Shots called. Full FDA approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine has opened the floodgates to institutional requirements for employee and student immunizations.
■ An FDA veteran: “State governments, schools and businesses must mandate vaccinations … if we want to base public health actions on rigorously scrutinized scientific data.”
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■ In the face of opposition from—surprise!—the Chicago police union, Mayor Lightfoot says she plans to require vaccination for all city workers.
Fully approved, widely ridiculed. Didn’t take long for the internet to mock the new marketing name for the shot, Comirnaty.
■ NPR: How they came up with it.
■ A White House deputy communications director says it should be pronounced “keepz-u-out-of-the-hospital-saves-UR-life-protects-your-community.”
■ Moderna’s version—still awaiting final OK—has a much cooler name.
■ Communications consultant Marj Halperin* warns that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been squandering public trust by minimizing the facts “in favor of a broader public health strategy.”
‘We are deeply concerned.’ Dozens of aldermen and state lawmakers have written to Lightfoot encouraging her to back off on the return to in-person learning at Chicago’s public schools …
■ … but Lightfoot says “a mountain of evidence” certifies that “our schools are safe.”
■ Chicago-area pediatricians are discouraging parents considering bending the rules to get kids 11 and younger vaccinated.
■ An Illinois State University criminal justice professor: Black students are being suspended for petty reasons that force parents to leave work and sometimes lose their jobs.
■ As they’re treated for COVID-19, the Rev. Jesse Jackson acknowledges that his wife hasn’t been vaccinated against it.
Less magnificent. Chicago police are hunting a robbery crew that made off with $43,000 worth of goods from the Michigan Avenue shopping district—seriously hurting a 73-year-old guard in the process.
■ Four people were shot last night at the corner of Sheridan and Wilson—making six shootings there since July 20.
■ Expecting a spike this fall, Chicago police are beefing up their carjacking task force.
‘It’s as if capitalism’s dog pooped in the park and nobody cleaned it up.’ Condemning Amazon’s deal to put its pick-up lockers in Chicago public parks, columnist Rex Huppke offers founder Jeff Bezos an alternative: “I will gladly permit his company to bolt or strap a locker onto my person, creating an innovative roving Amazon hub.”
■ In the offing for Chicago’s South and West sides: $200 million in investment, in the form of four residential and retail developments.
‘He must be disqualified.’ Progressives are gearing up to oppose President Biden’s nomination of ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel as U.S. ambassador to Japan.
■ Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson: “Biden sends a horrible signal on police reform and institutional racism in rewarding a politician with a record like Emanuel’s.”
‘Such a collapse … should astound anyone.’ A Sun-Times editorial slams Illinois for letting its residential solar energy program fizzle.
■ CNN explains how climate change amplifies extreme weather like Tennessee’s deadly floods and New York City’s record rainfall.
■ Mic: “The wall Trump built for a fake crisis just got washed away by floods from a real crisis.”
■ 100-million-year-old fossils may reveal clues to a warming Earth’s future.
‘Journalism saved Jeopardy!’ Media columnist Margaret Sullivan salutes the reporter whose digging uncovered problems with the show’s now-discarded choice for a host, Mike Richards.
■ The replacement’s temporary replacement, neuroscientist and Blossom star Mayim Bialik, has credibility issues of her own.
■ Mother Jones, from Aug. 13: Bialik is “a terrible choice.”
Facebook-displaced. Columnist Mary Schmich, recently departed from the Chicago Tribune, has found herself locked out of her old Facebook page and so has launched a new one …
■ … where she continues posting “Tuesday morning thoughts on this-and-that.”
■ Rachel Maddow’s new deal with NBC Universal gives her what Vanity Fair calls “the chance to build a media empire.”
She was an American groupie. Grand Funk Railroad’s “sweet, sweet Connie” is dead at 66.
■ Interesting reading: Her Wikipedia page.
* Friend and former teammate to your Square columnist back in the day at WXRT-FM (2019 link).