An Open Letter To Governor J.B. Pritzker

Anchoring – A term used in psychology to describe the common human tendency to rely too heavily on one trait or piece of information when making decisions.

In March 2020 we were told by our politicians at the local, state, and national level that we were about to head into a very difficult and dangerous time. The novel coronavirus, Covid-19, was upon us and it was going to be deadly. Most of us have never experienced something like this and the constant updates on the news made us aware of how deadly this virus was going to be.

Fast-forward five months and we now know much more about Covid-19. There have been studies conducted around the world that help us understand the virus we are dealing with. We now know that it is not nearly as deadly as we first thought. We are sending this letter to Governor Pritzker to implore him to not be anchored by the estimations from March. Instead, look at the facts of August and open our economy! It is time for us to learn to live with this virus. It is time for our businesses to reopen, not close back down.

A slogan that has been thrown around a lot over the last five months is “Facts, Not Fear”. That sounds great. Unfortunately, many of the facts surrounding Covid-19 are not widely shared with the public. The last three weeks have presented us a tipping point of information (real facts) that should allow our leaders to come to the conclusion that it is time to stop living in fear.

We respectfully request Governor Pritzker to follow the facts below and not put further restrictions on our communities.

·       The data point being used to make the decision to further restrict the Metro East is the number of positive tests in our area. We now know that the positivity percentage is a flawed metric to use due to the overwhelming number of false positives.

o   The New York Times (not exactly a pro-reopening newspaper) conducted an investigation that found 90% of people testing positive have such a small viral load that they are not contagious. 

o   The FDC announced that a popular testing kit from Thermo Fisher is producing a high number of false positives and it may be so sensitive that it is flagging the common cold as Covid-19. 

o   Labs all around the country are reporting only positive tests in their reporting which artificially increases the percentage.

·       We have known for several months that young adults and children make up a small amount of deaths from Covid-19. In fact, they rarely get more than a mild case of a fever and chills.

o   We now know from the CDC that a large amount of deaths being reported are largely from people dying with Covid-19, not from Covid-19. These deaths are extremely tragic and we need to do a better job as a state protecting our most vulnerable, especially those in nursing homes. However, we must do this without putting arbitrary restrictions on the businesses that make our state the great place it is. It’s time to look at the data and understand that most of us are not in a high-risk category. Those who are at high-risk need to be cautious, but those who are not need to be given the choice to operate their businesses and the choice to visit businesses operating in a responsible manner. 

The citizens who are signing their names to this letter are responsible people. We have looked at the facts and we understand the amount of risk we have from Covid-19. We also understand the greater risk to the future of our state by shutting businesses down, forcing good people out of business.

You are about to make a decision that will have a long-lasting impact on our state. We hope you will use facts over fear and make the right decision.

Sincerely,

Concerned Citizens And Business Owners Of The Metro-East