August 3, 2026 • 40 mins
What will be the biggest cost from Covid-19? To find the answer, we tell the story of Trevor Till…a story the University of Illinois probably doesn’t want you to hear.
This week, we are remembering what the bureaucrats did to our families by rebroadcasting some of our most important episodes during the Covid era...like this story about a college student that faced the isolation of the shutdowns.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is Red Pilled America. I'm angry just like you
about what bureaucrats like doctor Fauci did to us during
the pandemic. That's why all week we've been rebroadcasting episodes
from the COVID era to remind you to never forget
what they did to us and our families. Episodes like
this one titled Under the Rug, which was originally broadcast
(00:23):
on February nineteenth, twenty twenty one, at a time when
shows were being deplatformed for stories like this. And if
you want to get Red Pilled America ad free, go
to Redpilled America dot com and click join in the
top of the menu. Now on with the show. The
arrival of COVID nineteen triggered a panic in America.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
This college student, stricken with COVID nineteen is making an
urgent plea.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
He claims he's being forced to quarantine without basic applause, and.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
All across the United States, school of buildings sit empty.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Its COVID cases surge across the US. More than thirty
states whire people to wear face masks in.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Public quarantines, violence, death mandatory masks, food shortages, closed schools,
closed churches, businesses, shut down, election integrity, and profiteering. Americans
have seen it all. But with all the chaos unleashed
by the virus, what will be the biggest cost from
COVID nineteen. I'm Patrick CARELCI.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
And I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Stories Hollywood doesn't want you to hear.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
Stories.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. The coronavirus unleashed chaos in America the
(02:13):
likes of which we've never seen. But through all the turmoil,
what will be COVID nineteen's biggest cost? To find the answer,
We're going to tell the story of Trevor Till, a
story the University of Illinois probably doesn't want you to hear.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
It was March twelfth, twenty twenty, and like the rest
of the country, the people of Illinois were about to
enter unprecedented times.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I've asked our news stations to take this press conference
live because it's important that we have an opportunity to
speak directly to the people of Illinois. At this moment.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Democrat Governor of Illinois JB. Pritzker made an announcement that
would bring his state into the national coronavirus panic.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I want to begin tonight by announcing new guidance regarding community, social,
and sporting events in the state of Illinois. I've spoken
with the owners of all of our major sports teams,
and I've asked them to cancel all of their games
or play without spectators until May first. All of the
(03:30):
owners that I spoke with told me that they completely
understood and were more than willing to comply with this guidance. Additionally,
I'm asking that all community events that organizers expect will
attract two hundred and fifty or more people be canceled
or postponed until May first. This includes personal and social events.
(03:53):
I'm mandating that events of one thousand or more people
be canceled or postponed immediately. With regard to schools here
in Chicago and around the state, we are not closing
our schools, but we are monitoring the situation On a
day to day basis.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
But in just twenty four hours that monitoring changed his policy.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
Breaking news just a short time ago, the Governor of
Illinois announcing all schools in Illinois starting Tuesday will be closed.
Those closures will last until March thirtieth at the earliest.
Parents are now scrambling to figure out plans for the
state's two million students.
Speaker 8 (04:29):
And this was a much different message than we heard
from him yesterday and even from the mayor this morning,
both of them saying they would not be closing schools
in Illinois, but individual districts have made those decisions, and
the governor said, after looking at new evidence and what
has been happening around the world, that he wanted to
be precautious and take these measures to save lives. The
(04:51):
governor saying he wants to flatten the curve to lessen
the impact and alleviate the burden on the healthcare system
to try to slow the spread of this disease. He
is encouraging social distancing and said he was worried about
students bringing the virus home to their parents and grandparents,
and also teachers and other staff in the buildings being
(05:13):
exposed to this as well.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Governor Pritzker and his maskless team made a plea to
the people of Illinois.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Please this weekend, if you can stay home, if you
are able to telework, do so. If you don't have
to travel, don't. This isn't forever. This is a sacrifice
in the short term to help our hospitals, our healthcare workers,
our testing laboratories, and our vulnerable and elderly residents.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
Then he does hope that this two week school closure
will be all that it takes. We did ask if
this could go into the month of April, and he
did not answer that question directly, saying they are taking
this one day at a time. Lastly, he says he
would rather be criticized for doing too much than doing
too little.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Illinois was not alone. States all across America began taking
the monumental step of closing down their schools. It was
a big hit to high school seniors, especially students like
Trevor Till He.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
Was in so many clubs and so involved in everything
in school.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
That's Trevor's mom, Lisa Moore.
Speaker 9 (06:24):
He was the class president, He was a president of
National Honor Society. He was an Illinois State scholar. He
was the captain acrosse team. He was a po vaulter.
He was the drum major, He played the trombone. He
was in choir. He was the president of the Spanish club.
(06:46):
He was in drama club. He was the lead of
the play in the Fall, and then he was the
male lead in the musical.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Trevor's high school was in Seneca, Illinois, a small town
of roughly twenty five hundred people about seventy miles southwest
of Chicago. At the time time Illinois schools were shut down,
Trevor was just coming off the lead role in his
school's musical rendition of The Music Man, the nineteen fifty
seven Tony Award winning Broadway musical.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
With One Tenos, and they were followed by Rose and
Rose off The Finest Birds.
Speaker 9 (07:25):
He was the music Man. He was awesome.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Trevor was an extrovert that loved school. It was his
life force. So when Seneca High School got shut down,
he was hoping it was just for a couple of
days or maybe a few weeks. Again, Trevor's mom, Lisa.
Speaker 9 (07:44):
When he first came home and we didn't know what
was happening in the very beginning, you know, it was
just gonna be okay, we're home for a week or
two weeks.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
But then Illinois Governor Pritzker did what so many of
his peers did across the country.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
To avoid the loss of potentially tens of thousands of lives,
we must enact in immediate stay at home order for
the state of Illinois. So that is the action that
I'm announcing today. Left unchecked, cases in Illinois will rise rapidly.
Hospital systems will be overwhelmed, protective equipment will become scarce,
(08:21):
and we will not have enough healthcare workers or hospital
beds or ventilators for the overwhelming influx of sick patients.
I fully recognize that in some cases, I am choosing
between saving people's lives and saving people's livelihoods. But ultimately,
you can't have a livelihood if you don't have your life. Therefore,
(08:45):
starting tomorrow evening, Saturday, March twenty first, at five pm,
until the end of April seventh, all our residents will
be subject to a stay at home order.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
At the time, schools were telling student athletes to continue
their training.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
They kept saying, keep running, you guys, keep working out
at home, and you know, keep going because as soon
as we get back, we're going to be starting, you know,
track season and everything, and baseball and you know, all
of our spring sports.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
By the end of April twenty twenty, it was becoming
very clear that the coronavirus was not as deadly as
the experts predicted, especially for children and young adults.
Speaker 10 (09:23):
You may remember what they first told us back in
February and March. They said, we have to take radical
steps in order to quote flatten the curve. Well, six
weeks later, we're happy to say that curve has been flattened,
but it's likely not because of the lockdowns. The virus
just isn't nearly as deadly as we thought it was.
All of us, including on this show. Everybody thought it was,
but it turned out not to be. Hospitals never collapsed
(09:46):
outside of a tiny number of places. They never came
close to collapsing, at least not from an influx of
infected patients. Instead, something remarkable happened, something amazing, really without
parallel in American history.
Speaker 6 (09:58):
The opposite happened.
Speaker 10 (10:00):
Thanks to the lockdowns. Hospitals have he come to collapse
why from a lack of patience.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yet, even with the positive data coming in, governors were
expanding their shutdown orders.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
The major news from Governor Pritzker this afternoon is a
month long extension to the stay at home order for Illinois.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It was expected and now it's official, the Governor extending
the stay at home order until May thirtieth.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Trevor's high school closure went from two weeks to a
few months.
