>> Hello and thanks for joining us for a W t Tw new special COVID Lessons.

5 years later.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

>> 5 years ago today, our country and our lives changed forever.

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

And Illinois Governor JB Pritzker was about to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, an effort to control the virus.

>> To avoid the loss of potentially 10's of thousands of lives.

We must enact an immediate stay-at-home order for the state of Illinois.

>> As the world shut down, the virus impacted every aspect of our lives.

Business owners especially had to make adjustments so their livelihoods could survive.

This was might bring.

>> I always think about all you know what, I want the shot.

I want look this one at that that we just to help a lot of people waiting for tables.

And right now is Sandy.

>> The pandemic and subsequent vaccine rollout exposed disparities in health care as black and Latino residents were significantly more likely to contract the virus and died from it.

>> It's unacceptable.

No one should think that this is OK, we have to step up in this moment and step into it.

>> All that leads us to today.

What did we learn from COVID-19?

And is the country prepared for a future pandemic?

We explore those topics in the next half hour right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part by the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The gym and K maybe family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> More than 1.2 million Americans died from COVID-19 despite having one of the most sophisticated health care systems in the world, the U.S. response to the Coronavirus pandemic fell short when compared to other developed nations.

So 5 years after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic is the United States any better prepared to weather the next pandemic?

Joining us to help answer that question and more are Dr. Garth Walker medical director of value-based care at Rush University Medical Center.

Dr Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern Medicine.

And joining us via Zoom is Doctor Samir Wara director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Doctors.

Thank you all for joining us.

I want to start by asking each of you what you would say.

Some of the main lessons, the United States and in particular, our health care system have learned or think that we should have learned from our experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and Dr Walker Start with you.

Please.

>> Sure.

I think when I reflect back to 5 years ago, there were definitely some winds, particularly in the notion around developing a vaccine operationally being able to distribute it across the United States.

But when I think about opportunities of improvement, particularly around health equity and are marginalized communities, one of the biggest takeaways I took from there when I was at the Illinois Department of Public Health was just how fragile our primary care structure was.

how we need to ensure that we're thinking about populations and trying to make sure they're healthy or when a future pandemic presents itself.

Again, Dr. Horrific.

>> Besides the vaccine, which was a remarkable achievement in a matter of 10 months.

If you asked any expert and about vaccines in March of 2020, not one of them would have said that a vaccine could be developed within that year.

That calendar year, including Tony Fauci, head of an eye ad, was basically responsible for the development of this.

Everybody was wrong.

And that was a good thing because it happened so quickly by December, you had a vaccine on the market.

That was incredible.

It was affected.

People out of the hospital, keep people alive.

So it was one thing.

The second thing was the treatment.

There's a treatment there.

Several treatments out there.

The first treatment occurred really months after the pandemic start.

That was also remarkable, unfortunately, was a drug that was being used for other diseases that the just moved into the COVID spear tested it.

It worked.

And then the 3rd thing that work was testing.

And if you remember back to 2020, you can get a test if your life depended upon it.

I mean, that was a complete disaster.

But U.S. government came in again with a project called Rad X, Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for COVID within a little over a year's time, we went from 0 tests per day to 8 million tests per day.

So those 3 things I really phenomenal.

And you talk about the vaccine, it also speaks to the importance research because the research upon which the vaccine was based, the mrna technology was has been researched.

>> You know, started 2020 years before her Dr Bora.

Same question to you.

>> Well, I'd say that we at the state of Illinois and then when the public public thinking about this topic quite a bit and >> little over a year ago we released a COVID after action report emphasize some of those strengths areas in which we could apply.

Lessons learned.

We were very fortunate that time to have strong central leadership with Governor Pritzker.

Also a data-driven response focused on addressing disparities.

But what we learned was that through our governmental systems, especially public health systems, we needed to focus on preparedness.

We also had to modernize our systems, both the kind of taking real-time data into action, as well as validating our workforce.

And finally, how important communications was during the pandemic being able to engage communities, build trust taking those advances in science and really applying them around across the state to ensure that we could have the healthiest communities all across the league.

>> Dr Murphy, how would you say the effectiveness of the U.S. response compared to that of other countries and for those countries that had the lowest per capita mortality rates, would they do >> we did the worst of we can 19th of 20 of the 20 highest income countries.

