McHenry Times

Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker is defending his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic after Dr. Anthony Fauci recently cast doubt on the efficacy of his approach on Feb 2nd.

Back in early 2020, the Pritzker administration said the risk to the public from the novel coronavirus was low, but two weeks later his administration moved to order restaurants to close to in-person service, ordered schools closed and issued a weeks-long stay-at-home order followed by months of consecutive disaster proclamations and executive orders that persist.

“One that I often think about is could we have had a mask mandate earlier, should we have, would that have saved more lives,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “As it is, we saved an awful lot of lives I think with the restrictions that were in place and people followed them importantly."

Research by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University found vaccine mandates imposed by city officials in Chicago and elsewhere made virtually no difference in stopping the spread of the virus, with researchers adding “these mandates imposed severe restrictions on the lives of many citizens and business owners. Yet, we find no evidence that the mandates were effective in their intended goals of reducing COVID-19 cases and deaths.”

Earlier this year in a published paper, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who left his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases last year, cast doubt on the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. Despite Fauci's words, Pritzker continues to defend his decisions.