Speaker 9 (10:34):
His classes were on zoom, and he hated it because,
like I said, he was ultra involved and liked to
be in class and had a great report with his
teachers and he's like, mom, this just stinks, you know,
just and just doing all his work from home and
his bedroom and a computer. Just he didn't he hated it,
you know, he's like, I feel lost. My life's there,
(10:57):
you know, in high school. And kept trying to encourage
him and kept saying, well, we don't know how long
it's going to be. Hopefully you'll get to go back,
and then it just dragged out obviously longer longer, and
then it was like problem looked like it was gonna
maybe happen like late May, and then that got canceled.
So that was a big bomber from and we didn't
(11:18):
know what was going to happen with graduation.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Trevor eventually did have a ceremony, a modified one. Only
his parents were able to attend, no extended family or siblings.
He had two older brothers and two older sisters. Missing
out on almost every big senior moment must have been
an enormous downer for millions of high school and college students.
It was for Trevor, and he had a hard time
(11:41):
keeping busy.
Speaker 9 (11:42):
In April, when I saw that there was going to
be no track season for sure, and I saw Trevor,
you know, I knew he was sad about everything. I said,
I suggested, you know, and his dad did too, that
he got a job, something to do to keep him busy,
because he was such a busy kid. So he did
(12:02):
get a job at Minards, which is like a Lows
or a home depot.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
He started the job in April twenty twenty, and.
Speaker 9 (12:09):
So that helped, you know, because he was out again
amongst people, and mostly younger people worked in the garden center,
so he made some new friends there too.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
However, Trevor was still missing the camaraderie of those final
days of high school. But there was a light at
the end of the tunnel. College. He was an honor student,
so going off to higher education was a foregone conclusion.
Trevor ied the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. It
(12:42):
was a much larger school than he was used to.
His graduating class at Seneca High had about one hundred people.
U of I typically has around fifty thousand students, seventy
five hundred of witch are freshmen. Trevor may have been
down about high school, but at least he'd had the
college experience on the horizon. Welcome back to red pilled America.
(13:06):
So Trevor Hill had just experienced the shutdowns during the
final months of his senior year. He missed out on sports,
plays and just the general camaraderie of high school. But
there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
He'd gotten into the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and
they were promoting normalcy at the college. Then in mid
(13:27):
May twenty twenty, news hit about a college system in California.
Speaker 11 (13:33):
We've learned the chancellor for the California State University System
announced today that at least in the minimum, the vast
majority of in person classes for the fall semester have
been canceled. The schools will be shifting their focus to
online courses in the wake of the pandemic.
Speaker 12 (13:49):
Students attending cal State schools likely won't see the inside
of a classroom until twenty twenty one. The California State
University System is the first group of schools in the
nation to move nearly all classes online this full In
response to CO nineteen.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
The cal State University Chancellor gave his rationale.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
We got to this decision because the health and wellbeing
of our students and employees is the most important factor
in any decision that we make.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
With almost half a million students, California State University is
the largest four year university system in America. Their decision
carried weight in academic circles.
Speaker 13 (14:25):
And Tom, let's go back to California. We mentioned the
country's largest public university system. Cal State has decided not
to reopen campus and just move classes online this fall.
What do you think that means? I mean in terms
of a signal for other universities around the country.
Speaker 14 (14:40):
Well, it certainly could be a precedent. The cal State system,
as you know, is half a million people, twenty three campuses.
It says it's been losing hundreds of millions of dollars
because students are not on campus. Universities up and down
are struggling with when they should reopen and how good
of an education are they providing if it's online Like.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Millions of other college students, Trevor was wondering how his
target at college, the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne, was
going to handle the coming school year.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
He wanted a big school. He wanted a bigger school,
you know, coming from a smaller high school, he just
thought he wanted something bigger, just to you know. He
wanted to be in marching band, you know, that was
one of the things. And u of I had a
good marching band, and it was only two hours from home.
You know, as we waited and waited closer and closer,
we weren't even sure if he was going to go,
(15:29):
if they were going to open the dorms, what they
were going to do.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Then came a glimmer of hope.
Speaker 15 (15:39):
U of I is playing to hold in person classes
this fall the Champagne or ban of campus. It will
also allow students to live on campus with restrictions. The
school says it will follow state guidelines.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
In mid June twenty twenty, the University of Illinois announced
that it's Urbana Champagne campuses were going to open. The
chancellor of the school system stated, quote Fall twenty twenty
will be an on campus semester with as much in
person instruction and residential occupancy as restrictions of space, health
and safety allow end quote. UYUC, as it's called, was
(16:16):
bucking the trend of many other large universities. The college
aggressively promoted the twenty twenty school year and began hyping
the possibilities. It highlighted the fact that two alumni of
the school started YouTube. It announced the Fighting a Line
Night football season would continue. It posted video tours of
the majestic campus, an in person college experience at the
(16:36):
biggest university in the state. For Trevor till it was
just what the doctor ordered.
Speaker 9 (16:42):
You know, I told him you don't have to go.
You can stay home as dad told him to. You know,
we can figure something. No, No, I want to go.
I want the college experience, you know, I want to
do it.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Trevor was an extrovert honor student yearning for the education
and companionship that UIUC was offering. He applied to the
university and got in late August twenty twenty. His mother, Lisa,
traveled with him to his dorm room, and it was
understandably a proud but emotional day for his mother. Her
fifth child was leaving the nest and entering the big,
(17:14):
cruel world on his own.
Speaker 9 (17:16):
So I moved him into his dorm August twenty first,
and you know, we saw his roommate's name and he
was from India, and I said, I bet he's not
going to be able to come, and he didn't.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
It was a very subtle sign for what was to come.
The day before the deadline to cancel registration at UIUC,
the chancellor of the school made a promise to the
incoming freshman.
Speaker 16 (17:46):
On behalf of our faculty, students, and staff welcome. I
am Robert Jones, and i'm the chancellor here at Illinois.
Well for each of you. What that really means is
that I am responsible for ensuring you had the kind
of education experience that we promised when we invited you
to join us.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
But when school started on August twenty fourth, the campus
experience didn't really align with what the school was pitching.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
Everybody obviously wore masks, they discouraged the kids to hang
out together. Their tables for eating were outside until it
was like forty five degrees in the morning, and then
they finally moved him inside. So there was no big
you know, clubs on the quad day you know usually
in college where you walk around and see all the clubs,
(18:35):
and none of that existed that this past year, so
it was difficulty. I kept asking him and he said
it was hard for him to find clubs and find
this and find that. But he did join a few things,
but again it was all zoom meetings, and he kept saying,
it's just not the same thing, and I said, I know, honey,
(18:56):
you know, just hopefully it's going to open up soon.
More things are going to open up soon.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Trevor hoped that maybe his dorm meetings would be opportunity
to connect with other people.
Speaker 9 (19:05):
And again they were zoom, so there was no real
chance to get make any relationships or you know, make
new friends. He only had two classes in person and
those were his history classes. And because of his AP
and college credits from high school, he was like in
you know, mostly juniors and seniors were in his class.
(19:27):
So he said, Mom, you know, we're wearing masks we're
sitting six feet apart. You know, people kind of like
say hey or stuff like that, he said. But the
older kids all know each other, you know, so it's
not like it's easy to you know, make friends, you know,
when I'm the new guy and everything. And he said,
I try, and I say hey and hi, but you know,
it was just there was nothing for fostering new relationships
(19:50):
at all.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
It was not at all what Trevor was expecting, and
it didn't sound like what UIUC's chancellor had promised incoming
students either. The chancellor was calling the university's model a hybrid,
a mixture of both in person and online instruction, but
the Chronicle of Higher Education didn't agree. It categorized them
as primarily online. If most of the classes and even
(20:12):
door meetings were online, group gatherings and extracurricular activities were discouraged,
and many of the things that students would expect of
campus life were not offered, why would the university even
have students come back to the campus at all. Well,
the answer could be that the school was embarking on
a massive experiment.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
As the coronavirus panic began sweeping across America, a small
group of scientists a UIUC were tasked with the challenge.
