Today’s agenda ()

The meeting is called to order at 9:01am. Participants are welcome to join either in-person at 1340 S Damen Avenue, 4th Floor Training Room (Room #4024) or via Zoom.

They begin with a few announcements. One such announcement regards infectious diseases updates. The DOPH has received more infectious disease reports in 2024 than in the past 5 years which is likely due to delays in childhood vaccines and shifts in vaccine rates post-COVID.

Regarding measles and new arrivals, there are 64 cases to date. There have been no new cases among new arrivals over last 19 (or so) days. 7 cases are not associated with new arrivals which provides evidence of community spread.

Attached are some announcements screenshots, including DOPH priority initiatives for 2024 such as preparing for the 2024 DNC.

Without a declaration of a state of emergency, we are reminded it is difficult to have enough funding for measles vaccines for adults.

Following some questions and concerns regarding measles, they remind the audience that the rise in measles cases is a low vaccination uptake problem, not a new arrival problem as much of the public is trying to make it out to seem.

The DOPH notes that information on COVID will be communicated to the public in a new joint dashboard together with other respiratory diseases. The dashboard development is in-progress. Timeline on new COVID reporting guidelines below:

DOPH is working on a medicaid redetermination campaign with a focus on their CPS partnership. 79% of CPS students are Medicaid eligible yet 84.61% of eligible students are enrolled (according to state data).

84.61% is 100,00+ kids, Doctor Rothschild reminds us that this is indeed a lot of people that are eligible and unenrolled.

They are working on clearing the gap between eligible and unenrolled. They also bring up another policy issue in how there are people on Medicaid matched to providers on completely different sides of the city, barring healthcare access.

Here is the medicaid redetermination slide:

The meeting moves onto Agenda Item III, Departmental Updates (consisting of Financial, Staffing, Legislative, and Media Updates).

CFO Mary Emmanuel draws attention to 2 major settlement funds, both with narrow scopes of focus: the Illinois opioid agreement (18 year fund) and vaping settlement funds (no expiration date on funds).

Many members express agreement that funding of such limited scope is frustrating when trying to provide public health to the communities that need it most. They talk about ideas and limitations for more flexible funding options.

Staffing updates:
Again, the board discusses the frustrations of limitations of grant-funded employees as the scope of what they can work on can be incredibly limited and can affect retention rates once that scope of work is no longer needed.

Legislative updates:

Media updates:
Andrew Buchanan highly recommends, if looking into any of the headlines, to watch the interview with CDPH Commissioner Dr. Ige about Black Maternal Health. He also notes some positive coverage of measles as cases plateau. He draws attention to CDPH’s new podcast.

A marketing presentation begins by the Public Information Office (PIO) which oversees all aspects of communications for CDPH.

Recent marketing campaigns are measles vaccines promotion, adult smoking cessation, teen smoking cessation, flu and COVID-19 vaccines promotion.

Time for public comment begins; there is one public comment via Zoom from Joy Burton who is granted a 3 minute speaking time. They speak to the need to better promote the ills of long COVID, to the new research on “neuroCOVID”, and to the general need for more COVID protections.

The meeting is adjourned at 10:30am.

Here is a photo of the meeting room:

This concludes the Board of Health meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for May 29, 2024. For more meeting coverage, check out .