While numerous other elected Democrats across the country have announced new COVID-19 restrictions, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has delayed reimposing a mask mandate on her city, just as Lollapalooza begins.
The massive music festival is expected to draw more than 100,000 attendees over the course of the weekend, and the requirements for attendees have changed since the festival began on Thursday. Starting Saturday, participants are required to wear masks indoors, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated. For the first two days of the festival, this was not the case.
A surge of COVID-19 cases resulted in Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) reimposing a mask mandate for everyone working in or entering state facilities, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not. Lightfoot, however, has delayed implementing a broader mandate for the city while Lollapalooza takes place.
WTTW reported:
Lightfoot on Thursday declined to renew her promise, made Monday in an interview with the New York Times, to reimpose a mask mandate on Chicagoans, regardless of their vaccination status, once the city passes the 200 cases per day benchmark set by local health officials. That would mean the city would meet the standard set by the CDC to deem an area where there is “substantial” transmission of the coronavirus.
Hospitalizations in Chicago are at the highest level since mid-June, according to city data.
However, Lightfoot said the data gives city officials “some reason for optimism, in quotes” because there are fewer seriously ill Chicagoans than in prevous [sic] months.
Lightfoot herself attended Lollapalooza on Thursday by introducing the Black Pumas on stage and thanking attendees for coming to Chicago.
“Lollapalooza is the largest music festival in the world that is happening in 2021,” Lightfoot said, according to WTTW. “It is a big deal.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Lightfoot, Pritzker, and Chicago Alderman Tom Tunney all violated previous restrictions they imposed on others. From The Daily Wire:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also featured prominently in the 2020 annals of coronavirus duplicity. Shortly before Thanksgiving, Lightfoot imposed a 10-person cap on gatherings such as weddings, funerals, and other events, according to the Chicago Tribune. She even went so far as to urge families to “cancel traditional Thanksgiving plans.”
Lightfoot also faced accusations of wanton hypocrisy when she got her hair done in April, during a time when Chicagoans were forbidden even from outdoor exercise. “I am the public face of this city,” Lightfoot said when a reporter confronted her about it. “I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye. I take my personal hygiene very seriously. As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut. I’m not able to do that myself, so I got a haircut. You want to talk more about that?”
Lightfoot also celebrated in the streets amid the apparent victory of Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November.
When MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle questioned her about breaking her own rules, Lightfoot said, “Well, look, I think that we’ve been saying all along everybody has to take care, everybody has to take precaution. I will tell you, in that big crowd a week ago, we had, everybody was wearing masks. Look at, you can see the shot here – mask compliance in our city is actually up very, very high. But yes, there are times when we actually do need to have a relief and come together, and I felt like that was one of those times.”