Prairie State Wire

Jeanne Ives, founder of Breakthrough Ideas, said if Governor J.B. Pritzker truly cared about monitoring infectious diseases, he would not have "wasted $65 million" on what she described as unnecessary expenditures, including a temporary COVID hospital and excessive testing and mask supplies. She made that statement in an X post on March 27. 

"Stop complaining, Pritzker, and IDPH," said Ives. "If you really cared about monitoring for infectious diseases you wouldn't have wasted $65 million on the unused temporary COVID hospital, excessive testing, mask supplies long after we knew masks don't work, illegal healthcare and so much other bogus spending. And $125 million is chump change to you. Stop gaslighting people."

According to Ives' post, she shared a link to a press release from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) regarding the loss of pledged funding for the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Disease Program. The press release notes that this funding was part of 14 budget lines in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed during President Trump's administration. While $125 million had been approved, an additional $324 million is being blocked for future work to prevent and treat infectious diseases in Illinois. This loss will affect both the state public health department and 97 local health departments over the next two fiscal years.

Screenshot of Jeanne Ives' March 27 post on X | X

The rescinded funding from IDPH is part of $11.4 billion allocated during the pandemic response. According to an NBC News report, Andrew Nixon, Director of Communications for Health and Human Services (HHS), said: "The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago." Despite this statement, NBC reports that while the federal public health emergency ended on May 11, 2023, more than 1.2 million individuals in the U.S. have died from COVID-19.

Jeanne Ives has a notable political background; she served three terms in the Illinois House of Representatives for the 42nd district from 2013 to 2019. She ran in the 2018 Republican primary for Illinois Governor but narrowly lost to incumbent Bruce Rauner. In 2020, Ives was defeated by Democrat Sean Casten when she ran as the Republican nominee for Illinois's 6th congressional district. Currently, she hosts "The Real Story with Jeanne Ives," a radio show airing live on Sunday evenings on AM 560 The Answer in Chicago.