In an interview with NBC Chicago, former city health chief Dr. Allison Arwady, who was appointed by ex-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, said it was ‘disturbing’ that she was fired without a meeting with the mayor or saying goodbye to her staff.
By Kade Heather
Dr. Allison Arwady, after months of lobbying to keep her job, was fired abruptly on Friday by Mayor Brandon Johnson.
In her first interview since being ousted as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, Dr. Allison Arwady said the manner in which she was fired was “unnecessarily destabilizing” to the city’s public health department.
Arwady said she respected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s right to name his own public health commissioner, but she was concerned the abrupt manner of her termination will make it harder to attract a successor with the necessary background and expertise to do the job.
She received a phone call from Rich Guidice, Johnson’s chief of staff, Friday evening and was told in a meeting that she was being terminated, Arwady said in an interview Monday with NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern.
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“I said that is not a major surprise at this point, just knowing the mayor, of course, has the opportunity to bring on whomever he wants, but then what really was disturbing to me is I said, ‘Let’s talk timeline,’ and he said, ‘It’s effective immediately,’” Arwady said in the interview.
Arwady, who became a prominent face of the city through frequent news conferences during the earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic, was appointed to the position by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
She said Johnson didn’t meet with her prior to her firing, and that her abrupt dismissal didn’t allow her an opportunity to say goodbye to her staff.
“I kept hoping that there’d be an opportunity to talk with him and meet with him, explain the work that the department does,” Arwady said, adding that despite being in some of the same cabinet meetings as Johnson, the two “never exchanged three words.”
She said the outcome was “not a surprise, but the manner of it, I think, was unnecessarily destabilizing to my department.”
“I’m respectful of this decision. I’m just concerned that the way it was made will actually make it harder to bring in a new commissioner, like someone who really understands public health and has the expertise and the knowledge to lead this department.”
The public health commissioner oversees a number of programs that include mental health, opioid addiction, HIV and other infectious diseases and environmental protection.
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During a debate shortly before the April runoff election, Johnson, a former CPS teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer, said he would fire Arwady, if he was elected.
He walked back that statement in later interviews, saying he would meet with her before making a decision, but noted his displeasure about her role in reopening Chicago Public Schools amid pandemic safety concerns.
At an unrelated news conference Monday, Johnson dodged questions from reporters about Arwady’s firing and whether the dismissal was “payback” for her push to reopen schools sooner than when the CTU wanted them open.
In the interview with NBC Chicago, Arwady said she didn’t know of any intentional reasoning behind her firing and that she understood the mayor’s desire to make his own appointment for the job.
In a Twitter thread posted Friday evening, Arwady described her tenure leading the city health agency as the “best chapter of her life (so far),” saying it was “critical” that the city’s health department receive the funding it needed to “remain strong.”
“My top priority has always been protecting the health of all Chicagoans,” Arwady wrote. “Public health must always be driven by science and medicine, and never politics. … As a physician and public health leader, my work to advance health, equity, and justice, particularly for those on the margins, will continue.”
Perhaps the mayor wanted a health specialist to focus on Nutrition: The study of what we eat. He is concerned about obesity, heart disease, hypertension, excessive use of prescription drugs, etc. because too many people are dying too soon.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he preferred to hire a health leader who would include nutrition education which is the study of what we eat. Obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, excessive prescription drugs, excessive sweets, and so on must be addressed with nutrition education. People need to pay attention to what they are putting into their bodies.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the mayor wants a health leader who will include nutrition education to help all people study what they are eating to prevent obesity, heart disease, malnutrition, hypertension, kidney failure, abuse of prescription drugs, cancer, and so on. Food has chemicals that are harmful if eaten in excess that all people should be taught.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the mayor decided to select a health leader who focuses on nutrition which is the study of what we eat because obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure, cancer, malnutrition, excessive prescription drugs, and so on are out of control because of excessive eating. People must be taught what chemicals are in foods that they are putting into their body. Food is medicine. Too much is harmful.
ReplyDeleteI followed the DASH diet and cut salt to less than a teaspoon per day, after six months my blood pressure gradually decreased to less than 120 over 80 and I was advised to stop taking the medication. A daily walk also helped my body to rid itself of the side effects of prescription drugs and caffeine. Nutrition education is the key to longevity and better health. Saves you money!
ReplyDeleteNow the media is talking about Covid again. Note that alcohol, inadequate diet, sweets, junk foods, street drugs, etc. will not protect the body from various diseases. In fact, they weaken the system that tries to protect the body from diseases.
ReplyDeleteHe is doing his job, failing miserably and destroying the city.
ReplyDeleteThe young mayor does not have a business, psychological, nutritional, medical, science, nor technical background plus he lives in the most high crime ghetto in the city. Perhaps he accepts criminal behavior as normal. He is accustomed to preaching and not getting great results.
DeleteHe should send the migrants back to their country and require them to apply legally to become English speaking citizens with specific job skills or else the city will fall to ruins just as the cities that the lazy migrants have left to flee to America. Currently there are too many uneducated, unskilled, alcoholics, drug addicts, gangbangers, murderers, homeless, poor, malnourished and mentally ill people in Chicago for the mayor to handle. He does not know how to solve all of those problems plus the helpless and needy migrants.
The out of control youngsters are shooting kids in the head to make sure they are gone forever. They are looting businesses to make sure they will be out of business to deprive black people from getting food in their neighborhoods while the mayor blames the little looters as having an unhappy childhood.
Chicago needs a school system that prepares children for employment and how to make items for additional income. All students should be taught nutrition and how the body works so they can stop killing their brain with drugs, sweets, alcohol, street drugs, marijuana, caffeine, and processed foods that cause brain damage that results in irrational criminal behavior and early death. There should be tutoring centers in every ward to train students in skills needed to master nutrition, reading, math, science, and programming languages for job preparation and placement. Hiring more police officers is not the solution to the crisis, the solution is to place problem youth in reform boot camps and teach them the skills to function as responsible law abiding citizens with monetary rewards for positive results. Get them out of the negative ghettos where they are trained by criminals and forced to commit crimes.
Note that the topic of Covid has returned and reminders of getting boosters has returned. No one is telling people that alcohol is poison and it is best to avoid consuming it as much as possible because it weakens the immune system and causes many health problems. That daily addition of sugar in your coffee is not your friend because it causes inflammation in the body. Too much sugar may lead to weak immunity, diabetes, increased blood pressure, obesity, stroke, and heart diseases. You cannot abuse the body with an inadequate diet and expect boosters to work for you.
ReplyDeleteAll people should complete a course in nutrition because there is too much sugar, salt, and soy in America’s processed foods that is causing serious health problems. Also too many prescribed prescription drugs that are often unnecessary.
ReplyDelete