I mean, really a pathetic score.

And the reason for that is that we gave up on the mitigation is too early and we left it up to the states.

So we stopped the masking.

We stop the social distancing people stop taking the vaccines or didn't take the vaccines.

Our mandate, some vaccines all were lifted very early compared to other countries like, for instance, in France, which has a much better result than we do.

You couldn't go buy a cup of coffee in a coffee shop without a vaccine card.

You couldn't leave during the height of the pandemic.

You couldn't go more than quarter of a mile from your home without a significant purpose to go like to visit a doctor or something.

We had nothing like that.

And that's why our numbers are actually the worst 19 20 and the high income world that we live so Dr for accepting that hindsight is, of course, twenty-twenty.

What were some of the mistakes that you think were made during the pandemic?

That should be.

>> Could be avoided if possible in the future.

>> I do think and as we kind of continue to face.

>> Challenging times in public health, the importance of having those.

Cornerstone partnerships between the governmental systems, academic systems, health care systems like the 3 of us on this call critical to ensuring that we could have kind of real-time action.

How do we modernize our our systems in big in meaningful ways?

Indeed, one of the focuses of how do we speak to these complicated public health and health care topics in ways that we can get individuals to understand the unification of health and community health, the importance of that.

we that we are learning those lessons and trying to apply them in real time here in Illinois.

But it will continue to be a real sort of state of vigilance for to maintain our preparedness on now into the future for any kind of public health emergencies that arise.

>> Dr Walker, you mentioned this and we know that, of course, black and brown black and brown communities in particular had higher mortality rates than white communities in the U.S. what we know about the cause of those disparities and how that might be addressed in the future.

>> Sure.

I think when we think about different communities and different ethnicities that are affected differently by pandemics.

We have to think about the social determinants of health, the barriers to be able to get access to vaccines as well as their participation in research trials to be able to be positioned.

Well, to be protected.

He protected.

I think one of the winds from COVID-19 with that, we did have equitable representation in the development of those vaccines, but that doesn't necessarily replace the role of trust and the role of building trust regardless whether you're a part of the private sector, part public sector gaining trust is a full-time job and communities have Wright full hypothesis for to be able to question accordingly.

So I think being able to continue on those partnerships that were just mentioned, build those partitions steeply so that when the pandemic presents itself in the future, you can operation allies, the distribution of vaccines needed as well as education to be received for those communities.

>> We surprised by is those disparities back in 2020 when it was coming to light?

I'm not at all.

I think the evidence in the research around the disparities among different groups was very deep, very convincing and well known amongst those in the field.

The challenge was how do you react towards it and build the trust and be able to affect the communities that needed to be affected differently.

>> Dr Mursi.

Do you think the key lessons to be learned a medical political?

>> The medical I think we're on target.

I think as the reasons I already stated, but this is the disease that is the most political disease that I think has ever really happen.

Not that pandemics aren't filled with politics.

I mean, it goes back to smallpox vaccination back in this 17 th-century in Boston where when discovered very elation, which is a form of a smallpox vaccination.

The leaders of the community who are promoting it because it worked.

Their had their houses and firebombed.

People thought it's against God's will is just not a natural thing to do.

And so that feeling today and then with this pandemic, it continues.

And it's it's just a huge tragedy will happen with the next pandemic when we now have states with laws built where you never have a mask mandate, you can never have a social I mean, it's built into some laws and some of the states these people are really going to be put at odds and to and follow-up on the issue with the underprivileged minorities.

Because of the great efforts, actually that one on in this state and many others and many people, those vaccination rates treatment rates went up significantly during the pandemic.

And in the middle of the pandemic.

When the politics came in.

you know rates actually got worse?

White males, white males started doing worse.

We were doing a study.

We had to go out the suburbs where we had to go out there recruit them to get into a study to try to, you know, treat them.

So so we're almost out of time on and Dr. For.

I'm gonna give you the last word on this, because, you know, obviously there's a lot to talk about because we weren't able to get to the part about the United States withdrawing from the World Health Organization which declared a global pandemic.

But >> overall, would you say we are better prepared for the next pandemic?

