Prairie State Wire

When Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed off on the stay-at-home order that essentially shut off Illinois' economy five weeks ago, few could argue with his reasoning. Now, though, a government watchdog group claims the current reality warrants opening the state back up. 

“Today, the situation is far different,” Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski and Policy Analyst John Klingner wrote in a column published on Tuesday. “We now have far more data about the crisis."

That new data, Dabrowski and Klingner wrote, tell who is most at risk from the virus and who needs to be far better protected. The data also point to a climate better suited for a far different reality. 

 “The general public should phase back into work immediately, while there’s still work to be had,” Dabrowski and Klingner said. “The economic data shows [SIC] how quickly the current lockdown is killing jobs and livelihoods.”

Those most vulnerable, according to the data, are an elderly group troubled by preexisting conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, and coronary disease. And even in those instances, hospitals are much better equipped to deal with the fallout then what they were when the virus first showed up, Dabrowski and Klingner said. 

Under Pritzker's current stay-at-home order, unemployment figures in Illinois have ballooned, with the numbers swelling to nearly 27 million over a recent five-week period, or nearly five times greater than what they were before the crisis started.

Wirepoints argues the damage easily runs deeper.    

“Interwoven with economic decline are drug abuse, depression, domestic violence and deepening poverty that destroy families,” Dabrowski and Klingner said, noting that Illinois could soon experience as many as 3,000 additional drug-related deaths and suicides as domestic violence cases are also on the rise across the country.