CHICAGO — Gov. J.B. Pritzker celebrated Joe Biden's presidential victory by parading down a crowded Boystown sidewalk Saturday as coronavirus cases spiked to record levels in Illinois.
On Twitter, you can see unmasked men enjoying margaritas inside a Mexican restaurant — in defiance of Pritzker's statewide ban on indoor dining — cheer as the governor posed for non-socially distance selfies with strangers.
[COMMENTARY]
All of it occurred less than 24 hours after Pritzker's administration had announced the governor had been exposed to COVID-19 at an "external meeting" Monday and would again quarantine as a precaution.
"What?" shouted a masked man who captured the Pritzker parade on a Twitter video.
"Unfortunately, the virus doesn't make exceptions, and it would be ill-advised to make exceptions to the rules we put in place as the best mitigations to stop the spread," he said.
Last week, state public health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike called for folks to cancel Thanksgiving.
"We'll have to stay at home and forgo the large gatherings so that we will have future events that we can be with our friends and family," she said.
On Friday, Pritzker told Illinoisans the virus had gotten so out of control that he couldn't rule out another statewide stay-home order.
But there was Pritzker weaving through crowds of people to celebrate Biden's victory when a social video message would have been a safer way to celebrate, given the out-of-control coronavirus outbreak currently overtaking Illinois.
The governor's office has an explanation, of course. Dr. Ezike said it was OK for Pritzker to opt out of self-quarantine based on the fine print in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
"You know we always listen to her," Pritzker's spokeswoman told Capitol Fax.
All the governor's top flack had to do was listen to Pritzker's daily coronavirus briefings to know that's simply not true.
On Thursday, Ezike said, "Let's be clear — travel will increase your chances of contracting and spreading COVID-19, as well going to a crowded event, as well having multiple people in your home for Thanksgiving."
What part of avoid going to a "crowded event" did Pritzker misunderstand before joining in the pandemic-be-damned revelry over President Donald Trump's re-election failure?
What part of the "virus doesn't make exceptions" doesn't apply to Pritzker?
This is not shocking. Politics has always been more important than the pandemic to @GovPritzker. He went from isolation to a sidewalk parade in less than 24 hours. Dr. Arwady always says ... you can't test out of quarantine. @chicagosmayor https://t.co/V2GGAYmPcd
— Mark Konkol (@Konkolskorner) November 7, 2020
No matter the governor's response, the damage is done.
His Saturday sidewalk parade has only further eroded the credibility of his pandemic leadership, along with those "not scientifically founded" metrics guiding his coronavirus response and his political future.
It's just the latest example that our governor lacks the self-awareness and commonsense to see how dangerous it is to tell the people he serves to do as he says, regardless of his own actions.
Pritzker handed people on the fence about whether to follow his executive orders — and those calls for canceling holidays as we know them this year — another reason to ignore his coronavirus edicts.
Why would you listen to a guy who doesn't take his own advice?
Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."
More from Mark Konkol:
"crowd" - Google News
November 10, 2020 at 02:17AM
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Why Did Pritzker Party In A Crowd Despite His Coronavirus Advice? - Chicago, IL Patch
"crowd" - Google News
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