COVID-19 coverage at the Weekly
Martha Bayne
How are neighborhoods already impacted by high rates of asthma and respiratory illness responding? Residents of neighborhoods on the southeast side (Hegewisch, East Side, South Chicago) and the west side (Little Village, Lawndale) have suffered the effects of industrial pollution for years, making them more vulnerable to COVID-19. The writer of this story could talk to community leaders, residents, and people working in public health in these communities to find out how they are preparing, if their preparations are different from other areas of the city, and how residents are feeling about the risks the pandemic poses. Has the city made any specific commitment to these neighborhoods? It would be great if this also included some specific strategies for how this population can best protect themselves. https://www.newswise.com/articles/important-information-about-covid-19-for-those-with-asthma
(Martha Bayne)
Who Gets to Work From Home? Block Club Chicago recently reported that Metra ridership has plummeted even as CTA ridership remains constant. That seems to indicate a class difference in who’s staying home from work (or else driving to work). Also, if service industry workers, home health workers, food service workers etc are still having to go to work while the professional class gets to stay home, will this result in certain demographics being disproportionately affected by Covid-19? (Could envision accompanying map-based graphics and ridership charts, possibly.) [pitch from JimD]
[could be bundled with the below]
You Can’t Work from Home // You Take the CTA. Now What? What are the best practices for minimizing the risk of spreading infection if you can't work from home or otherwise must travel on the “L” or a bus? Most of the easiest-to-find guidance assumes a white-collar worker with access to a car. (E.g. guidance that just says to telecommute, which many people cannot, or, on the Chicago coronavirus website, "Avoid using public transportation, ride-sharing, or taxis" in getting to the hospital if you've consulted with a doctor and need to be tested.) Talk to an expert (potentially someone with the Chicago Dept. of Public Health, or an epidemiologist or clinician) for discussion of best practices if you are at work or must take public transportation (if you are not showing symptoms), as well as if there are things others who have more flexibility can do to help. Also interview someone who can’t work from home about their experience to introduce the best practices with personal impact. [pitch from Olivia Stovicek]
Putting current hospital efforts in historical context
What does the preparation of South Side hospitals look like? What have infectious disease outbreaks (like 2009 pandemic H1N1 flu) looked like on the South Side in the past? How have South Side hospitals learned from that history? What’s going well, and what additional steps could hospitals be taking, if any? This would involve talking both to individual hospitals and consulting with an outside expert, ideally from a Chicago university, for input on evaluating preparations and/or detail on what happened in 2009. [pitch from Olivia Stovicek]
E-learning
Might be interesting to see what e-learning looks like now that schools are moving to that, and whether there are disparities in the tools and how well they work at different South Side schools/institutions, and what teachers and students think of them. This one is not time sensitive but could be reported over the next month or so as all of this takes effect. [Tammy Xu]
Explainers on:
The basics: There’s a lot of misinformation about it being “just a bad flu” and bad info on treatments that definitely won’t work is bouncing around social media. Write up a basic explainer about why this is incorrect and a rundown of basic sanitation/handwashing/hand sanitization alternatives/social distancing guidelines. This is information that is readily available we can do our part to amplify it. Could be done as a chart or other visuals-friendly format. [Martha Bayne]
What Are the Symptoms, What To Do if You Feel Them, and Then What Happens? Interview a clinician or nurse at a South Side hospital: if you have a cough or fever, should you go to an ER? (likely depends on severity, age, and immunocompromisation) Should you isolate? (Yes, most likely) Etc. What should you expect if you are sick? Could maybe run as a flowchart, or else a simple Q&A [pitch from Jim Daley].
What is the benefit of canceling school? This is a hot topic online, with some people relieved and others who think it’s an overreaction and/or will expose grandparents who are caring for children to the virus. (And it seems that Pritzker and Lightfoot fall on either side of this divide as well, to some degree.) A clear explanation of why this is seen as a good idea would be good to have. Here are the CDC guidelines on school cancellation: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/considerations-for-school-closure.pdf. [Martha Bayne]
How to manage anxiety, panic attacks, and general mental health. With everyone’s stress levels ratcheting up, we will undoubtedly see people struggling to manage anxiety; some may turn to emergency rooms and overloaded clinics for help, placing additional stress on health care providers. This could be a helpful way to suggest coping strategies. Talk to an expert (or several) about what common manifestations of anxiety and stress can be, find out the signs of a panic attack and how to tell them apart from a heart attack, and point readers towards solutions (from pharmacology to mindfulness practice) to help de-escalate they symptoms before you have to go to the ER. [Martha Bayne]
Resource Guide (see additional doc)
This is a work in progress that will continue to be updated. Feel free to add links and info on resources for South Siders to this google doc. Resources could include: locations of clinics for uninsured people, food pantries and other food assistance options, child care and other resources for parents, bilingual information available online, etc. [Martha Bayne]