Speaker 17 (20:40):
As mentioned, I was asked back in March to build
a team to try to stand up and strategically deploy
scalable COVID nineteen testing as part of our university's comprehensive
effort to reopen as safely as possible.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
That's Martin D. Burke, a professor of chemistry at the
University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne.
Speaker 17 (21:01):
One of the first things I realized is this all
about safety, safety to empower our community, and so we
called it our Shield effort to reflect that focus on
safety as our very first priority. The second thing that
we quickly realized is that testing was going to be
critically important. But testing is not a silver bullet. It
(21:23):
was going to require a comprehensive program to wrap around
that testing capability, to figure out who to test and
how often, and to rapidly communicate the results of those
tests in a way that can help people get isolated
very quickly and get the contact tracing started fast so
that we could eliminate the spread of the virus.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Doctor Burke said that the coronavirus nasal swap tests at
the time were problematic.
Speaker 17 (21:47):
This standard process is too slow, it's too expensive, and
it has too many supply chain bottlenecks in order to
be able to do fast and frequent testing on scale.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
So he and his team came up with a way
to test saliva for COVID nineteen in FIVECVE And.
Speaker 17 (22:03):
So my colleague, doctor Herber Rother, led an extraordinary team
of students and postdocs at the University of Illinois at
urbanash Champaign to go after a test that was directly
from saliva to the PCR test and thereby cut out
the time, cost and supply chain bottlenecks that were limiting
the capacity for fast and frequent testing on scale.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
To do this, they converted their veterinarian labs into COVID
testing facilities.
Speaker 17 (22:31):
This allowed us to then on our own campus perform
these tests in a way that allows us to get
the results back in a fast and frequent manner.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Besides potentially speeding up COVID detection on campus, if they
could prove their testing process could be scaled to large populations,
the venture could also be lucrative, very lucrative. Think about it.
In Illinois alone, there are roughly three million people enrolled
in k through twelve public schools, public universities, and long
term care facilities. If each test costs a twenty dollars
(23:03):
in each time you test that group of people, it
brings in sixty million dollars, and if it rolled out nationally,
the revenue potential could be mind boggling. In July, the
Shield team performed a trial run testing the saliva of
(23:24):
volunteer graduate students and university staff. However, to prove their
test was really scalable to meet the demand of an
entire state or more, a much bigger trial run would
need to be undertaken to test the limits of their procedure.
As chance would have it, the SHIELD team had access
to a larger population the entire student body of UIU S.
(23:45):
With most colleges shifting to online for the coming school year,
many were wondering how UIUC was planning on bringing kids
back to the university safely. With just three weeks before
the first day of school, the Associate Chancellor of UIUC
announced the university's plan.
Speaker 18 (24:01):
We've offered students the option you can either come back
to campus if you want. If you come back to campus,
though you have to agree to earn that privilege. So
there are things that we're asking students to do. The
obvious ones about wearing facial coverings and observing social distancing.
And one we announced today is that you need to
be willing to undergo testing for COVID twice a week
throughout the semester.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It was an ambitious testing schedule and one using a
process not yet approved by the FDA, But with just
four days before the school was to start, the Governor
of Illinois called a pressor.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
The University of Illinois has just today received emergency use
authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to run their
saliva based COVID nineteen test at the University of Illinois
or Bana Champaign Lab. This news puts the University of
Illinois and the entire state of Illinois on the cutting
edge of testing innovation as a national player. And let
(24:57):
me just say to President Colleen, the State of Illinois
looks forward to being your biggest customer if ongoing research
continues to yield positive results. This has potentially game changing
implications for our statewide testing complex, as well as for
testing on a national level. We're already working to deploy
this to more public universities across the state over the
(25:19):
next weeks and months, and exploring rolling this out to
do testing potentially for K twelve schools and even more
testing at our long term care facilities as well. The
potential here is enormous.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
On that same day, the university published a news release
with the headline reading quote Illinois rapid saliva test for
COVID nineteen now operating under FDA Emergency Use authorization end quote.
The media aid up the announcement.
Speaker 19 (25:49):
Owner JB. Pritsker tell us what he's calling a game
changing saliva based COVID nineteen test developed at the University
of Illinois. A person spits into a test tube and
results are back in hours.
Speaker 12 (26:02):
A potential game changing development in the war on COVID nineteen.
Speaker 20 (26:06):
A breakthrough saliva test developed at the u OFI that
just won approval from the FDA. The idea here is
they heat up saliva and they're able to get test
results in hours, not days. It costs very little, and
the opportunity and potential, doctors say sky high.
Speaker 21 (26:24):
The test developed by scientists at the University of Illinois
at a Rantish champaign, winning FDA emergency use approval. It's
currently being utilized on the u OFI campus, where students
are returning for the fall semester this week. Results can
be accessed on an app that can then be shown
at campus events and establishments that require it.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Could this FDA authorized test be the answer to all
schools reopening. The Shield team organized business entities to prepare
to sell the test not only within the state of Illinois,
but also to other states and even internationally. After school
opened on August twenty fourth, media interest in the development skyrocketed.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Joining us now is the president of the Universe, the
Illinois System. It's Kalen. Nice to have you with us.
Let's talk testing here because you guys came up with
your own test. I think school began earlier this week.
How is it going? And tell me about how many
people you are testing.
Speaker 22 (27:16):
We've tested today to one hundred and twenty one thousand individuals.
We're testing everybody on a campus at Illinois ABTA Champagne
twice a week and it's going really well. We don't
like this virus. We want to crush it, and that's
what we're doing, and we're doing a massive scale.
Speaker 9 (27:33):
The test is FDA.
Speaker 22 (27:35):
Approved through Emergency UTHS authorization in a bridging capacity, so
it's very accurate.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
There are a lot of colleges and universities watching you closely.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
The University of Illinois conducts up to twenty thousand tests
a day, that's two percent of all COVID tests done nationwide.
Students are tested at least twice a week, with results
coming in in as fast as five hours.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
The university now had an FDA approved test that was
being administered at least twice a week to its on
campus students, but there were some problems. Problems that would
lead to a tragic result.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Do you want to hear red Pilled America stories ad free,
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today and help us save America one story at a time.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. So, by the beginning
of the twenty twenty school year, the University of Illinois
at Urbana Champaign had an FDA approved COVID nineteen test
that was being administered at least twice a week to
its on campus students, but there were some problems. First,
even with all of this testing, it wasn't really opening
(28:52):
things up for the students to have more in person classes,
or just the freedom to live the campus life that
many were expecting. Trevor complained about this to his mother, Lisa.
Speaker 9 (29:02):
I COVID tested the kids two or three times a
week every week, so they knew if and when anyone
was sick. But that didn't do anything, That didn't open
anything up, that didn't give him any more freedoms. I
don't even understand the point of all that testing. Then.
It was ridiculous, but.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
There was a point. You see, the students could kind
of be thought of as guinea pigs in a sense.
They were being used to validate the university's saliva test because,
as it would be later revealed, it wasn't really FDA approved.
As we mentioned, just a few days before UIUC opened,
Illinois Governor Pritzker stated that the school's saliva test was
(29:45):
being used under authorization from the FDA.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The University of Illinois has just today received emergency use
authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
And he wasn't the only one that was saying that.
The university's president made the same claim.
Speaker 22 (30:01):
The test is FDA approved through emergency use authorization. In
a bridging capacity, and.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
So did the university's chancellor.
Speaker 16 (30:11):
I think we all would agree that the FDA emergency
use authorization it's extremely exciting.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
The problem was it wasn't true the FDA had not
authorized their saliva test. About a month after the semester started,
someone at the University of Illinois stealthily changed the original
news release about the schools saliva test, removing from the
headline that it was being administered under an FDA emergency
use authorization. It wasn't long before the change quietly leaked
(30:40):
into the local press.
