Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Pritzker strikes out, Lightfoot is up to bat



CHICAGO — Every day it becomes a little more clear that Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration has bungled the state's new coronavirus response.
The effort is allegedly led by the Illinois Department of Public Health's director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who seems like a very talented physician, a nice person and speaks very good Spanish. 
But she's an internist, not an infectious disease expert. 

Her chief of staff, Justin DeWitt, isn't a doctor. 
For months, the state's public health team responsible for the state's new coronavirus response that Pritzker says is based on "science and data" lacked a chief medical officer and state epidemiologist.
Dr. Jennifer Layden suddenly left those state posts in February. 
Now, Layden is the chief medical officer for the Chicago Department of Public Health. 
Layden wasn't replaced with an acting head epidemiologist until May 1, weeks after Pritzker started peddling his "optimism" about the state's ability to increase COVID-19 testing while knowing full well that supplies and capacity to pull it off didn't exist.
Under intense political pressure, Pritzker unveiled a five-phase plan to reopen the state's economy someday. 
But the governor still hasn't laid out a strategy for testing and tracing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Pritzker bristled when questioned about the lack of testing in African American and Latino neighborhoods that have been afflicted with disproportionate numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths. 
Under his watch, and despite pressure from Chicago Democrats, Pritzker still hasn't set up a testing site in a large swath of black and brown Chicago neighborhoods on the Southwest Side hardest hit by the pandemic. 
On Wednesday, an IDPH conference call with hospital CEOs regarding the state of COVID-19 testing ended when Ezike attempted to deflect questions about the state's failure to deliver a statewide COVID-19 testing plan to a staffer who wasn't on the line, and then abruptly left the call, top sources told Patch.
Hospital CEOs remain frustrated that "a state testing plan is not being communicated to them, if there is a plan at all," a source familiar with the discussions said. 
Meanwhile, Pritzker on Sunday told CNN our state is "going it alone" in the coronavirus fight because the federal government can't be trusted for help.
"I have not been counting on the White House because there have been too many situations in which they have made promises, not delivered," Pritzker said on "State of the Union."
If we can't trust the feds, and hospitals across the state still have no idea how the governor's team plans to mobilize an effective testing plan that experts say is the only way to ease our way out of this pandemic-induced economic gridlock — God help us all. 
It's time for Mayor Lori Lightfoot to step up the city's effort to ramp up testing. 
Sources say Chicago's public health department will procure COVID-19 testing equipment and increase testing citywide. 
Chicago can't wait for our billionaire rookie governor anymore. 
Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN. He was a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous5/12/2020

    When you see one headline after another put together it is stunning how poorly these control freak Democrats suck at actually controlling....the thing they love to do so much....wow. Trump was early in his shut down, long before the Democrats who continued to downplay it....because, after all, Trump was suggesting it....THEN Trump responds with a partnership between companies and the federal government to pull off an unbelievable rallying of hospital beds, cutting red tape, racing ventilators into production.....and then the DemocRATS have the nerve to try to say TRUMP acted too late!! Biden and Bernie and theother Dem candidates were STILL holding debates when Trump acted....and those candidates said NOTHING at the time at their podiums....we have the video folks....Biden said Trumps China shut down was xenophobic, racist, blah blah blah......those who do NOT think we can open up now, read about the flu pandemic from Hong Kong during 1969 and 1970....during Woodstock....more Americans died and much higher percentage of the then population....look up the Hong Kong virus....those who have their government protected jobs are virtue signalling the rest of the blue collar waitresses, cosmeticians, stylists, secretaries etcetera....easy for you to say since you will have NO consequences financially....you are getting an extended PAID sabbatical....while the lower income workers Democrats pretend to care about lose their cars, their homes, their health, what little savings they have....they are devastated by this....time to START opening up responsibly.

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