Under the leadership of CEO Tim Egan, Chicago’s Roseland Community Hospital has awarded business to his friends and acquaintances, employees have donated to his political funds and he has appeared in a campaign ad for the state’s comptroller.
Under the leadership of CEO Tim Egan, Chicago’s Roseland Community Hospital has awarded business to his friends and acquaintances, employees have donated to his political funds and he has appeared in a campaign ad for the state’s comptroller.
Just 37% of the 600 doctors, nurses and support staff at Roseland Community Hospital have been vaccinated even though health care workers are first in line. Many holdouts come from the mostly Black, working class neighborhoods surrounding the hospital, areas hard hit by the virus yet plagued with vaccine reluctance.
The irony hasn t escaped organizers of a vaccination campaign at the 110-bed hospital, which until recently was overflowing with coronavirus patients. If seeing COVID-19 up close and personal isn t enough to persuade people to get vaccinated, what will?
The resistance confounds Dr. Tunji Ladipo, an emergency room physician who has seen the disease devastate countless patients and their families, and frequently works side by side with unvaccinated colleagues.
February 13, 2021 Share
In a makeshift vaccination center at a safety-net Chicago hospital, a patient services aide ushers an older woman with a cane toward a curtained cubicle.
“Here, have a seat right here,” Trenese Bland says helpfully, preparing the woman for a shot offering protection against the virus that has ravaged their Black community. But the aide has doubts about getting her own inoculation.
“It’s not something that I trust right now,’’ says Bland, 50, who worries about how quickly the COVID-19 vaccines were developed. “It’s not something that I want in me.’’
Just 37% of the 600 doctors, nurses and support staff at Roseland Community Hospital have been vaccinated even though health care workers are first in line. Many holdouts come from the mostly Black, working class neighborhoods surrounding the hospital, areas hard hit by the virus yet plagued with vaccine reluctance.