Is a bird flu isn't measles >> will as you mentioned, just emerging challenges around public health.

I'd say that here in Illinois, we have invested in.

Our preparedness in our data systems.

>> And and in working all around you and effective ways to communicate with their communities.

>> But the COVID-19 pandemic showed us, we interconnected.

United States and world.

And have to do everything in our power to maintain those important global relationships to ensure that we are taking every precaution to protect our residents.

And you don't.

We across the nation.

>> All right.

That's where we'll have to leave it.

The 3 of you obviously have your work cut out for you.

Thank you for joining Doctor Garth Walker Dr Robert Murphy and Doctor Samir Bora.

Thank you.

Up next, COVID patients who are experiencing complications long after their initial infection.

For many people, COVID is still not yet behind us.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 3 in 10 adults who've been infected with the virus at some point experience long COVID long-term health problems from the virus.

While clinical research is still underway, advocates say more help is needed for those living with it.

Joining us with more on the illness are March a long COVID patient and Dr Gerry Christian, a medical researcher at the University of Illinois, Chicago, thanks to you both for joining us.

Dr. Christian, I want to start with you because you are leading an NIH research effort on long COVID.

How is what we know about long COVID now.

How's it changed in the last 5 years?

Yeah.

>> Thank you so much for having me tonight.

I think we learned a lot.

I think first is we now know what long COVID is.

We have a definition for long COVID.

I think all throughout United States and different parts of the world, we have a single definition, which is really the first step in making any advance.

The second is we have a way of knowing who's at risk for long COVID something we didn't quite know before.

So no one, these are individuals, particularly those who got sick with you earlier, variants of long COVID the pre Delta and the Delta variant swear maybe 2030% of people develop long COVID.

Now we know with the more recent strangest closer, maybe 5%, maybe 10%.

So we know that we're on the path towards viruses that are much less likely to cause long COVID.

also women are at higher risk.

People who have more severe illness or higher risk.

Those were not vaccinated.

And those who get recurrent COVID infections.

So we now know the target population should be most worried about 3rd thing that we know is that we're now developing greater expertise in diagnosing on COVID and developing multidisciplinary clinics to help individuals who are suffering long COVID.

So some progress made it sounds like Marta you had long COVID for nearly 5 years because you did contract it.

>> Kind of early on.

It was October of 2020 that year.

What has that been like for you last 5 years?

>> Very challenging.

I had a very severe case of COVID in October issues have 2020 and then for months I realized my now and taste just did not return.

And it took me a very long time to connect the dots to realize.

But I COVID even on healthcare executive.

It's hard to understand how everything relates year-long COVID.

So what I deal annual basis, daily basis.

I health issues with my brain.

I have trouble brain fog stuttering as it attacks.

My heart will race even though I'm at rest, Milos Erskine to it's harder to recover from illnesses and then I have stomach issues that may last for 3 months.

So that's another part of long COVID.

People don't know that you could have a certain issue that you had when you had COVID.

But it will last and set up for a couple weeks for 3 months.

And plus, I have a debilitating Alex Cobb Post Exertional malaise.

So that's take.

So even if I walk a short distance, I become very tired.

So mention all of that put together can be life changing for the activities and the responsibilities that you're allowed to keep up Correct.

I have to make accommodations.

I have to rest.

>> I have to plan for my time and I have to work just as healthy as possible to manage to treat the symptoms that I have Dr Krishnan.

Why is it such a challenge to diagnose and treat and why haven't we invested more in research and training?

Yeah.

>> So the first thing is made just have to remember that this is a new condition.

2019 is when the virus was identified as causing pneumonia like illnesses.

I think you heard on the previous segment how quickly we're able to make progress in developing vaccines.

So this is a new illness for learning.

I guess if you were to put this in the context of HIV pandemic, I think it took about 10 years from having the virus and Dana fight to having effective treatments.

That convertible was uniformly fatal disease to something we could manage more effectively in now with a completely different situation.

We're talking about treatments, maybe every 6 months.

That's just the pill you take every 6 months or an injection.

So I think early in the phase.

As I said, we now know what long COVID is.

We're trying to now fair.

Why do people get long COVID and how do we effectively treat it and what are the longer-term consequences?

