Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Champaign) thinks there are other reasons legislative leaders canceled the Illinois General Assembly's fall session. | Photo Courtesy of SenChapinRose.com
Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Champaign) thinks there are other reasons legislative leaders canceled the Illinois General Assembly's fall session. | Photo Courtesy of SenChapinRose.com
The University of Illinois System’s Shield Illinois collects saliva samples for COVID-19 testing, testing approximately 20,000 samples daily.
A document from Shield Illinois noted it follows the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) and collects “protected health information.”
“I’m happy to set up a town hall with you and my constituents any time next month,” Sen. Chapin Rose wrote on Facebook to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “What have you got to lose?”
Pritzker attended the Illinois agricultural legislative roundtable where he spoke on his agriculture policies, alongside his GOP gubernatorial opponent.
The comment by Pritzker in the ag roundtable that Rose is responding to is this:
“Darren Bailey is lying to you about a few things. There’s nothing in the energy bill that makes it easier to impose eminent domain, absolutely nothing.”
With the collected data, the Illinois Newsroom reported the program learned the infection rate in undergraduate students was “completely unrelated” to cases in Champaign County, showing the university didn’t spread the virus into the community.
Rose has recently spoken out about things happening at the University of Illinois, particularly the collection, utilization and possible sale of data related to the records of 8 million Illinoisans.
“This was never publicly mentioned or discussed,” Rose wrote in an email to the University of Illinois administrators. “So, you've collected, and kept, 8 million saliva samples from people? Some, literary forced to take a test against their wishes. Never mind the total lack of transparency in informing those who voluntarily wanted a test that you had alternative designs on their DNA? You are going to sell my constituent’s DNA? Where is their right to control this decision?”
An FAQ by Shield Illinois said the testing doesn’t collect a person’s DNA, only for indications of the coronavirus.
He also took aim at an audit at Northern Illinois University.
“The reason you have an audit isn’t to place blame or point fingers unless there is some actual criminal illegality, but it’s to make things better,” Rose said. “When I see these repeat audit findings, the takeaway is whatever institution or state agency that is in front of us isn’t learning from its past mistakes and isn’t getting better.”
To learn more about personal health information used for research, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ HIPPA Privacy Rules.
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