Speaker 23 (30:42):
Well, you of I thought they were originally connected to
Yale University through a bridge study, a school that does
have emergency use FDA approval, so they thought their test
was FDA approved, But that isn't the case. The FDA
reminded them their type of testing is referred to as
a laboratory developed test. This doesn't change how the u
(31:02):
of I test, but means the school won't be able
to roll it out to champagn Orvana until they get
full FDA approval. The u of I says, even though
there was a mix up, they have always followed guidance.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Sometime in September twenty twenty, the FDA called the university
and asked them to stop using terms suggesting that their
saliva test was FDA approved because it wasn't. In a
written statement, the FDA spokesperson stated, quote, the University of
Illinois is not authorized under an umbrella emergency use authorization
and they have not had an emergency use authorization end quote.
(31:37):
The test that was credited for allowing UIUC students to
attend in person classes wasn't FDA approved. As the revelation
was quietly making its way into local news, Lisa Moore
came to visit her son.
Speaker 9 (31:52):
Trevor, that was there October fourth, and took him out
to dinner and you know, spend time with them, and
brought them some pajama pants and sweats because he was,
you know, in the morning. It's called going to breakfast
and everything.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Apparently the dorm set up breakfast outside to reduce COVID
nineteen spread.
Speaker 9 (32:11):
And so I saw him on October fourth, and he,
you know, he seemed.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Like himself, as was their normal routine. They'd talk in
text throughout the week. She'd tell him she loved him
and she was proud of him. But two weeks after
her visit. They spoke on a Sunday night, so I
told him.
Speaker 9 (32:29):
I'd see him on the thirtieth. And then I told him, well,
when you come home for Thanksgiving, you got to bring
everything because they're closing the dorms until January twenty second.
Okay mom. He's like, yeah, that sounds good. And I said,
maybe we could dig a ride down to Florida while
you're home and see Pa. Yeah, that would be good.
I said, maybe you could, you know, go back to
(32:50):
Minards for a month, you know, make some extra money
and you know, something to do too, see your friends.
He's like yeah, he said, just normal, Just normal, and
then that was it. That was the last time anyone
spoke to him. He checked into his dorm at ten
after ten on Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Over the next couple of days, Lisa texted Trevor like
a mother does, cheering him on. He didn't respond, which
wasn't abnormal.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
His dad, I guess, had tried to call him, and
then he called me or texted me and asked me
if there was something wrong with Trevor's phone, and I
said not that I'm aware of, no, And so he
went down there because he lived an hour away and
did a well being check, and they found him gone
in his room.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Trevor had hung himself. The young man was so isolated
at the University of Illinois, He had such limited contact
with anyone on campus that he was likely hanging there
lifeless alone in his dorm room for two and a
half days. Lisa said. Detectives told her that after reviewing
his phone and computer, Trevor's last recorded activity was around
(34:01):
one am early Monday morning, a few hours after they'd talked.
It took his father to come looking for him to
find Trevor in this unspeakable state. The dormitory's Resident advisor,
or RA, for short, lived just two doors down.
Speaker 9 (34:15):
He didn't even see the RA. They're the person that's
supposed to watch over everybody's well being. When I was
in college, we had floor meetings every week, and I
thought it was for social But now as an adult,
I realized it was well being checks for the RAS
to make sure everyone was adjusting, doing okay, being away
from home, and looking for any signs or symptoms of anything. Well,
(34:38):
how do you do that on a zoom meeting when
you haven't probably even met most of these kids in person,
and when you did. It was wearing a mask, so
you can't really see facial expressions. And I'm not blaming
the ra but I just don't think that they were
well equipped. The school probably shouldn't have opened the doors.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Before Trevor took his life. His mother says he was
desperately trying to make a connection with someone, anyone on campus.
Speaker 9 (35:03):
Umber fourth. He did tell me that he had volunteered
to be the president of his dorm. He did tell
me that. So he was trying to do things. And
I said, money, that's great, I said, so do you
get to meet in person them with the you know,
the the officers. No, at Zoom, he said, but you know,
at least it's more people to meet and talk to.
(35:25):
And I said, he said, yeah, we're you know, we've
met once or twice. Now we're going to you know,
have some good ideas for the dorm and activities. If
we can do these things, you know, it's odd. So
he was trying.
Speaker 15 (35:37):
He was trying.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Trevor's family was allowed to give him a burial service,
a real privilege in this god forsaken time. His family
and hundreds of his friends poured into the service to
pay their respects. The succounted kids from about twelve high
schools from around our area that made it to Trevor's funeral.
One young man who only met her son once during
a week in activity, drove five hours to be there.
Speaker 24 (36:13):
Console us in there so that we may confidence and
hope until why you were called.
Speaker 18 (36:21):
We are gathered to our.
Speaker 24 (36:23):
Heavenly home in the company of all your saints, in
light through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
And the.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Daily Eliini, the university student newspaper, wrote nothing about Trevor's
death on their website. We reached out to the school
and the student body president for comment on this story.
They didn't respond.
Speaker 9 (36:54):
After it happened, my older son had corresponded for me
with the school and asked for the portion of the
tuition and that I paid for back, and they just
gave me a pro rated amount back.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Tuition, room and board for Illinois residents could run about
thirty four thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 9 (37:14):
I literally had to get very ugly on an email
in December to one of the higher up chancellors and
said it was rude and told them I hope that
they could sleep at night, because when I try to
sleep I see my son hanging in your dorm. And
they finally decided to release the rest of the funds,
but they did not go out of their way. I
(37:36):
did receive note two notes cards from his history professors,
and honestly, I haven't even read him yet. I have
a hard time reading things that people write to me
about Trevor right now because it just breaks my heart.
But otherwise I haven't heard very much from You Will
buy at all. It brushed it under the rug.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
What the school was not sweeping under the rug, however,
was the benefits of its salibatist.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
One in fifty COVID nineteen tests in America happens at
the University of the Winnowing every day. I want to
be very clear here, not one in fifty tests on
college campuses in America. One in fifty tests in America
happens at the university.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
We have not had a student hospitalized, and of course
that means that there have been no student deaths.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Which leads us back to the question what will be
the biggest cost from COVID nineteen. The answer is our kids' future.
For a solid year, our leaders did just about anything
they saw fit to keep us safe. They took away
our right to assemble, our right to free speech, our
right to worship, our right to decide for ourselves. They
(38:54):
trampled all over our God given rights, and they did
it all while our kids were watching. That became their
new norm, and it was just too much for some
to take. There's a hidden cost to safety. Sometimes it's death.
Our leaders have scarred our youth and in the process,
America's future, the length of which we're just beginning to grasp.
(39:16):
The drive to keep us safe has left a trail
of bodies on the road, and it looks as if
one of them was Trevor till By almost every measure,
this was a young man with a bright future ahead
of him. But the isolation at a university that sold
itself as the campus life students expected appears to have
been the tipping point. And there's been many others that
(39:36):
couldn't take the isolation as well.
Speaker 8 (39:38):
Four days before his thirteenth birthday, Brad and April Huntsable
son Hayden died by suicide last Friday.
Speaker 23 (39:45):
Spencer Smith left a note for his parents, writing about
feeling locked in the house.
Speaker 9 (39:50):
Then he took his own life.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
He was just sixteen.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Years old.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Let's pray for these families and vowed and never let
our leaders do this again. Because they got a taste
of unbridled power, and there's little dea they'll try to
use it again.
Speaker 17 (40:04):
We should expect that over the next couple of weeks
we are going to see an uptick in cases, and
hopefully there is enough background.
Speaker 21 (40:11):
Immunity so that we don't wind up with a lot
of hospitalization.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adrianna Cortes of
Informed Ventures.
