Influential State Rep. Camille Lilly, a Loretto Hospital executive, is roped into the fallout over COVID-19 vaccines administered by the West Side safety net hospital. Crain’s Chicago Business editor Ann Dwyer takes us behind the headline of that story and more.
The Loretto Hospital
A Loretto Hospital executive resigns amid growing controversy. Mayor Lightfoot sidelines a vaccine contractor over more improper vaccinations. Evanston passes the nation’s first reparations law. Chicago homicides are on the rise.
Dr. Anosh Ahmed, COO and CFO of Loretto Hospital, was at the center of multiple controversies over alleged improper vaccination events, after Block Club Chicago first reported on vaccines administered at Trump Tower Chicago to the building’s employees.
A union representative who works with Loretto Hospital staff says members have complained about so-called VIP lists of vaccine recipients since the vaccine rollout began in January.
A Loretto Hospital emergency room technician who appeared Tuesday on “Chicago Tonight” said he witnessed what he calls “VIP” lines of patients coming in to be vaccinated at the West Side hospital.
A COVID-19 vaccination was administered for the first time Tuesday morning in Austin, a Chicago neighborhood ravaged by the virus. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called it “history in the making.”
The West Side neighborhood of Austin has become a hot spot for COVID-19 cases. According to the city, it falls into a zip code that has recorded a COVID-19 case rate of between 431-720 people per 100,000.
As many as 440,000 people die every year from preventable mistakes in hospitals, according to national nonprofit The Leapfrog Group. How Illinois hospitals are performing.
