Covid Cases Rising in Chicago

October 21, 2020

I’ve avoided looking too much at Coronavirus news over the last few months. I stressed myself out a great deal in the early months, and had to step away from the news because of how much it impacted me. My tendencies to worry and fret about friends and family, and about our country. It became more harmful than helpful after a while, and I needed to just back away.

Lately though, I’ve heard rumblings of another wave of covid cases, and decided to search a bit. I came across a video that featured Dr. Allison Arwady (Commissioner, Chicago Department of Public Health) and think it’s something worth sharing.

Of the many sources out there talking about Coronavirus, I’ve found Dr. Allison Arwady’s voice to be calm, informative, and most of all – very trustworthy. She has as impressive a background as one can have for the job, really:

Prior to CDPH, she worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer. In that role, she focused on outbreak response, including international work on Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. While based at the Illinois Department of Public Health, she responded to disease outbreaks across the state.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University, and completed medical school and clinical training at Yale University.

The video is from October 19th, and links directly to Arwady’s segment of the presentation. This is specific to Chicago, but there’s good information here that would be good for anyone to see/hear. I think it’s important, and worth your time to watch.

Of interest: while the number of tests are increasing, the number of tests needed to find a single case of Covid-19 is dropping. The claim that the number of Covid-19 cases increasing is simply a result of increased testing is misleading; as the number of tests increase, ideally the number of tests needed to find a single case is decreasing. That is not the case currently in Chicago.

We have seen rises after the warmer, summer months. And it seems we are seeing another rise, as people are spending more time together indoors. I think the holidays are going to be a very challenging time, with family wanting to be closer to one another.

coronavirus

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