Speaker 9 (40:26):
Now.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
You can get ad free access to our entire archive
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, visit
Redpilled America dot com and click join in the top menu.
Thanks for listening.
This is Red Pilled America. I'm angry just like you
about what bureaucrats like doctor Fauci did to us during
the pandemic. That's why all week we've been rebroadcasting episodes
from the COVID era to remind you to never forget
what they did to us and our families. Episodes like
this one titled Under the Rug, which was originally broadcast
(00:23):
on February nineteenth, twenty twenty one, at a time when
shows were being deplatformed for stories like this. And if
you want to get Red Pilled America ad free, go
to Redpilled America dot com and click join in the
top of the menu. Now on with the show. The
arrival of COVID nineteen triggered a panic in America.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
This college student, stricken with COVID nineteen is making an
urgent plea.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
He claims he's being forced to quarantine without basic applause, and.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
All across the United States, school of buildings sit empty.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Its COVID cases surge across the US. More than thirty
states whire people to wear face masks in.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Public quarantines, violence, death mandatory masks, food shortages, closed schools,
closed churches, businesses, shut down, election integrity, and profiteering. Americans
have seen it all. But with all the chaos unleashed
by the virus, what will be the biggest cost from
COVID nineteen. I'm Patrick CARELCI.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
And I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Stories Hollywood doesn't want you to hear.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
Stories.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. The coronavirus unleashed chaos in America the
(02:13):
likes of which we've never seen. But through all the turmoil,
what will be COVID nineteen's biggest cost? To find the answer,
We're going to tell the story of Trevor Till, a
story the University of Illinois probably doesn't want you to hear.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
It was March twelfth, twenty twenty, and like the rest
of the country, the people of Illinois were about to
enter unprecedented times.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I've asked our news stations to take this press conference
live because it's important that we have an opportunity to
speak directly to the people of Illinois. At this moment.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Democrat Governor of Illinois JB. Pritzker made an announcement that
would bring his state into the national coronavirus panic.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I want to begin tonight by announcing new guidance regarding community, social,
and sporting events in the state of Illinois. I've spoken
with the owners of all of our major sports teams,
and I've asked them to cancel all of their games
or play without spectators until May first. All of the
(03:30):
owners that I spoke with told me that they completely
understood and were more than willing to comply with this guidance. Additionally,
I'm asking that all community events that organizers expect will
attract two hundred and fifty or more people be canceled
or postponed until May first. This includes personal and social events.
(03:53):
I'm mandating that events of one thousand or more people
be canceled or postponed immediately. With regard to schools here
in Chicago and around the state, we are not closing
our schools, but we are monitoring the situation On a
day to day basis.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
But in just twenty four hours that monitoring changed his policy.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
Breaking news just a short time ago, the Governor of
Illinois announcing all schools in Illinois starting Tuesday will be closed.
Those closures will last until March thirtieth at the earliest.
Parents are now scrambling to figure out plans for the
state's two million students.
Speaker 8 (04:29):
And this was a much different message than we heard
from him yesterday and even from the mayor this morning,
both of them saying they would not be closing schools
in Illinois, but individual districts have made those decisions, and
the governor said, after looking at new evidence and what
has been happening around the world, that he wanted to
be precautious and take these measures to save lives. The
(04:51):
governor saying he wants to flatten the curve to lessen
the impact and alleviate the burden on the healthcare system
to try to slow the spread of this disease. He
is encouraging social distancing and said he was worried about
students bringing the virus home to their parents and grandparents,
and also teachers and other staff in the buildings being
(05:13):
exposed to this as well.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Governor Pritzker and his maskless team made a plea to
the people of Illinois.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Please this weekend, if you can stay home, if you
are able to telework, do so. If you don't have
to travel, don't. This isn't forever. This is a sacrifice
in the short term to help our hospitals, our healthcare workers,
our testing laboratories, and our vulnerable and elderly residents.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
Then he does hope that this two week school closure
will be all that it takes. We did ask if
this could go into the month of April, and he
did not answer that question directly, saying they are taking
this one day at a time. Lastly, he says he
would rather be criticized for doing too much than doing
too little.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Illinois was not alone. States all across America began taking
the monumental step of closing down their schools. It was
a big hit to high school seniors, especially students like
Trevor Till He.
Speaker 9 (06:17):
Was in so many clubs and so involved in everything
in school.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
That's Trevor's mom, Lisa Moore.
Speaker 9 (06:24):
He was the class president, He was a president of
National Honor Society. He was an Illinois State scholar. He
was the captain acrosse team. He was a po vaulter.
He was the drum major, He played the trombone. He
was in choir. He was the president of the Spanish club.
(06:46):
He was in drama club. He was the lead of
the play in the Fall, and then he was the
male lead in the musical.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Trevor's high school was in Seneca, Illinois, a small town
of roughly twenty five hundred people about seventy miles southwest
of Chicago. At the time time Illinois schools were shut down,
Trevor was just coming off the lead role in his
school's musical rendition of The Music Man, the nineteen fifty
seven Tony Award winning Broadway musical.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
With One Tenos, and they were followed by Rose and
Rose off The Finest Birds.
Speaker 9 (07:25):
He was the music Man. He was awesome.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Trevor was an extrovert that loved school. It was his
life force. So when Seneca High School got shut down,
he was hoping it was just for a couple of
days or maybe a few weeks. Again, Trevor's mom, Lisa.
Speaker 9 (07:44):
When he first came home and we didn't know what
was happening in the very beginning, you know, it was
just gonna be okay, we're home for a week or
two weeks.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
But then Illinois Governor Pritzker did what so many of
his peers did across the country.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
To avoid the loss of potentially tens of thousands of lives,
we must enact in immediate stay at home order for
the state of Illinois. So that is the action that
I'm announcing today. Left unchecked, cases in Illinois will rise rapidly.
Hospital systems will be overwhelmed, protective equipment will become scarce,
(08:21):
and we will not have enough healthcare workers or hospital
beds or ventilators for the overwhelming influx of sick patients.
I fully recognize that in some cases, I am choosing
between saving people's lives and saving people's livelihoods. But ultimately,
you can't have a livelihood if you don't have your life. Therefore,
(08:45):
starting tomorrow evening, Saturday, March twenty first, at five pm,
until the end of April seventh, all our residents will
be subject to a stay at home order.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
At the time, schools were telling student athletes to continue
their training.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
They kept saying, keep running, you guys, keep working out
at home, and you know, keep going because as soon
as we get back, we're going to be starting, you know,
track season and everything, and baseball and you know, all
of our spring sports.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
By the end of April twenty twenty, it was becoming
very clear that the coronavirus was not as deadly as
the experts predicted, especially for children and young adults.
Speaker 10 (09:23):
You may remember what they first told us back in
February and March. They said, we have to take radical
steps in order to quote flatten the curve. Well, six
weeks later, we're happy to say that curve has been flattened,
but it's likely not because of the lockdowns. The virus
just isn't nearly as deadly as we thought it was.
All of us, including on this show. Everybody thought it was,
but it turned out not to be. Hospitals never collapsed
(09:46):
outside of a tiny number of places. They never came
close to collapsing, at least not from an influx of
infected patients. Instead, something remarkable happened, something amazing, really without
parallel in American history.
Speaker 6 (09:58):
The opposite happened.
Speaker 10 (10:00):
Thanks to the lockdowns. Hospitals have he come to collapse
why from a lack of patience.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yet, even with the positive data coming in, governors were
expanding their shutdown orders.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
The major news from Governor Pritzker this afternoon is a
month long extension to the stay at home order for Illinois.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It was expected and now it's official, the Governor extending
the stay at home order until May thirtieth.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Trevor's high school closure went from two weeks to a
few months.
