Coronavirus vaccine timeline remains fluid, Lightfoot expects all adults to be able to get vaccinated someti – Chicago Sun-Times

LatestHighest-risk Chicagoans could begin receiving coronavirus vaccine as early as mid-December: Lightfoot Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Chicago health care workers could begin getting vaccinated against the coronavirus as early as mid-December, city officials said Wednesday.

And while the timelines remains fluid, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she expects all adults to be able to get vaccinated sometime in 2021.

Lightfoot said when the vaccine becomes more widely distributed, it is likely to be available at large, centralized sites, including city colleges and mobile sites deployed at trusted community settings.

Chicagos top public health official, Dr. Allison Arwady, said the city has very specific plans for storage and distribution of a vaccine should the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve one.

The Chicago Department of Public Health has already built up its ultra-cold storage in preparation for the arrival of a vaccine.

We are working with multiple hospitals that also have built up some of that ultra-cold storage capacity, Arwady said.

Highest-risk health care workers are expected to receive the vaccine, followed by distribution to nursing home and long-term care facilities, and then health care workers who see coronavirus patients outside of hospitals, Arwady said.

Read the full story here.

As Illinois reported 9,469 more coronavirus cases and 125 deaths Tuesday, officials said theyre cautiously optimistic the states massive viral resurgence might finally be leveling off but warned that any progress will be wiped out if families dont cancel plans for holiday gatherings this week.

Thanksgiving this year needs to be different, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. To those who havent yet changed your plans, the doctors are asking all of us to skip the big group dinner this year. The vaccines that seem to be on the horizon cant help you if you get sick now.

Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike cautioned that without even knowing it, you could be putting your friends and family, or yourself in grave danger.

We have to accept what were dealing with: a global pandemic, the likes of which no one has seen before. That does deserve a change from the norm, Ezike said.

Read the full story here.

Alabama coach Nick Saban has tested positive for COVID-19 just days before the Iron Bowl.

Team physician Dr. Jimmy Robinson and head trainer Jeff Allen said in a joint statement that the positive test came Wednesday morning.

He has very mild symptoms, so this test will not be categorized as a potential false positive, the statement said. He will follow all appropriate guidelines and isolate at home.

The 69-year-old Saban previously received a false positive ahead of the game with Georgia, but didnt have any symptoms. He was cleared to coach in the game after subsequent tests leading up to the game came out negative.

Read the full story here.

NEW YORK Dont even think of putting the mask away anytime soon.

Despite the expected arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in just a few weeks, it could take several months probably well into 2021 before things get back to something close to normal in the U.S. and Americans can once again go to the movies, cheer at an NBA game or give Grandma a hug.

The first, limited shipments of the vaccine would mark just the beginning of what could be a long and messy road toward the end of the pandemic that has upended life and killed more than a quarter-million people in the U.S. In the meantime, Americans are being warned not to let their guard down.

If youre fighting a battle and the cavalry is on the way, you dont stop shooting; you keep going until the cavalry gets here, and then you might even want to continue fighting, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious-disease expert, said last week.

This week, AstraZeneca became the third vaccine maker to say early data indicates its shots are highly effective. Pfizer last week asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization to begin distributing its vaccine, and Moderna is expected to do the same any day. Federal officials say the first doses will ship within a day of authorization.

But most people will probably have to wait months for shots to become widely available. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines also each require two doses, meaning people will have to go back for a second shot after three and four weeks, respectively, to get the full protection.

Union officials representing nearly 700 nursing home workers who hit the picket lines this week said the owner of the 11 facilities has left town and they arent sure when negotiations for a new contract will resume.

The employer has refused to make a move, said Shaba Andrich, vice president for nursing homes at SEIU Healthcare Illinois. Infinity Healthcare Management Owner Moishe Gubin had indicated to some people that he would be available to negotiate last Sunday, but then left the state and has not been able to negotiate.

