a project at 8000 N. Lincoln Ave., the northwest corner of Lincoln and Oakton Street in Skokie. The $70 million project of luxury apartments with retail and a parking garage has strong backing from the village, which owns the land, a market seemingly primed for high-end rentals and a design by a well-known local architect, Lucien Lagrange.
Dignitaries broke ground at the site in 2018, and a lot of foundation work went on. Last year, an expensive tower crane went up and residents expected to see progress, but work stopped.
John Dragic of Winnetka-based Greenspire Capital said there were delays during construction season for an environmental cleanup — there used to be a dry cleaner on the property — and for a state permit to close a traffic lane on Lincoln Avenue, part of U.S. 41, to accommodate construction equipment.
Chicago Enterprise bug Chicago Enterprise
Work on the parking garage proceeded, and the plan was to start on the 12-story apartment building around April 1. “That was inelegant timing by us,” Dragic said.
COVID-19 was turning everyone’s world upside down. Lenders became nervous and wouldn’t OK a construction loan for the 153-unit building, which would become the tallest in downtown Skokie. The crane came down. Dragic and investor Norm Hassinger needed help.
They found it in downtown builder John Murphy, chairman of Murphy Development Group, who has been responsible for some of the most interesting local developments in recent years.
Working with Cook County government, he’s wrapping up a renovation that’s putting two Hyatt hotel brands in the old Cook County Hospital. Murphy worked with Lagrange on the posh Lincoln Park 2550 overlooking the lake. In 2015, Murphy finished a well-received renovation of the landmark Chicago Motor Club building at 68 E. Wacker Place, now a Hampton Inn.
The Skokie project “was a fundamentally strong program, but it was challenged for financing,” Murphy said. “They needed balance sheet support and strength to get this done.” He also has background in high-rise construction to mollify suddenly nervous lenders. “He will effectively manage the development,” Dragic said.
John Murphy Murphy Development Group
John Dragic Greenspire Capital
Plans call for the parking garage to be done by late summer and for work to start within a couple of months on the apartment building, provided a roughly $45 million loan can be arranged.
Murphy said with a construction schedule of about 15 months, he hopes for a finish in late 2021 or early 2022 that will coincide with a robust recovery. “Hopefully, we can have a big party,” Murphy said.
Skokie officials have backed the project with a $6 million commitment from tax increment financing plus about $10 million in bonds to support building the parking garage, which will include some free public spaces to support other businesses in its downtown. Officials believe the subsidies are justified because the project will provide tax revenue from a half-block site that’s been vacant for years.
The pandemic is an enormous complication, but Murphy said he sees enduring demand for high-end residential. “We’ll see even higher demand for suburban rentals around this crisis,” he said. “Suburban office demand may be picking up, too” if people have less taste for crowded downtown settings.
But the projects that get loans will require investors with substantial equity and experience, Murphy said. Anything else will be “sidelined indefinitely,” he said.
I asked him about the Standard Club at 320 S. Plymouth Court, a 13-story building from the 1920s that’s now on the market. It seems like the kind of project right in his wheelhouse.
Murphy said he has looked the property over but was put off by the high, 20- to 30-foot ceilings on the lower floors. The building can’t be easily converted to residential use, and financing for a hotel will be a problem in the current market, he said.
“It’s going to be years before anyone opens a new hotel in downtown Chicago,” Murphy said, adding the best option for the Standard Club might be a teardown.
Dragic said new retail or office development will be the most difficult to pull off post-pandemic, with residential or warehouse projects perhaps faring better. “The financial markets are sorting themselves out, but I would say the panic has passed,” he said.
These days, that qualifies as unbridled optimism.