HEALTH
Cook County’s Sizable Vaccination Disparity Remains in Black and Brown Suburbs
Despite allocation of federal funding, vaccines are still hard to get in many suburbs. BY CICERO INDEPENDIENTE AND SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
C
hicago’s systemic racism reaches beyond its municipal boundaries. Like the West and South sides of Chicago, city-adjacent suburbs are largely composed of Black and brown cash-poor communities that have weathered the COVID-19 pandemic with little resources in health care deserts. These areas are composed of a large number of essential workers who already faced exploitative and unsafe working conditions before the pandemic. Cook County is the second most populous county in the country, with 5.2 million residents, fifty-nine percent of whom live outside the City of Chicago, and close to fifty percent of them people of color. In many of these municipalities, local governments have been slow, sometimes unwilling, to respond to changing racial demographics and rarely do they make it easy for non-English speakers to participate in civic life. Past studies have additionally found pharmacy deserts in Black and segregated communities in Chicago that can be reasonably assumed to extend further west and south. Historically, large industries that emit pollutants into the air and water have received tax breaks and other benefits to attract them to set up shop in these areas. These industries have also driven in- and out-migration to these towns. For generations, heavy industry has made residents vulnerable to chronic health conditions, like asthma, that increase the risk of developing a severe case of COVID.
ILLUSTRATION BY EVA AZENARO ACERO
JULY 8, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11
