Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot kicked off “Vaccination Awareness Day” Friday by getting her COVID-19 booster shot in front of cameras at a vaccine clinic at Michele Clark Magnet High School.
She also took a shot — at the Chicago Teachers Union, for its claims the city’s doing enough to provide vaccines to Black children and families on the South Side.
“The notion that somehow we are ignoring the South Side of Chicago, that there isn’t sufficient vaccine availability, is a complete misnomer — and frankly I feel more strongly than that,” Lightfoot said during a news conference.
Chicago Board of Education member Elizabeth Todd-Breland, right, holds the hand of her daughter as she receives a COVID-19 vaccination from Dr. Raj Mahajan at Michele Clark High School in Chicago Friday. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
Shortly after the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine received federal emergency use authorization Oct. 26, Chicago Public Schools announced it would cancel school on Nov. 12, for what officials dubbed “Vaccination Awareness Day.” They touted it as a way to get parents thinking about the issue and, more practically, to give them time to get shots for themselves and their children.
At Clark High Friday, children who’d just received their shots were greeted by a smiling worker checking that they had their vaccine cards and directing them to grab a cupcake on their way out. Some stopped to take photos with Principal Charles Anderson, who mingled with parents and children.
Anderson said he wanted Clark “to be a place where whenever someone in my community decided that they needed to get vaccinated ... they could just come right here in the community.”
But local officials have faced criticism for not offering more in-school vaccine options compared to some other big cities that have hundreds of sites to receive shots. Some parents have also said it wasn’t helpful to have a sudden no-school day following Thursday’s day off for Veterans Day.
CPS has expanded the availability of vaccines in schools and is currently operating clinics in 14 buildings. Arwady has said there are more than 200 vaccination sites scattered across the city.
Officials also noted the district agreed to pay 1,100 substitute teachers who had signed up to work Friday.
With city and state COVID-19 case numbers again on the rise, Dr. Allison Arwady said Friday another spike around the holidays was possible. But while children who receive the first dose of two-shot vaccines Friday won’t be fully vaccinated by Thanksgiving, Arwady said that children being partially vaccinated by then provides at least some additional protection.
Many organizations originally applauded the decision to close schools Friday, including CTU.
But CTU — which is running its own walk-in clinic from noon to 3 p.m. Friday at its headquarters at 1901 W. Carroll Ave. — cited several South Side zip codes “without easy access” to vaccines and questioned why the city wasn’t doing more there to provide access and transportation to clinics and education on the importance of vaccines.
“Instead, Black CPS families with the greatest barriers to vaccine access and medical care are left to fend for themselves in setting up appointments, which only highlights existing inequities between Chicago’s communities,” the union said.
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