My coverage of Chicago's very first COVID-19 vaccinations
On December 15, five medical professionals became the first five Chicagoans to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccines were administered in Loretto Hospital, which is located in the majority-black part of the Austin community area and primarily serves black and Hispanic West Siders. With COVID-19 hitting those communities especially hard, and worries that many of those residents wouldn’t want to take them, the symbolism was obvious.
When my editor in Austin Weekly News asked me to cover it, I was surprised. You see, over the past year, Austin Weekly News has entered in a content-sharing partnership with Block Club Chicago, and, ever since that started, when a Block Club Chicago reporter covered something in Austin Weekly’s coverage area, my editor have usually just used that. But this time, he wanted us to have something online first. I’m still not sure what his process there was, but I wasn’t going to say no to covering such a milestone.
I did wonder whether it was worth schlepping down there, since the city did set up a livestream, and if my editor wanted to have the article ASAP, watching the livestream and them immediately writing it, instead of having to go to the nearest library to file a story (with the pandemic-related restrictions in place and the paper’s offices closed, it was either that or sitting outdoors in the cold). Plus, the city tends to be a bit more touchy about who gets to cover major events than usual. But my editor insisted that it had to be in person, so off I went.
When I got to Loretto, I saw several TV and newspaper/online media reporters standing outside the door. As it would soon turn out, the city and the hospital only let the Tribune and NBC5 reporters in. Everybody else had to wait by the door.
My journalism instincts told me to stick around and see if I could at least catch mayor Lori Lightfoot and some local politicians on the way out - which did eventually paid off (the later part, anyway - Lightfoot managed to sneak past us). And a little after noon, about an hour and a half after the start of the event, the mayor’s press people led some medical professionals out for interviews.
I ended up writing the article and filing the photos from the Austin branch library computer. In the irony of ironies, my editor wound up using the Block Club coverage of the event, at least online. He later told me that, since I talked to some people the Block Club reporter didn’t talk to, he was going to run my article in print.
Not in this week’s issue - by that point, it was too late to send anything to the printer - but next week’s issue. Maybe. Which means that, unless I put the article up on this here blog, it probably won’t show up online.
So check out the articles and the photos, typos I may have missed and all. And I encourage the West Siders reading this to pick up the paper at the drop-off location near you.
Loretto Hospital hosts first COVID-19 vaccinations in Chicago
Mark Hooks, an ER nurse at Loretto Hospital, 645 S. Central Ave., said that he was so excited to get the COVID-19 vaccine that he didn’t even feel the needle.
“I feel proud to be able to show that [the vaccine] is safe for everyone, and I just feel excited that we reached the beginning of the end,” Hooks said.
He was one of the 10 emergency medical workers to receive the Pfizer vaccine on the morning of Dec. 15 at Loretto, which was chosen as the first hospital in Chicago to receive the vaccine. Under the state and federal guidelines, emergency medical workers will get inoculated first, followed by seniors, and only then the general public. Illinois state rep. La Shawn Ford (98h), who attended the event, said that, to the best of his knowledge, the general vaccination won’t begin until April.
The event was closed to the public, and only reporters from Chicago Tribune and NBC 5 News were allowed to attend. The event was streamed live over the Internet, and the city and the hospital made several vaccine recipients and staff available for interviews afterwards.
Dr. Marina Del Rios, Director of Social Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, was the first person to actually get vaccinated.
“It feels awesome,” she told the reporters. “I’m just full of hope. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Still, as she was getting the shot, Del Rios said she couldn’t help but think of all of the patients who suffered and succumbed to COVID-19.
“You just wish it was sooner,” she said.
When asked why she was chosen as the first person to be inoculated, Del Rios said that she thought the city wanted to send a message to minority residents who may be reluctant to take the vaccine, and there weren’t that many Hispanic medical workers to choose from. She said that, given the history of medical experimentation on Black and Hispanic residents, she could understand the hesitation. After all, Del Rios noted, earlier this year, Dawn Wootan, a former employee of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Georgia filed a complaint alleging that hysterectomies were performed on Latina asylum seekers detained at the facility without their consent.
But, even with all of that, Del Rios said, she would advise minority Chicagoans to get vaccinated.
“I feel comfortable with the science [behind it],” she said.
Hooks, who is white, said that he would encourage his patients to take the vaccine.
“I would say that they’d want to get it - I know it’s a safe vaccine, the vaccine doesn’t contain any virus and it was found to be safe,” he said. “I’d want them to get the vaccine because I want them to be safe.”
Del Rios also said that she was pleased that Loretto was chosen as the first vaccination site, saying that, if there was any upside to the pandemic, it’s that it put a harsh spotlight on healthcare disparities in minority communities. She said she hoped that the city’s choice shows a commitment to change that.
Both Hooks and Del Rios said that, about two hours after getting vaccinated, they didn’t feel any different - though Del Rios said that she wouldn’t be surprised if she’d experience fever and body aches the following day.
“It’s something I experience with flu shots,” she said. “I’m ready.”
Crystal Carey, Loretto’s emergency department director, was the one who gave Hooks his shot. She said that she never imagined she’d be part of such a historic moment, and that she was “humbled” to be part of it.
Carey thought that it was fitting that Loretto would be chosen.
“We serve an underserved, under-resourced population,” she said. “We need to be on the front line and show them it’s safe. We need to take care of them and to be at the forefront [of the vaccination], because the community needs us. “
Ford told the reporters that he was “very grateful that the mayor chose the Austin community to be first site for the vaccination.”
“Having it right here lets us show that we want the pole on the West Side, the Black people, to be vaccinated,” he said.
While Ford said he won’t hesitate to get the vaccine, he didn’t expect to get it any sooner than the general population - and he was fine with waiting.
Once vaccination is available to general public, he said he expects it to be available at Loretto - and that the hospital will offer both Pfizer and the more recently approved Moderna vaccines.
In the meantime, Ford said there was a concern that Loretto may end up running out of ICU beds. The state is currently working with Loretto to add ICU beds and rooms where patients who tested positive for COVID-19 could isolate on the building’s fifth floor. They still need to secure the funding to not only buy the necessary equipment, but to hire more staff.
Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), whose ward includes much of Austin - but not Loretto itself - said she was excited to be part of the event, especially because it took place in the community. She said she expects to be vaccinated in the second round, because she is a senior. And while Mitts said some of her family members wanted to wait before taking the vaccine, she had no such reservations.
“It’s better to have something and be protected,” Mitts said.
She said that she will do everything she can to make sure that seniors in her ward, whether they are in senior living facilities or not, get vaccinated as soon as possible, mentioning that she planned to use the word newsletter and work with the city agencies to get the word out.
“I want to be a great partner,” Mitts said.