Despite Vaccine Effort, Liberal City ‘Headed the Wrong Way’ on COVID

We are now nearly exactly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic here in the United States, and most of us can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Vaccine distribution has been an enormous part of this effort, with former President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed setting the tone and pace for the Biden administration to get to work.  Now, with many states opening up vaccine eligibility across the board in the coming days, it really is beginning to feel like things could get back to normal sometime in 2021.

But for some cities, who’ve shown previous signs of ineptitude on other subjects, the trouble is far from over.

Chicago public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady warned the city, particularly its younger adults, on Tuesday that coronavirus metrics were once again creeping into a danger zone that resembled a previous second surge during last October.

She echoed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Monday remarks that cautioned the city will lose its recent gains under its reopening plan if younger adults do not “remain diligent” in masking and social distancing.

“COVID-19 is still here, folks,” Lightfoot said during a Monday news conference. “It is still real. It is still deadly, and unfortunately it’s still sending people to hospital, every single day. … We will step back and have to close back down if we are not diligent.”

Just how bad is it?

Illinois public health officials on Monday reported 1,832 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 13 additional deaths. That brings the state’s totals since the pandemic began to 1,224,915 cases and 21,116 deaths.

On top of COVID management issues, Chicago is routinely criticized for their inability to take control of a longstanding and pervasive gun violence problem that began nearly forty years ago when the city banned handguns, allowing criminals within Chi-town to possess an upper hand over law-abiding citizens.