Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.
We’re in for a hot week. This afternoon will be mostly sunny, with a high near 94 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 74 degrees. Tomorrow could feel even hotter, with a high near 93 degrees and heat index values as high as 96, ahead of two more 95-degree days.
Top story
A dreaded call from her millennial during pandemic surge: ‘Mom, I don’t feel well at all’
“Mom, I don’t feel well at all.”
It was the call one Chicago mother had feared ever since the start of the pandemic lockdowns. Her millennial offspring was calling from one of the four states hardest hit by new coronavirus outbreaks nationwide.
Those new outbreaks have led states like New York and cities like Chicago to impose quarantines on visitors from impacted states in the South and West. The new rule took effect here today.
At COVID-19’s six-month anniversary in the U.S., infections are skewing younger. In several states, nearly half the new cases are occurring among millennials.
The resurgence, public health experts say, is traced to Americans not wearing masks and shirking social distancing precautions as states reopened in May and June. Officials in the most impacted states are also pointing the finger at millennials for ignoring safeguards by packing into bars and social gatherings, where COVID-19 can easily spread.
When that Chicago mother got the call from her millennial, her heart sank. He described a headache, fever, fatigue and nausea following a weekend out at bars. It took three days of pleading, increasing misery, and loss of taste and smell before her son dragged himself to urgent care. Textbook COVID-19 symptoms, the doctor said, and he was sent home to quarantine.
While he self-quarantined for three weeks, his roommate still hung out with friends at bars and parties. And the moment he felt better, the Chicago mother said her son returned to bars too, until the state shuttered them again.
That’s not surprising: A recent survey by Testing.com found that 31 percent of respondents ages 18-34 would not self-quarantine if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and one out of four of those millennials said they wouldn’t self-quarantine even if they tested positive.
From the beginning, millennials have failed to take the virus seriously. Because initial data showed the disease was more deadly to their elders, some decided it didn’t apply to them or reasoned that if they got it, they’d escape severe consequences.
But in states where millennials are driving new infections, it’s only a matter of time before the virus spreads to vulnerable populations and deaths begin to spike, public health experts say.
Read the full Chicago Chronicles column from Maudlyne Ihejirika.
More news you need
- Fifteen people were killed and 64 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend. Eleven of the weekend’s victims were children, and two of them — 7-year-old Natalia Wallace and 14-year-old Vernado Jones Jr. — died from their injuries. It’s the third weekend in a row that kids have been killed in Chicago shootings.
- Following the deadly holiday weekend, the city’s top cop railed against a criminal justice system that he said has let too many people of out jail without adequate monitoring. Chicago Police Supt. David Brown is urging the “decision makers” to rethink Cook County’s electronic home monitoring system.
- A federal judge said he would not order the city to share records related to the firing of former Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson with lawyers for Jussie Smollett. The decision, at the crossroads of two Chicago scandals, comes one week after the city released footage and documents about the fired former top cop.
- A proposal to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in Chicago stalled in a City Council committee after running into an avalanche of opposition from gas station, convenience and tobacco store owners and the trade groups representing them. The owners say the committee is “kicking them when they’re down” following the pandemic and damage from looting.
A bright one
Chicago video game studio whips up ‘Bugsnax’ for PlayStation 5
This one’s for gamers and fans of things made in Chicago.
After more than half a decade of quietly working on the follow-up to indie hit “Octodad: Dadliest Catch,” local video game developers Young Horses announced their new title, “Bugsnax,” during Sony’s PlayStation 5 showcase event last month.
While the studio is staying tight-lipped about the particulars of the gameplay and plot, creative director Kevin Zuhn said “Bugsnax” is a first-person mystery that tasks players with searching for missing explorer Elizabert Megafig on Snaktooth Island, which is populated by the titular half-bug, half-snack food creatures. Players will have to hunt and capture the Bugsnax using a variety of traps and tools.
Young Horses’ previous release, “Octodad” — a slapstick comedy game about an octopus pretending to be regular human husband and father — started out as a student project when the developers were in the game design program at DePaul University. The eight-person team founded the company after graduating and released a commercial version of the game in 2014 that ended up selling more than a million copies.
“Back in school, I didn’t know that this would have been a possible career path,” Zuhn said. “Like I had never imagined starting a company. I had always figured that I would wind up, you know, working my way up through various positions at a bigger company.”
While there’s no release date set yet, “Bugsnax” is expected to launch this holiday season for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Read the full story from Luke Wilusz.
From the press box
Hours before MLB officially announces the 2020 schedule, we already know the two Opening Day matchups set to be hosted in Chicago: Cubs-Brewers at Wrigley Field and White Sox-Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The day will be particularly important for starting pitcher Yu Darvish, who gives the Cubs their best chance at having a proper ace for the 60-game campaign.
Your daily question ☕
What’d you do for Fourth of July this year, and how did it differ from your usual Independence Day traditions?
Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.
Thursday, we asked you: If you could go back in time to any point in history, when would you go? (Friday was the 35th anniversary of the release of “Back to the Future”). Here’s what some of you said…
“I would go back to 1973, a few years after graduation. Old enough to be independent, self supporting with no children or husband yet young enough to enjoy life responsibly.” — Delia Camacho-Nino
“I would love to go back to the 80s. Life for me was great. Had both parents. Enjoyed being around family and friends.” — Ava Ann Alcazar
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