Nursing home workers at Infinity locations in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs entered their second day on strike as negotiations for a new contract remain nonexistent. Members have been fighting for improved working conditions, base salaries for between $15 and $15.50 an hour (up from $11.50 to $13.50, depending on location) and hazard pay for the duration of the pandemic.

But union members claim their employer has completely walked away from the table and negotiating sessions havent been scheduled for the near future.

We want to get back to negotiations, we want him to come back with different solutions and different ideas about how we get a contract done, Andrich said during a Zoom call Tuesday afternoon. There is none [no meetings] happening now, there is none on the calendar.

Read the full story here.

Ineffective hand sanitizer, employees showing up for work after testing positive for the coronavirus and inadequate hand hygiene are all under scrutiny as possible sources of a COVID-19 outbreak that has left 27 residents of an Illinois veterans home dead.

Those findings from a pair of reports prompted Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state veterans officials to launch an investigation into the circumstances around the spread of the deadly virus at the LaSalle Veterans Home.

The reports released by the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs found employees of the home attended the same Halloween gathering and later tested positive for the virus.

The veterans home in LaSalle was also stocked earlier this month with hand sanitizer found not to be effective against COVID-19, and some staff were observed touching patients and surfaces without changing their gloves or performing hand hygiene, according to one report released Tuesday.

Those were just some of the findings from one site visit on Nov. 12 a second visit five days later found many of the initial recommendations were followed, a second report found.

But cases at the home some 95 miles southwest of Chicago have ballooned over the course of the month, and 27 residents have died, a spokeswoman for the veterans affairs department said.

Read the full story here.

I want to speak directly to Chicagoans about our citys budget, which will come up for a vote before the full City Council today.

Long before I formally introduced this budget in October, it became clear that our economic path out of the COVID-19 pandemic would require us to make some extraordinarily difficult decisions. It was a matter of when, not if, these decisions would be made, and how we would make them all while holding firm to our core values of equity, inclusion and transparency.

COVID-19 has not only upended all our lives from a health perspective, it also has devastated significant parts of our economy. This has resulted in an $800 million loss of revenues for the 2020 budget and a significant $1.2 billion deficit for next year, 65% of which is directly tied to COVID-19.

Dealing with a $1.2 billion gap means there were no easy decisions. None. And while the prospect of better times comes closer into view, particularly because of a new partner in the White House, along with the prospect of a nationwide COVID-19 response plan rooted in science and data, we must face the reality in front of us right now.

To put it bluntly, this is likely the most painful budget we have ever faced as a city. And it comes after the many difficult and painful choices weve already had to make over the last eight months. So, if there were a responsible way to close our budget gap that didnt involve raising taxes or requiring some level of furloughs for our City employees, we would have already taken it. But among the many thing this pandemic has taken from us is our ability to make decisions without sacrificing something in return.

Read Mayor Lori E. Lightfoots full column here.

America got more good news about a COVID-19 vaccine last week, the second potential vaccine shown to be at least 90% effective against the disease in early data from clinical trials.

If the Food and Drug Administration grants emergency use authorization to one or both vaccines, doses could be distributed beginning in late Decembe,r and the country will have its most powerful tool yet against the pandemic.

But no vaccine, no matter how effective it is or how quickly it becomes available, will be a powerful tool against the pandemic if too few people especially African Americans, who are among the most vulnerable to severe illness or death from COVID-19 get the shot.

And as the Sun-Times Brett Chase reported Sunday, distrust of a COVID-19 vaccine runs deep among Black Americans. Theyre less likely to volunteer for clinical trials to test vaccine safety and effectiveness. Public opinion polls, too, have consistently shown African Americans are less likely to say they would take a coronavirus vaccine.

The health care system has a lot of work to do to get past that lingering distrust. As states and the federal government plan public education campaigns to urge people to take a vaccine, extra effort must be made to reach the African American community, get people vaccinated and save lives.

Read the full editorial here.

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Coronavirus vaccine timeline remains fluid, Lightfoot expects all adults to be able to get vaccinated someti - Chicago Sun-Times