Speaker 9 (10:34):
His classes were on zoom, and he hated it because,
like I said, he was ultra involved and liked to
be in class and had a great report with his
teachers and he's like, mom, this just stinks, you know,
just and just doing all his work from home and
his bedroom and a computer. Just he didn't he hated it,
you know, he's like, I feel lost. My life's there,
(10:57):
you know, in high school. And kept trying to encourage
him and kept saying, well, we don't know how long
it's going to be. Hopefully you'll get to go back,
and then it just dragged out obviously longer longer, and
then it was like problem looked like it was gonna
maybe happen like late May, and then that got canceled.
So that was a big bomber from and we didn't
(11:18):
know what was going to happen with graduation.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
Trevor eventually did have a ceremony, a modified one. Only
his parents were able to attend, no extended family or siblings.
He had two older brothers and two older sisters. Missing
out on almost every big senior moment must have been
an enormous downer for millions of high school and college students.
It was for Trevor, and he had a hard time
(11:41):
keeping busy.
Speaker 9 (11:42):
In April, when I saw that there was going to
be no track season for sure, and I saw Trevor,
you know, I knew he was sad about everything. I said,
I suggested, you know, and his dad did too, that
he got a job, something to do to keep him busy,
because he was such a busy kid. So he did
(12:02):
get a job at Minards, which is like a Lows
or a home depot.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
He started the job in April twenty twenty, and.
Speaker 9 (12:09):
So that helped, you know, because he was out again
amongst people, and mostly younger people worked in the garden center,
so he made some new friends there too.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
However, Trevor was still missing the camaraderie of those final
days of high school. But there was a light at
the end of the tunnel. College. He was an honor student,
so going off to higher education was a foregone conclusion.
Trevor ied the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. It
(12:42):
was a much larger school than he was used to.
His graduating class at Seneca High had about one hundred people.
U of I typically has around fifty thousand students, seventy
five hundred of witch are freshmen. Trevor may have been
down about high school, but at least he'd had the
college experience on the horizon. Welcome back to red pilled America.
(13:06):
So Trevor Hill had just experienced the shutdowns during the
final months of his senior year. He missed out on sports,
plays and just the general camaraderie of high school. But
there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
He'd gotten into the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and
they were promoting normalcy at the college. Then in mid
(13:27):
May twenty twenty, news hit about a college system in California.
Speaker 11 (13:33):
We've learned the chancellor for the California State University System
announced today that at least in the minimum, the vast
majority of in person classes for the fall semester have
been canceled. The schools will be shifting their focus to
online courses in the wake of the pandemic.
Speaker 12 (13:49):
Students attending cal State schools likely won't see the inside
of a classroom until twenty twenty one. The California State
University System is the first group of schools in the
nation to move nearly all classes online this full In
response to CO nineteen.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
The cal State University Chancellor gave his rationale.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
We got to this decision because the health and wellbeing
of our students and employees is the most important factor
in any decision that we make.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
With almost half a million students, California State University is
the largest four year university system in America. Their decision
carried weight in academic circles.
Speaker 13 (14:25):
And Tom, let's go back to California. We mentioned the
country's largest public university system. Cal State has decided not
to reopen campus and just move classes online this fall.
What do you think that means? I mean in terms
of a signal for other universities around the country.
Speaker 14 (14:40):
Well, it certainly could be a precedent. The cal State system,
as you know, is half a million people, twenty three campuses.
It says it's been losing hundreds of millions of dollars
because students are not on campus. Universities up and down
are struggling with when they should reopen and how good
of an education are they providing if it's online Like.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Millions of other college students, Trevor was wondering how his
target at college, the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne, was
going to handle the coming school year.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
He wanted a big school. He wanted a bigger school,
you know, coming from a smaller high school, he just
thought he wanted something bigger, just to you know. He
wanted to be in marching band, you know, that was
one of the things. And u of I had a
good marching band, and it was only two hours from home.
You know, as we waited and waited closer and closer,
we weren't even sure if he was going to go,
(15:29):
if they were going to open the dorms, what they
were going to do.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Then came a glimmer of hope.
Speaker 15 (15:39):
U of I is playing to hold in person classes
this fall the Champagne or ban of campus. It will
also allow students to live on campus with restrictions. The
school says it will follow state guidelines.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
In mid June twenty twenty, the University of Illinois announced
that it's Urbana Champagne campuses were going to open. The
chancellor of the school system stated, quote Fall twenty twenty
will be an on campus semester with as much in
person instruction and residential occupancy as restrictions of space, health
and safety allow end quote. UYUC, as it's called, was
(16:16):
bucking the trend of many other large universities. The college
aggressively promoted the twenty twenty school year and began hyping
the possibilities. It highlighted the fact that two alumni of
the school started YouTube. It announced the Fighting a Line
Night football season would continue. It posted video tours of
the majestic campus, an in person college experience at the
(16:36):
biggest university in the state. For Trevor till it was
just what the doctor ordered.
Speaker 9 (16:42):
You know, I told him you don't have to go.
You can stay home as dad told him to. You know,
we can figure something. No, No, I want to go.
I want the college experience, you know, I want to
do it.
Speaker 5 (16:53):
Trevor was an extrovert honor student yearning for the education
and companionship that UIUC was offering. He applied to the
university and got in late August twenty twenty. His mother, Lisa,
traveled with him to his dorm room, and it was
understandably a proud but emotional day for his mother. Her
fifth child was leaving the nest and entering the big,
(17:14):
cruel world on his own.
Speaker 9 (17:16):
So I moved him into his dorm August twenty first,
and you know, we saw his roommate's name and he
was from India, and I said, I bet he's not
going to be able to come, and he didn't.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
It was a very subtle sign for what was to come.
The day before the deadline to cancel registration at UIUC,
the chancellor of the school made a promise to the
incoming freshman.
Speaker 16 (17:46):
On behalf of our faculty, students, and staff welcome. I
am Robert Jones, and i'm the chancellor here at Illinois.
Well for each of you. What that really means is
that I am responsible for ensuring you had the kind
of education experience that we promised when we invited you
to join us.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
But when school started on August twenty fourth, the campus
experience didn't really align with what the school was pitching.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
Everybody obviously wore masks, they discouraged the kids to hang
out together. Their tables for eating were outside until it
was like forty five degrees in the morning, and then
they finally moved him inside. So there was no big
you know, clubs on the quad day you know usually
in college where you walk around and see all the clubs,
(18:35):
and none of that existed that this past year, so
it was difficulty. I kept asking him and he said
it was hard for him to find clubs and find
this and find that. But he did join a few things,
but again it was all zoom meetings, and he kept saying,
it's just not the same thing, and I said, I know, honey,
(18:56):
you know, just hopefully it's going to open up soon.
More things are going to open up soon.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
Trevor hoped that maybe his dorm meetings would be opportunity
to connect with other people.
Speaker 9 (19:05):
And again they were zoom, so there was no real
chance to get make any relationships or you know, make
new friends. He only had two classes in person and
those were his history classes. And because of his AP
and college credits from high school, he was like in
you know, mostly juniors and seniors were in his class.
(19:27):
So he said, Mom, you know, we're wearing masks we're
sitting six feet apart. You know, people kind of like
say hey or stuff like that, he said. But the
older kids all know each other, you know, so it's
not like it's easy to you know, make friends, you know,
when I'm the new guy and everything. And he said,
I try, and I say hey and hi, but you know,
it was just there was nothing for fostering new relationships
(19:50):
at all.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
It was not at all what Trevor was expecting, and
it didn't sound like what UIUC's chancellor had promised incoming
students either. The chancellor was calling the university's model a hybrid,
a mixture of both in person and online instruction, but
the Chronicle of Higher Education didn't agree. It categorized them
as primarily online. If most of the classes and even
(20:12):
door meetings were online, group gatherings and extracurricular activities were discouraged,
and many of the things that students would expect of
campus life were not offered, why would the university even
have students come back to the campus at all. Well,
the answer could be that the school was embarking on
a massive experiment.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
As the coronavirus panic began sweeping across America, a small
group of scientists a UIUC were tasked with the challenge.