And wolves just wanted to also mention that according to a study from the recover program that you are a part of.

>> Compared to white patients hospitalized with COVID-19 black patients had approximately twice the odds being diagnosed with diabetes and one and a half times the odds of being diagnosed with chest pain in the 30 to 180 days after infection and similar differences were also observed for for Hispanic individuals.

Marta, have you seen or how have you seen Latino communities struggle to access care for long COVID?

>> Well, were down in the trenches trying to vaccinate people.

And many people did not know how to access the vaccine.

They were afraid of going to clinics because of traditional fears.

So that was problem.

Number one, people afraid to get treatment to get help in the communities.

So we on the ground in the churches and the food pantries trying to help people who are hardly communities, just even to access care.

So that's a very big problem because they unable to address a health issue and they get worse and worse.

>> Dr question.

What what other types of health inequities, DC community space that might put at risk for long COVID?

>> Yeah.

I think the first to Marcus had these really nice legally access to care.

And I think we've made great strides in that.

I think we have a community health centers.

We have greater access to 8 to insurance.

I think this is an area that we need to continue to do our work.

The second is it reaching.

He's hardly reached communities and really raising the awareness to says Martos doing now, Martin, along with you need those and you're on Chicago and other groups.

I really going out to communities and building trust to talk about long COVID and engaging them in conversations.

So I think main point is recognizing those symptoms getting help early and going to places that have expertise in long COVID.

>> Margaret, you've been advocating for increased awareness about long COVID.

What types of benefits and supports to people with long COVID need.

>> They need to be able to get to clinician to understand the illness.

Mayo, clinicians don't understand it.

When I told him all about the symptoms I mentioned to you, they looked confused and they don't know what to do.

So you need to go to long COVID clinics, a deal with physicians who understand the on this who they can find treatments a deal with your particular issues.

Otherwise you can continue to get worse and some people drop out at unable to work and have very serious consequences if they don't address a lot COVID with the expert Dr Christian with probably 20 seconds left.

What more would you like to see?

>> Yeah, I think the it's right.

It's useful to kind of recognize that we're in the path here towards having major discoveries made in the treatment of long COVID.

>> Both Martin and I and others are actually part of national consortia are launching clinical trials.

So I would say this is a opportunity for all of us to be part of the solution and learn about the research that's going on and join and participate.

And let's get this solved quicker together.

All right.

Best of luck to you both.

Thank you for joining us.

More to Sarah and Dr. Jerry Kirsten, thank you.

>> Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Up next, Chicago welcomes a monument to commemorate the COVID-19 pandemic.

But first, a look at the weather >> Chicago is creating a physical space to remember the COVID-19 pandemic that had the world lockdown in an effort to honor those killed by the virus.

And as a tribute to essential workers who risk their lives, Chicago will soon be home to a global monument.

>> Chicago was the first to have a medical district.

>> So of course, we should be the first to have a COVID-19 monument and the medical district.

>> So this is the monument honoring all of the frontline and essential workers and those who passed.

>> I had the idea, but I didn't have the place.

>> What we have behind us is that you sort of the center of the district and it's where all the hospitals can see and space.

And we wanted to create something green and beautiful here.

So we've been in conversations with the community about what they want and what they need here in the I M D. >> What should a monument of honor remembrance and resilience look like?

Archery shows submission from a young art professor, a sculpture.

Casey Schachner.

It features sculptures that are a hybrid of the COVID virus and the dandelion flower.

It's a visual metaphor for the virus and for hope and resilience.

>> So Chicago responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by coming together.

The communities really started to work together.

The nurses.

resiliency of Chicago, really shone through.

>> Chicago will be the site and city.

>> Of the World Global Monument that honors frontline workers.

We want a place where people can come and play and calm and relax and I have an opportunity for health and wellness and healing right in the backyard of Chicago.

>> This monument tell society we can do it.

We did it.

We came together and we survived a world pandemic.

>> Willie, we've had this amazing opportunity to bring something beautiful to Chicago that will last for generations and will shine a light on Chicago and how we took care of each other.

And one of the darkest times.

>> In the monument is slated to make its debut in the city's medical district in 2026.

And that's our show for this Tuesday night.

Join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10 now for all of us here at Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe.

>> Have a good night.

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