* Mitchell Armentrout at the Sun-Times…
More than 60% of Illinois adults have gotten at least one coronavirus vaccine dose so far, public health officials announced Wednesday.
The state crossed that threshold almost five months after the first shot was injected in mid-December. Almost 9.6 million doses have been doled out across Illinois since then, with 4.2 million people now fully vaccinated — nearly a third of the population. […]
About 80% of Illinois seniors have gotten at least one shot, which is close to the national average. That rate is only about 67% for Chicagoans who are 65 or older, according to Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady. The city also slightly trails the statewide rate with about 56% of Chicago adults having received at least one dose.
“Our age 65-plus category is still lagging,” Arwady said Tuesday. “If you know anybody over 65 especially, please, please, please, help them get vaccinated.”
She’s right that we should all do our part, but the city obviously needs a new strategy.
…Adding… We shall see…
- Cheryl44 - Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 8:51 am:
If the city wasn’t vaccinating seniors why was it so difficult to get an appointment until a few weeks ago?
- Soccermom - Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 9:25 am:
Limiting vaccination to specific zip codes was a stupid idea
- The Doc - Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 9:28 am:
Cheryl44, I suspect a couple of factors:
1) Up until the last few weeks, demand outstripped supply
2) There are quite a few seniors who don’t have or use internet access to schedule an appointment; are physically unable to travel to a pharmacy or vaccination site; and aren’t able to take time off work to get the shot
- Dee Lay - Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 9:42 am:
If only Chicago was split into 50 pieces with 50 representatives and staff to help locate and coordinate an effort to get seniors vaccinated in their community.
If only.
- AC - Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 9:45 am:
==“If you know anybody over 65 especially, please, please, please, help them get vaccinated.”==
CDPH needs a more aggressive approach, it’s an opportunity to catch up and even surpass the rest of the state. Vaccine hesitancy driven by politics, and rural vaccine hesitancy isn’t really much of a factor in the city. The Public Health Commissioner needs to find out what the barriers are preventing seniors from getting vaccinated, and find ways to overcome them.
- Chicago Cynic - Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 9:53 am:
Arwady and The Mayor fought and fought and fought the state very publicly, mocking the governor and Dr. Ezike at times. They, and especially Arwady, kept leaking to the media until Arwady decided to just go on the record attacking the state. They even tried to refuse Joe Biden when he insisted on the entire nation opening up to everyone and eventually relented. She and they were very wrong. They need to change course now.
- ChicagoBars - Thursday, May 6, 21 @ 11:24 am:
It would help somewhat if Chicago would explicitly adopt the entire DCEO/IDPH “vaccinated customers don’t count against capacity limits ASAP”. Right now it only applies to private events, more businesses voluntarily asking “Are you vaccinated” might put getting vaccinated top of mind for people who just haven’t bothered to get around to it yet.