here’s why Chicago is reopening way too fast

COVID-19 cases are rising in the U.S. once again, while Europe continues to decline according to Our World in Data:

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This is just plain depressing. Why is the U.S. unable to comply and work together to get rid of this virus? That’s a question for another day.

Yesterday, June 24th, the U.S. had the highest number of new COVID-19 cases, making it a new national record. And that’s without every state reopening. It’s only a matter of time before Illinois relapses, and it will happen: but when?

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On Friday, Phase Four will go into effect. What does this mean? People can have gatherings of 50 people instead of 10. They can also eat indoors at their favorite restaurants, go to the gym, theaters, zoos, and museums among other things with restrictions. The final phase, Phase Five, will not go into effect until there’s a vaccine.

But should we really be reopening so soon? We’ve all seen what happens when states reopen too early. Like Florida, for example. Their cases are climbing rapidly, and if we aren’t careful, we could have the same fate, although unlikely.

Chicago on the norm has not been enforcing masks or social distancing rules with fines like they promised. Many were at the lakefront before it was open, police merely surveying instead of issuing citations. Masks are not being worn, either, unless people go inside a business that requires one.

Protests are also going on throughout the city and across the nation. The media barely reports on it nowadays, but it’s still there. Don’t get me wrong, the protests are necessary – it’s just unfortunate that there’s a pandemic going on at the same time.

Cases have been going down, but over the past two days, they’ve been rising once more according to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH):

While cases have gone down, today we’ve seen a dramatic spike compared to the last week. This shows that we are not ready to reopen so soon, no matter what the qualifications are for Phase Four. Cases will just rise again, so what’s the rush?

Another reason: our healthcare workers need a break. How long have they been working nonstop? And as soon as there’s a week or two of decline, it’s decided that Illinois should move straight to Phase Four, ensuring an increase in cases once again?

It’s not time to reopen at all. Everything’s cancelled either way this summer, guys. Just let this virus ride out.

Resources:

“COVID-19 Statistics.” Illinois Department of Public Health, updated June 25, 2020, https://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19/covid19-statistics.

“Daily confirmed COVID-19 cases, Jun 24, 2020.” Our World in Data, updated June 24, 2020, https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-cases-covid-19?yScale=log&time=2020-06-24&country=Europe~USA.