Speaker 17 (20:40):
As mentioned, I was asked back in March to build
a team to try to stand up and strategically deploy
scalable COVID nineteen testing as part of our university's comprehensive
effort to reopen as safely as possible.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
That's Martin D. Burke, a professor of chemistry at the
University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne.
Speaker 17 (21:01):
One of the first things I realized is this all
about safety, safety to empower our community, and so we
called it our Shield effort to reflect that focus on
safety as our very first priority. The second thing that
we quickly realized is that testing was going to be
critically important. But testing is not a silver bullet. It
(21:23):
was going to require a comprehensive program to wrap around
that testing capability, to figure out who to test and
how often, and to rapidly communicate the results of those
tests in a way that can help people get isolated
very quickly and get the contact tracing started fast so
that we could eliminate the spread of the virus.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Doctor Burke said that the coronavirus nasal swap tests at
the time were problematic.
Speaker 17 (21:47):
This standard process is too slow, it's too expensive, and
it has too many supply chain bottlenecks in order to
be able to do fast and frequent testing on scale.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
So he and his team came up with a way
to test saliva for COVID nineteen in FIVECVE And.
Speaker 17 (22:03):
So my colleague, doctor Herber Rother, led an extraordinary team
of students and postdocs at the University of Illinois at
urbanash Champaign to go after a test that was directly
from saliva to the PCR test and thereby cut out
the time, cost and supply chain bottlenecks that were limiting
the capacity for fast and frequent testing on scale.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
To do this, they converted their veterinarian labs into COVID
testing facilities.
Speaker 17 (22:31):
This allowed us to then on our own campus perform
these tests in a way that allows us to get
the results back in a fast and frequent manner.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Besides potentially speeding up COVID detection on campus, if they
could prove their testing process could be scaled to large populations,
the venture could also be lucrative, very lucrative. Think about it.
In Illinois alone, there are roughly three million people enrolled
in k through twelve public schools, public universities, and long
term care facilities. If each test costs a twenty dollars
(23:03):
in each time you test that group of people, it
brings in sixty million dollars, and if it rolled out nationally,
the revenue potential could be mind boggling. In July, the
Shield team performed a trial run testing the saliva of
(23:24):
volunteer graduate students and university staff. However, to prove their
test was really scalable to meet the demand of an
entire state or more, a much bigger trial run would
need to be undertaken to test the limits of their procedure.
As chance would have it, the SHIELD team had access
to a larger population the entire student body of UIU S.
(23:45):
With most colleges shifting to online for the coming school year,
many were wondering how UIUC was planning on bringing kids
back to the university safely. With just three weeks before
the first day of school, the Associate Chancellor of UIUC
announced the university's plan.
Speaker 18 (24:01):
We've offered students the option you can either come back
to campus if you want. If you come back to campus,
though you have to agree to earn that privilege. So
there are things that we're asking students to do. The
obvious ones about wearing facial coverings and observing social distancing.
And one we announced today is that you need to
be willing to undergo testing for COVID twice a week
throughout the semester.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It was an ambitious testing schedule and one using a
process not yet approved by the FDA, But with just
four days before the school was to start, the Governor
of Illinois called a pressor.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
The University of Illinois has just today received emergency use
authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to run their
saliva based COVID nineteen test at the University of Illinois
or Bana Champaign Lab. This news puts the University of
Illinois and the entire state of Illinois on the cutting
edge of testing innovation as a national player. And let
(24:57):
me just say to President Colleen, the State of Illinois
looks forward to being your biggest customer if ongoing research
continues to yield positive results. This has potentially game changing
implications for our statewide testing complex, as well as for
testing on a national level. We're already working to deploy
this to more public universities across the state over the
(25:19):
next weeks and months, and exploring rolling this out to
do testing potentially for K twelve schools and even more
testing at our long term care facilities as well. The
potential here is enormous.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
On that same day, the university published a news release
with the headline reading quote Illinois rapid saliva test for
COVID nineteen now operating under FDA Emergency Use authorization end quote.
The media aid up the announcement.
Speaker 19 (25:49):
Owner JB. Pritsker tell us what he's calling a game
changing saliva based COVID nineteen test developed at the University
of Illinois. A person spits into a test tube and
results are back in hours.
Speaker 12 (26:02):
A potential game changing development in the war on COVID nineteen.
Speaker 20 (26:06):
A breakthrough saliva test developed at the u OFI that
just won approval from the FDA. The idea here is
they heat up saliva and they're able to get test
results in hours, not days. It costs very little, and
the opportunity and potential, doctors say sky high.
Speaker 21 (26:24):
The test developed by scientists at the University of Illinois
at a Rantish champaign, winning FDA emergency use approval. It's
currently being utilized on the u OFI campus, where students
are returning for the fall semester this week. Results can
be accessed on an app that can then be shown
at campus events and establishments that require it.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Could this FDA authorized test be the answer to all
schools reopening. The Shield team organized business entities to prepare
to sell the test not only within the state of Illinois,
but also to other states and even internationally. After school
opened on August twenty fourth, media interest in the development skyrocketed.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Joining us now is the president of the Universe, the
Illinois System. It's Kalen. Nice to have you with us.
Let's talk testing here because you guys came up with
your own test. I think school began earlier this week.
How is it going? And tell me about how many
people you are testing.
Speaker 22 (27:16):
We've tested today to one hundred and twenty one thousand individuals.
We're testing everybody on a campus at Illinois ABTA Champagne
twice a week and it's going really well. We don't
like this virus. We want to crush it, and that's
what we're doing, and we're doing a massive scale.
Speaker 9 (27:33):
The test is FDA.
Speaker 22 (27:35):
Approved through Emergency UTHS authorization in a bridging capacity, so
it's very accurate.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
There are a lot of colleges and universities watching you closely.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
The University of Illinois conducts up to twenty thousand tests
a day, that's two percent of all COVID tests done nationwide.
Students are tested at least twice a week, with results
coming in in as fast as five hours.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
The university now had an FDA approved test that was
being administered at least twice a week to its on
campus students, but there were some problems. Problems that would
lead to a tragic result.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Do you want to hear red Pilled America stories ad free,
then become a backstage subscriber. Just log onto Redpilled America
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today and help us save America one story at a time.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. So, by the beginning
of the twenty twenty school year, the University of Illinois
at Urbana Champaign had an FDA approved COVID nineteen test
that was being administered at least twice a week to
its on campus students, but there were some problems. First,
even with all of this testing, it wasn't really opening
(28:52):
things up for the students to have more in person classes,
or just the freedom to live the campus life that
many were expecting. Trevor complained about this to his mother, Lisa.
Speaker 9 (29:02):
I COVID tested the kids two or three times a
week every week, so they knew if and when anyone
was sick. But that didn't do anything, That didn't open
anything up, that didn't give him any more freedoms. I
don't even understand the point of all that testing. Then.
It was ridiculous, but.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
There was a point. You see, the students could kind
of be thought of as guinea pigs in a sense.
They were being used to validate the university's saliva test because,
as it would be later revealed, it wasn't really FDA approved.
As we mentioned, just a few days before UIUC opened,
Illinois Governor Pritzker stated that the school's saliva test was
(29:45):
being used under authorization from the FDA.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The University of Illinois has just today received emergency use
authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
And he wasn't the only one that was saying that.
The university's president made the same claim.
Speaker 22 (30:01):
The test is FDA approved through emergency use authorization. In
a bridging capacity, and.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
So did the university's chancellor.
Speaker 16 (30:11):
I think we all would agree that the FDA emergency
use authorization it's extremely exciting.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
The problem was it wasn't true the FDA had not
authorized their saliva test. About a month after the semester started,
someone at the University of Illinois stealthily changed the original
news release about the schools saliva test, removing from the
headline that it was being administered under an FDA emergency
use authorization. It wasn't long before the change quietly leaked
(30:40):
into the local press.
