@CHIdocumenters Roll is being called, some technical difficulties and people not yet back from lunch 😁

There is one registered public speaker, but they seem to not have shown up

Comm Miller says thanks to all the healthcare workers, we see the light at the end of the tunnel but are not there yet

Now in addition to COVID, we are talking about monkeypox https://abc7chicago.com/monkeypox-chicago-vaccine-public-health-department-cook-county-jail/12074740/

Variant update: Omicron BA4 and BA5 are spreading quickly, 70% of all new cases, better able to resist antibodies. However, people who are vaccinated continue to have lower rates of vaccination and death

http://myshotcookcounty.com for latest vaccination information–all people 6 mo and older are recommended to get vaccines, all people 5 years and older are recommended to get boosters

Now we are seeing a presentation on the monkeypox vaccine. There are some educational campaigns that they’ve started–their websites have been updated and they’re talking about setting up a hotline

Treatment is rare and only suggested for people with very severe cases or who are at risk for complications

Priority is getting people who have had contact with a positive case vaccinated

Everyone is at some amount of risk for monkeypox but only some people are eligible for a monkeypox vaccine–close physical contact with someone diagnosed or (next tweet)

they said that high risk behaviors that also make you eligible for a vaccine include being a man who has sex with men or being a sex worker or someone who has sex with many partners

a motion was put forward to approve the previous report on the contact tracing project before we discuss the new one, but first Comm Miller asks for an update on COVID vaccination rate. They say it’s really low for young kids, “parents are fairly reticent”

Comm. Miller then asks if the vaccination rate has gone up for the targeted communities that were more at risk in accordance to the increased efforts of the board, it’s answered that it hasn’t increased much

Comm Miller then asks about the monkeypox WHO designation. It’s a global public health emergency, one step below a pandemic status because it is spreading quickly around the world

Comm Daley asks how we can reach people who haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, is it a lost cause at this point? Also asks if the ambulatory centers are available to South suburbs especially anticipating monkeypox

“All we can do is continue that educational work”

for every vaccine there’s 30% early adopters, people who will always get it. 20% will never ever get it. they want to focus their work on that middle 50%

A question was asked about how many of the 700 monkeypox vaccines that Cook County has have been administered, apparently its like ~20ish.

One of the commissioners expresses a little bit of concern over the fact that monkeypox vaccines are first come first serve, what does this mean for people who live in the suburbs? There are more opportunities to get vaccinated for people who live in Chicago

Once they get the necessary volume of vaccinations, everyone who wants one will get one but for now they have successfully been able to contact and vaccinate everyone who needs it

The same commissioner (i can’t see his name) is really intensely insisting that he has been hearing that it’s way harder for suburban residents to get the vaccine, the health officials are insisting that all of the people who need the vaccine have been able to get it

this back and forth continues for a while

to be very clear, anyone who is high risk, suburban or city is able to get vaccinated right now

Now moving on to the Asset Management Committee which was supposed to start at 2:00 (half an hour ago)

Someone calls attention to Comm. Aguilar had his hand up, he asks if this is a different strain of monkeypox, the answer is we have no idea, that has not been discussed

Comm. Sims asks if there are protocols for monkeypox, should we be telling people to use hand sanitizer? She says its confusing how the news reports it–is everyone at risk or are gay men at risk?

This is a rare disease–it’s a panic because “it shouldn’t be here,” it’s been contained in Africa for a while but now it’s here. He says it gets transmitted through intimate contact, so sometimes also bedding and towels, which he says is about the only nuance.

Comm. Sims again emphasizes that the news is confusing, can you get it if you’re not a gay man or not and what should people do? The media is confusing (her question not mine)

Pension committee is going to be called into order then deferred immediately after, presumably due to time

Now we are finally moving on to the second quarter report of the contact tracing initiative from cook county health

four major components: new staff to expand contact tracing efforts, granting funds to community orgs in high risk and impacted communities to support isolation and quarantine, worker centers got funds for education and CT, staffing to provide tech support to other entities

They think that these hyperlocal contact tracing efforts were able to help mitigate some of the COVID breakouts

What can be sustained and expanded? This network and specifically the relationships with community orgs should be maintained

It took too long to hire people and the infrastructure was lacking–some of the community orgs needed more support than they could give, however the training of the contact tracers went really well and they all do really good

They wish that more people would’ve picked up the phone and they could’ve reached more people, but considering everything they feel the program was a success

Unanimous vote to approve this report

now we’re looking at a presentation on health disparities and equity–looking at maps of social vulnerability index and medically underserved areas (south and west sides heavily represented on both)

Maps displaying numbers of insured people and poverty levels look very similar

Life expectancy is at or below 70 in some areas in the South which goes up as you move north

All of this results in poor health outcomes on the South and West sides, what is our role in moving forward?

Cook County Health knows they’re not going to single handedly fix structural racism but it’s important to address nonetheless

Comm. Miller says that we need more specific number based data for this report in the future instead of high level bullet points. She mentions that bad health outcomes for minorities happen across the whole county, not just in underserved communities

She also wants more of a delineation between the South Side of Chicago and the South suburbs, which also has different needs but it’s a different situation than the South Side

She wants to see more specifics on what they’re doing to reach these underserved communities, how are they monitoring this data what are the changes that are being put in place and are they working or having any kind of positive affect

Wants numbers to help prevent the horrific outcomes that we keep discussing

They essentially said they’ll work on it but it’s difficult and very complex with lots of moving parts

Comm. Aguilar asks how we can serve the underserved communities and make the red boxes on the maps blue ones

There is a high poverty level and lots of people who don’t have insurance. There’s a lot of people who even though they’re eligible for Medicaid or enrolled in it they avoid going into the doctor until big health events happen that are much harder to treat

They are actually making strides in getting people covered, but they still have more work to do in figuring out why people are not coming into the doctors for preventative visits and check ups

Comm. Aguilar suggests that maybe it’s a lack of education that’s responsible for not getting the care to these folks

Voting on the semi-annual health care disparities report all votes are aye, Daley adds a comment about trying to get people to exercise, the meeting is adjourned

And now asset management! Going strong on hour 6! 😵‍💫

Both motions to approve contracts for Department of Capital Planning and Policy are approved, meeting is adjourned at 3:40pm