Last month (issue #979), the Reader published 11 questions relative to COVID-19 for the Scott County and Rock Island County Health Departments. Both departments deferred to Scott County Medical Director Dr. Louis Katz for responses and we are pleased to share his unedited responses, along with the original questions, below. (For my responses to these answers with additional supporting documentation, see "Questioning Unreliable PCR Testing Is Hardly Trivial.")

On page nine of last week’s federal indictment of four people accused of conspiring to bribe House Speaker Michael Madigan with favors from ComEd is this heading: “Defendants and Relevant Individuals. ”But the first person listed is not one of the defendants. “Public Official A was the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” the list begins.

Regarding the worldwide crisis brought about by governments' response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, for nine months the Reader has kept to our mission of providing news and information beyond what is delivered by both local and national corporate media. Alternative information and viewpoints are what we do, and COVID-19 is no exception. In fact, because of its importance to our bio-future and personal freedoms, understanding COVID-related issues deserves as deep a dive as we can muster.  

[Dec 11, 2020: Here are the counties' answers to the Reader's questions: https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/dr-katz-answers-11-covid-questions]

Illinois Democrats were hoping for some big election-night wins last week, but now everything has devolved into finger-pointing chaos. Governor JB Pritzker’s graduated-income tax proposal was in some doubt for a while. The governor’s campaign chose not to advertise early because of the delicacies of politics during a pandemic, so they passed up a chance at total dominance of the playing field during crucial months.