National Influenza Vaccination Week

Last week, CDPH and the Centers for Disease Control observed National Influenza Vaccination Week, reminding all Chicagoans 6 months or older that it’s not too late to get their annual flu shot. Different strains and variants of influenza circulate every year, making an annual vaccine the most effective way to prevent serious illness as the result of a flu infection. Vaccination is particularly crucial for populations at higher risk of complications, such as young children and pregnant people. The flu vaccine is proven to reduce your risk of contracting the flu at all, and drastically lowers rates of hospitalization and death for those who do.

CDPH will be hosting multiple vaccine clinics open to the public through the rest of the month:

• Tuesday, December 12 from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. at City Hall, 121 N La Salle St
• Sunday, December 17 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Swap-o-Rama, 4100 S Ashland Ave
• Monday, December 18 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Blue Door Neighborhood Center South Lawndale, 2551 W Cermak Rd
• Wednesday, December 20 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at DFSS Englewood Community Center, 1140 W 79th St
• Tuesday, December 26 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Dr. Martin Luther King Community Service Center, 4314 S Cottage Grove Ave
• Wednesday, December 27 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Englewood WIC Center, 641 W 63rd St
• Thursday, December 28 from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the Mexican Consulate, 203 S Ashland Ave

Nobody will be turned away on account of insurance or immigration status, and walk-ins are welcome. Thousands of people are hospitalized annually with influenza – protect yourself, get your flu shot today!

CDPH Talks Substance Use on Instagram Live

Join CDPH Program Manager in the Office of Substance Use, Sarah Richardson, on Thursday, December 14th on Instagram Live with viral epidemiologist and science communicator, Dr. Katrine Wallace! The pair will go live to have a comprehensive conversation on Opioid use and harm reduction strategies. Follow the CDPH Instagram account to watch the conversation and get live feedback and answers from questions from the audience.

Attend Chicago Heat Watch Event December 13

This past July, over 100 volunteer community scientists crisscrossed the city to measure temperature across all of Chicago's neighborhoods. Now the results are in! Attend our Heat Watch Chicago Report Launch Event with the Heat Watch Chicago team, the Northwestern University Buffett Institute Defusing Disasters Working Group, community partners, and others, on Wednesday, December 13, at 6:00 p.m. at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. Visit chicago.gov/coolchi to learn more and contact grace.adams@cityofchicago.org with questions or inquiries. RSVP here

New Healthy Chicago Podcast

In our second Healthy Chicago podcast, Joy Macatangay, Public Health Administrator at CDPH, joined Dr. Brian Borah to talk about the important steps Medicaid members need to take to renew their coverage, while Mervin Dino, Assistant Commissioner of the Community Health Bureau at CDPH, sat down with Dr. Geraldine Luna to discuss available local Medicaid resources for Latinx communities.

As of December 1, 2023, 10% of Medicaid beneficiaries in Illinois have been disenrolled because of the end of the pandemic, according to the latest data from Kaiser Family Foundation. The vast majority of disenrollments have occurred because of incorrect contact information for the enrollee or a failure to complete renewal forms on time.

Listen to this week’s English and Spanish episodes, Medicaid Redetermination: What Is It? Could It Affect Me? at chicago.gov/healthychicagopodcast and on all platforms:

• Youtube: English | Spanish
• Spotify: English | Spanish
• Amazon: English | Spanish
• Apple: English | Spanish
• RadioPublic: English | Spanish
• iHeart: English | Spanish

Celebrating New Growth and Community Roots

Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson joined the Departments of Streets and Sanitation, Transportation, Public Health, and Environment to celebrate the end of the 2023 tree planting season with a memorial tree planting honoring the life and legacy of Rigoberto "Rigo" Padilla Perez, who was the heart of Solorio Academy High School's DREAM Team for Undocumented Students and Allies. The planting of the 23,000th parkway tree in 2023 also marks the second successful year of the Our Roots Chicago initiative and the City's progress toward planting 75,000 parkway trees by 2026, part of the City's tree strategy through the Chicago Recovery Plan.

To date, the City has planted more than 41,000 trees through Our Roots Chicago. To request a free parkway tree, residents can call 311 or download the CHI311 app. More information is available on the Our Roots Chicago website: chicago.gov/OurRoots.

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