Speaker 23 (30:42):
Well, you of I thought they were originally connected to
Yale University through a bridge study, a school that does
have emergency use FDA approval, so they thought their test
was FDA approved, But that isn't the case. The FDA
reminded them their type of testing is referred to as
a laboratory developed test. This doesn't change how the u
(31:02):
of I test, but means the school won't be able
to roll it out to champagn Orvana until they get
full FDA approval. The u of I says, even though
there was a mix up, they have always followed guidance.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Sometime in September twenty twenty, the FDA called the university
and asked them to stop using terms suggesting that their
saliva test was FDA approved because it wasn't. In a
written statement, the FDA spokesperson stated, quote, the University of
Illinois is not authorized under an umbrella emergency use authorization
and they have not had an emergency use authorization end quote.
(31:37):
The test that was credited for allowing UIUC students to
attend in person classes wasn't FDA approved. As the revelation
was quietly making its way into local news, Lisa Moore
came to visit her son.
Speaker 9 (31:52):
Trevor, that was there October fourth, and took him out
to dinner and you know, spend time with them, and
brought them some pajama pants and sweats because he was,
you know, in the morning. It's called going to breakfast
and everything.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Apparently the dorm set up breakfast outside to reduce COVID
nineteen spread.
Speaker 9 (32:11):
And so I saw him on October fourth, and he,
you know, he seemed.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Like himself, as was their normal routine. They'd talk in
text throughout the week. She'd tell him she loved him
and she was proud of him. But two weeks after
her visit. They spoke on a Sunday night, so I
told him.
Speaker 9 (32:29):
I'd see him on the thirtieth. And then I told him, well,
when you come home for Thanksgiving, you got to bring
everything because they're closing the dorms until January twenty second.
Okay mom. He's like, yeah, that sounds good. And I said,
maybe we could dig a ride down to Florida while
you're home and see Pa. Yeah, that would be good.
I said, maybe you could, you know, go back to
(32:50):
Minards for a month, you know, make some extra money
and you know, something to do too, see your friends.
He's like yeah, he said, just normal, Just normal, and
then that was it. That was the last time anyone
spoke to him. He checked into his dorm at ten
after ten on Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Over the next couple of days, Lisa texted Trevor like
a mother does, cheering him on. He didn't respond, which
wasn't abnormal.
Speaker 9 (33:19):
His dad, I guess, had tried to call him, and
then he called me or texted me and asked me
if there was something wrong with Trevor's phone, and I
said not that I'm aware of, no, And so he
went down there because he lived an hour away and
did a well being check, and they found him gone
in his room.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Trevor had hung himself. The young man was so isolated
at the University of Illinois, He had such limited contact
with anyone on campus that he was likely hanging there
lifeless alone in his dorm room for two and a
half days. Lisa said. Detectives told her that after reviewing
his phone and computer, Trevor's last recorded activity was around
(34:01):
one am early Monday morning, a few hours after they'd talked.
It took his father to come looking for him to
find Trevor in this unspeakable state. The dormitory's Resident advisor,
or RA, for short, lived just two doors down.
Speaker 9 (34:15):
He didn't even see the RA. They're the person that's
supposed to watch over everybody's well being. When I was
in college, we had floor meetings every week, and I
thought it was for social But now as an adult,
I realized it was well being checks for the RAS
to make sure everyone was adjusting, doing okay, being away
from home, and looking for any signs or symptoms of anything. Well,
(34:38):
how do you do that on a zoom meeting when
you haven't probably even met most of these kids in person,
and when you did. It was wearing a mask, so
you can't really see facial expressions. And I'm not blaming
the ra but I just don't think that they were
well equipped. The school probably shouldn't have opened the doors.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Before Trevor took his life. His mother says he was
desperately trying to make a connection with someone, anyone on campus.
Speaker 9 (35:03):
Umber fourth. He did tell me that he had volunteered
to be the president of his dorm. He did tell
me that. So he was trying to do things. And
I said, money, that's great, I said, so do you
get to meet in person them with the you know,
the the officers. No, at Zoom, he said, but you know,
at least it's more people to meet and talk to.
(35:25):
And I said, he said, yeah, we're you know, we've
met once or twice. Now we're going to you know,
have some good ideas for the dorm and activities. If
we can do these things, you know, it's odd. So
he was trying.
Speaker 15 (35:37):
He was trying.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Trevor's family was allowed to give him a burial service,
a real privilege in this god forsaken time. His family
and hundreds of his friends poured into the service to
pay their respects. The succounted kids from about twelve high
schools from around our area that made it to Trevor's funeral.
One young man who only met her son once during
a week in activity, drove five hours to be there.
Speaker 24 (36:13):
Console us in there so that we may confidence and
hope until why you were called.
Speaker 18 (36:21):
We are gathered to our.
Speaker 24 (36:23):
Heavenly home in the company of all your saints, in
light through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
And the.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Daily Eliini, the university student newspaper, wrote nothing about Trevor's
death on their website. We reached out to the school
and the student body president for comment on this story.
They didn't respond.
Speaker 9 (36:54):
After it happened, my older son had corresponded for me
with the school and asked for the portion of the
tuition and that I paid for back, and they just
gave me a pro rated amount back.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Tuition, room and board for Illinois residents could run about
thirty four thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 9 (37:14):
I literally had to get very ugly on an email
in December to one of the higher up chancellors and
said it was rude and told them I hope that
they could sleep at night, because when I try to
sleep I see my son hanging in your dorm. And
they finally decided to release the rest of the funds,
but they did not go out of their way. I
(37:36):
did receive note two notes cards from his history professors,
and honestly, I haven't even read him yet. I have
a hard time reading things that people write to me
about Trevor right now because it just breaks my heart.
But otherwise I haven't heard very much from You Will
buy at all. It brushed it under the rug.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
What the school was not sweeping under the rug, however,
was the benefits of its salibatist.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
One in fifty COVID nineteen tests in America happens at
the University of the Winnowing every day. I want to
be very clear here, not one in fifty tests on
college campuses in America. One in fifty tests in America
happens at the university.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
We have not had a student hospitalized, and of course
that means that there have been no student deaths.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Which leads us back to the question what will be
the biggest cost from COVID nineteen. The answer is our kids' future.
For a solid year, our leaders did just about anything
they saw fit to keep us safe. They took away
our right to assemble, our right to free speech, our
right to worship, our right to decide for ourselves. They
(38:54):
trampled all over our God given rights, and they did
it all while our kids were watching. That became their
new norm, and it was just too much for some
to take. There's a hidden cost to safety. Sometimes it's death.
Our leaders have scarred our youth and in the process,
America's future, the length of which we're just beginning to grasp.
(39:16):
The drive to keep us safe has left a trail
of bodies on the road, and it looks as if
one of them was Trevor till By almost every measure,
this was a young man with a bright future ahead
of him. But the isolation at a university that sold
itself as the campus life students expected appears to have
been the tipping point. And there's been many others that
(39:36):
couldn't take the isolation as well.
Speaker 8 (39:38):
Four days before his thirteenth birthday, Brad and April Huntsable
son Hayden died by suicide last Friday.
Speaker 23 (39:45):
Spencer Smith left a note for his parents, writing about
feeling locked in the house.
Speaker 9 (39:50):
Then he took his own life.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
He was just sixteen.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Years old.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Let's pray for these families and vowed and never let
our leaders do this again. Because they got a taste
of unbridled power, and there's little dea they'll try to
use it again.
Speaker 17 (40:04):
We should expect that over the next couple of weeks
we are going to see an uptick in cases, and
hopefully there is enough background.
Speaker 21 (40:11):
Immunity so that we don't wind up with a lot
of hospitalization.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adrianna Cortes of
Informed Ventures.
Speaker 9 (40:26):
Now.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
You can get ad free access to our entire archive
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, visit
Redpilled America dot com and click join in the top menu.
Thanks for listening.
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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