* Block Club Chicago on December 15, 2020…

Chicago’s vaccination campaign has officially begun, marking the beginning of the end of the pandemic, officials said.

The city gave its first dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to doctors, nurses and a patient care technician Tuesday morning at Loretto Hospital. It kicked off what officials say will be a year-long effort to get as many people as possible vaccinated in Chicago to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is, I fully believe, the beginning of what will be the end of COVID-19 here in Chicago,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

* Block Club Chicago today…

Loretto Hospital vaccinated ineligible people at a luxury Gold Coast watch and jewelry shop where the hospital’s chief operating officer is a high-spending and frequent customer.

Loretto Hospital and its executives, including Chief Operating Officer Dr. Anosh Ahmed and Chief Executive Officer George Miller, are already embroiled in controversy for steering doses toward organizations with which they have ties. Ahmed was heavily criticized after Loretto held a vaccination event at Trump Tower — where Ahmed and another hospital leader live — and after Ahmed told people he vaccinated millionaire Eric Trump.

Block Club has learned Loretto Hospital also held a March 3 vaccination event at a Gold Coast shop called Geneva Seal, which sells jewelry and designer watches worth $20,000 — and more. Ahmed is a frequent customer there and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the shop, a source said.
Credit: Loretto HospitalDr. Anosh Ahmed is the chief operating officer of Loretto Hospital.

The shop at 112 E. Oak St. is far from Loretto Hospital — and the vaccinations were offered to ineligible people who own and work at the high-end boutiques along the Gold Coast, as well as their family and friends, sources said. The Austin hospital is meant to serve and vaccinate people on the West Side, where coronavirus has devastated communities of color.

* The hospital’s board of trustees includes two state legislators, Sen. Kimberly Lightford and Rep. La Shawn Ford. Both attended a media event with the governor today, but the video conked out and I’ve been waiting to see if they took questions about the hospital. But let’s go to Block Club Chicago again…

Loretto Hospital’s board said it has reprimanded two of its chief executives the same day Chicago’s health chief said the hospital let “well-connected” people jump the vaccination line.

Board members would not say what punishments will be doled out to Loretto Hospital CEO George Miller and COO Dr. Anosh Ahmed — but the hospital already has had its supply of coronavirus vaccine doses cut off by the city. Dr. Allison Arwady, chief of the city’s health department, said officials are investigating events where the hospital vaccinated ineligible people and gave shots outside of the West Side community.

Arwady expressed serious concerns about Loretto’s vaccination program during a Friday call with reporters, saying the hospital has lost community trust and officials don’t feel comfortable sending precious vaccine doses there for the time being. The accusations against the hospital are particularly “unacceptable” because Loretto is in Austin, a Protect Chicago Plus neighborhood that has been hit hard by COVID-19 and where the city has been trying to boost vaccinations, Arwady said.

The hospital’s board has taken “appropriate actions of reprimand against Miller and Ahmed for their role in the mistakes of judgment,” Rep. LaShawn Ford, who sits on Loretto’s board and represents the area in the state Legislature, said in a statement.

It would be nice to know what measures they took. Their last 990 form shows the hospital’s former CEO made $840,000 a year while its best-paid physician made just $165K.

…Adding… Press release…

AFSCME Local 1216—the union representing nurses at Loretto Hospital on the West Side of Chicago—issued this statement following the latest in a series of revelations about the alleged misappropriation of COVID-19 vaccine doses by the hospital’s top management.

“As the safety net hospital for the city’s West Side, we have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said D Sutton, a registered nurse and the president of AFSCME Local 1216. “Loretto nurses have been on the front lines of our COVID unit. I and many others have been sickened in the line of duty, some of us so seriously that we had to be hospitalized ourselves.

“Now that the safe, effective COVID vaccines are available, we have been the ones delivering the shots to protect our community. Our work is critically important and we do not want it disrupted.

“We call on the city to restore Loretto Hospital’s supply of vaccine doses. Our community which has been systematically ignored and under-resourced for decades should not be punished now for the reported actions of a few.

“To our community, know that Loretto nurses are here for you, working to keep you healthy and safe. Understand that taking the vaccine is the way to protect yourself, your family and get back to normal in Chicago as quickly as we can.”