Rebuild the Chicago Public Health System with the Public

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Editor’s Note: Joy Bunton, a public health activist, shares her testimony from a rally held by The People’s Response Network to COVID on April 24, 2022, at a COVID vaccination in Chicago’s Little Village.

Joy Bunton
Joy Bunton

My name is Joy Bunton. I live in South Shore, the 5th Ward, I’m speaking on behalf of the NAACP Chicago South Side Branch and The People’s Response Network to COVID.

I’m begging the Mayor and Alders, especially Black and Latino Caucus members who haven’t cosponsored, to pass the Rebuild Public Health in Communities, formerly Take the Vaccine to the People, Ordinance (O2021-1214), This was introduced by Alder Byron Sigcho-Lopez and co-authored by Mayor Harold Washington’s Deputy and Assistant Public Health Commissioners, Drs. Barbara Norman and Howard Ehrman, MPH, respectively. 

It’s languishing in the Rules Committee, but it’s a jobs program, NOT, repeat NOT, a mandate. It would help rebuild our public health infrastructure back to what it was under the late Mayor Harold Washington, whose 100th birthday we celebrated. Thousands of LOCAL residents would be hired to work good-paying union jobs for CDPH [Chicago Dept. Of Public Heath], CBO [Community-Based Organizations] and FQHCs [Federally Qualified Health Centers]. It would reduce the existing racial disparities with vaccines, testing, and masks in communities most impacted, which are primarily Black and Latino, increasing access at work, school and churches, ending extra time spent commuting, making appointments, and dependency on Internet access. 

The Chicago COVID-19 Dashboard misleads us to think Blacks and Latinos have fewer cases and lower positivity rates than Whites, when we’re the most hospitalized and dying! Our Ordinance would fix that! Because what we’re currently doing ain’t working.

I have interstitial lung disease and other comorbidities, which put me at high risk of long COVID, being hospitalized or death. Long COVID can be debilitating and disabling even if one isn’t in a hospital. Even though I’ve had a 4th booster, lifting the indoor vaccine and mask mandates, while the more contagious BA.2 is dominant, still puts me and many others like me at risk. 

After two shots, I still didn’t have enough antibodies because my immunosuppressants impacted the Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy. My rheumatologist at the Univ. of Chicago has a patient who had a booster and still has zero antibodies to protect against COVID. Surely, we’re not alone, especially among those who lack coverage, let alone a specialist, and don’t know if they have enough antibodies despite being vaxxed/boosted. People like us who are most vulnerable are being subject to a Russian Roulette of trying to stay safe from COVID. 

The zip code 60649 is predominantly Black and has the second worst vaccine rate [in Chicago]. At least 217 people have died, which is an undercount, since people who die at home or elsewhere outside the hospital aren’t tested for COVID. 

Since I’m on disability and a renter because I had to sell my condo, I’m also personally requesting the mayor to work with the Obama CBA Coalition to pass a Community Benefits Agreement for South Shore to protect residents against gentrification and displacement. I also support the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, especially since 60649 has the highest eviction rate in Chicago.

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