As COVID-19 emergency comes to an end in Illinois, some say state’s handling of pandemic was botched

[May 11, 2023]  By Kevin Bessler | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The symbolic end to the COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois is Thursday as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s string of disaster proclamations expire.

Pritzker issued 42 disaster proclamations, making Illinois one of only six states still calling COVID-19 a disaster.

“Since COVID-19 first emerged nearly three years ago, my administration has worked diligently alongside the federal government to battle this once-in-a-generation pandemic by following scientific and medical guidance to support frontline workers and save lives,” Pritzker said in a statement when announcing the end of the proclamations earlier this year.

When asked about the sustained executive orders earlier this year, Pritzker said he kept the rolling emergency proclamations going to coincide with the federal emergency declaration in part to access any federal taxpayer-funded relief money. Of more than $4.6 trillion the U.S. Congress approved during the pandemic, Illinois public and private sectors received nearly $107 billion, according to USASpending.gov.

How Pritzker handled the pandemic depends on who you ask.

Ted Dabrowsi, president of the nonprofit Wirepoints, said the pandemic was some dark times for Illinoisans.

“It was a horrible period and it didn’t have to be that way and we know that because we saw some other states and some countries that didn’t pursue the same draconian policies and did as well or better than we did from a COVID-lives perspective,” Dabrowski said.

In March 2020, Pritzker issued stay-at-home orders that lasted for more than two months. In the face of increasing disregard of COVID-19 mandates, some states loosened restrictions in May 2020, while Illinois stayed completely shut down.

Dabrowksi said that so many things were done wrong in Illinois during the pandemic.

“Businesses were forced to be closed and businesses and livelihoods were destroyed,” Dabrowski said. “We were forced to carry vaccine passports, that was another destruction of freedom, and even when we knew that people who were vaccinated could spread COVID, we shut down schools and destroyed a lot of children’s lives.”

A recent study focused on the outcomes of states that placed restrictions on residents and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Paragon Health Institute compared the degree of state government response measures to health, economic and educational outcome measures in all 50 states. The study showed severe government interventions strongly correlated with worse economic outcomes, with increased unemployment and decreased GDP, and also worse educational outcomes with fewer days of in-person schooling.

The study’s author noted that Illinois’ restrictions resulted in average health outcomes for residents, but hurt the state economically and in education. The restrictions most likely exacerbated the state’s outmigration, the author notes, as people voted with their feet and fled states with severe restrictions to states that took a more restrained approach.

Meanwhile, unlike other states, the Illinois General Assembly has taken no action in regulating the length of executive emergency powers.

Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.