IDPH deputy director provides COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy

Posted on December 23, 2020
Andrew Friend, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, tells a panel of lawmakers everybody wants to know how soon the coronavirus vaccine is rolling out. (Photo courtesy: Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Everyone wants to know: when will it be *my* turn to get the vaccine? Andrew Friend, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, talks about priorities.

“Look at the risk of the different individual populations and try to rank them,” said Friend. If I am the administrator of Hospital Y, and I only have 100 doses and 10,000 people to give it to, I don’t want to administer it to my entire ICU staff at once. It’s recommended to stagger those personnel.”

Friend, who said each phase of the rollout could take more than a month to complete, talked to lawmakers as part of a “Restore Illinois” panel Tuesday.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…