More Vax Reservations You Can't Get, Brought To You By Pritzker

CHICAGO — Gov. J.B. Pritzker told Illinoisans that public health experts have advised that before loosening social distance restrictions, Illinois must meet a key coronavirus metric: 70 percent of the state's senior citizens must have at least one vaccine shot.

It seemed like an odd statistic to cite for determining whether restaurants can serve more patrons, among other things. The percentage of vaccinated senior citizens isn't a measurement other states are using to justify reducing coronavirus restrictions.

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So, on Friday, I asked Chicago public health commissioner Dr. Alison Arwady to explain the science behind the new metrics guiding the state's "bridge" to reopening.

While answering, Chicago's top doc laughed.

"The eligibility criteria that the state has put out about reopening, um, we are, ha, ha, looking at those, I will say," Arwady said on a conference call with reporters.

Statistics that measure the risk of COVID-19 community spread are more important when determining when to loosen social distancing restrictions, Arwady explained.

When Arwady's spokesman on Friday afternoon told me the city's top doctor had no idea why the state is touting the percentage of vaccinated senior citizens as a bellwether for reopening, Pritzker's newest pandemic policy seemed even more confounding.

But Friday night, the fog of confusing coronavirus edicts lifted as news broke that Pritzker reported dumping $35 million of an inherited fortune into his campaign fund — a clear signal he's seeking a second term despite being the least-popular governor in America's most populous states.

See, ever since Pritzker started getting sharply criticized for telling fibs about Illinois being a national leader in getting vaccine shots in arms and seeing his approval rating drop more than 20 percentage points to 41 percent, the governor has desperately pushed pandemic policies that lack common sense, often in the name of "fakequity."

Through all of it, Arwady has respectfully disregarded many of the Pritzker administration's coronavirus policy edicts — increasingly so during the vaccination rollout, which no longer requires Chicago to collaborate with the state on policy decisions.

Arwady's opinion is important because she's the highest-ranking epidemiologist in Illinois with actual experience responding to pandemics who also is accountable to taxpayers.

Pritzker's public health director is a pediatrician who sources say often gets ignored by the clout-heavy bureaucrats in the governor's office who are actually in charge of Illinois' pandemic policies.

In January, when Pritzker announced he would expand vaccination eligibility despite lacking a supply of shots — a move that made it more difficult for senior citizens to get inoculated — Arwady said the plan lacked common sense given the shortage in supply of shots. Health departments leaders in Cook County and other suburban jurisdictions followed her lead.

MORE ON PATCH: Pritzker's Stats Obsession Will Intensify Vaccine Hunger Games

Under pressure from Pritzker administration bureaucrats, Arwady reluctantly compromised on vaccination eligibility at the federal mass vaccination site at the United Center until it became clear the governor's plan funneled a majority of shots to white people in the suburbs.

Then, the Biden administration put the kibosh on Pritzker's plan to let all Illinoisans fight for vaccination appointments at the United Center.

Last week, Arwady balked at following Pritzker's newest vaccine eligibility plan to make all Illinoisans eligible for shots starting April 12, because there's no evidence that there will be anywhere near enough vaccine to meet demand by then.

On Friday, Arwady told reporters that the supply of vaccine shipped to Chicago's public health department hasn't significantly increased for about two months.

Arwady explained that without a boost in the supply of shots, she's sticking with her strategy of pushing inoculations to the people who need them the most — whether that's based on their age, underlying medical conditions or profession.

"I did feel really strongly that there's not going to be enough vaccine for everybody right at the beginning there, and continuing to have ... the dual focus on people at the highest individual risk and people at the highest societal risk is the best way we will continue to be able to best protect Chicago," Arwady said.

"I was a little surprised the state did not elect to make people who are working in settings that are higher risk, didn't elect to give them some more priority. … My preference might have been for the whole state to move into 1c as originally planned."

If Pritzker wants Chicago to follow his lead, Arwady offered a solution: Send more vaccine to the city and surrounding northeast Illinois suburbs where demand for shots dramatically exceeds supply.

If that were to happen, Arwady says Chicago — home to more than 20 percent of the Illinois population — could vaccinate about five times as many people every week.

But that's not part of the governor's re-election campaign strategy.

Instead, Pritzker followed up his $35 million campaign contribution to himself with a Monday dog-and-pony show announcing a new mass vaccination site in Forest Park, where anybody in Illinois can sign up for an appointment to get shots — someday.

The governor's latest highly touted mass vax depot will likely be as efficient as all the other state-run sites in Cook County.

As of Monday, no first-dose appointments were available.

Just another vaccination line you can't get into — brought to by J.B. for Governor.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

More from Mark Konkol:

• Pritzker's Cannabis Pledge Was Another Vow That Went Up In Smoke
• If You Love Mom, Don't Let Her 'Wait And See' On Getting Vaccine
• Pritzker's 'Fakequity' Problem Surfaces At United Center Vax Site
• Lightfoot Won't Be Bullied By Pritzker's United Center Power Play
• Most IL Dems Mum As Biden Lets Chicago U.S. Attorney Keep Digging