Skokie swears in first new mayor in 26 years, new Village Board
A jam-packed Council Chamber cheered and clapped for what some saw as a new day in Skokie, with the swearing in of a new mayor and Village Board on Monday.
Mayor Ann Tennes was the first official to be sworn in, and received a standing ovation from Skokie residents after she commented on what it means to be Skokie's mayor.
Incumbent Trustees Keith Robinson and Alison Pure Slovin were sworn in for their second term on the village board, and new trustees Kimani Levy, Lissa Levy, Jim Iverson and Gail Schechter took the oath for the first time. Village Clerk Minal Desai was also sworn in at Monday's Village Board meeting.
'Thank you to everyone who entrusted all of us to guide our community,' Tennes said. 'As (it) has been said in the last few minutes, whether you voted for one of us, all of us, or some of us, we will represent you.'
Tennes paid homage to past female mayors in the northern suburbs, including Jacqueline Gorell (Skokie), Lorraine H. Morton (Evanston), Joan Barr (Evanston), Madeleine Grant (Lincolnwood), Nancy Firfer (Glenview), and Sheila H. Schultz (Wheeling). 'I stand on their shoulders this evening,' she said.
'I believe that we will see that the best decision we make will often include components of our differing thoughts and opinions on the issues we face. And I also believe, and I know, that we are all stronger and better together,' Tennes said.
The new village board represents a mix of more traditionally-minded officials and reformers who felt empowered to run for office after the village implemented election reform initiated by residents through a petition.
As part of that election reform, an amended election code created term limits, staggered terms for trustees (with some running every two years) and four geographic districts from which trustees were to be elected. In line with that last item, the Skokie Village Board now contains four district trustees and two at-large trustees who represent the entire village. Election reform also created non-partisan elections, meaning that party affiliation wasn't on the ballot for Skokie voters.
Skokie voters also recently approved ranked-choice voting for its municipal elections, though that voting system appears to be facing roadblocks to implementation in Cook County.
Robinson, who received the most votes for re-election in his race, thanked voters. 'Your confidence humbles me and I do not take it lightly,' he said.
'This election felt very different. While we're no longer managing the global crisis of COVID-19, like we did before, we are undeniably in another epidemic: a national crisis of hate, division and misinformation.'
'What grounded me was the joy of connecting, meeting new people, walking through new neighborhoods and listening — I'm talking real deep listening — from parents concerned about their LGBTQIA+ children's future, to families unsure about where they will live next. To folks who are worried about something as basic, but as real as the rat and garbage problem,' Robinson said.
'To my new colleagues on the board, congratulations. We've got work to do. And if I can offer some unsolicited old head advice — check your privileges and your bias at the door. This seat is not about your personal agenda, it's about our shared future. Ask questions. Be willing to learn and recognize the brilliance of this village and the value of the commissioners who work tirelessly behind the scenes.'
Schechter said she accepted her seat on the board with humility, honor and gratitude. 'My philosophy of responsible democratic governance over my 40 years of community service that I developed is this: trust your people.'
'The underpinning of democracy is that no one is entitled to lead a government by divine right, inheritance, military might or wealth,' Schechter said. 'With electoral reform in Skokie, a campaign that I am proud to have chaired, now no political party has that kind of privilege either.'
'Today, you seat the first village board in decades that was elected based on our individual merits, vision and values. You have the right to expect a board that is accountable to you, as Alison said, that listens to you and that is not only welcoming, but invites you to sit at the governing table and contribute meaningfully to improving everyone's life,' she said.
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As hundreds of herds and dozens of people were infected in the U.S., the Biden administration funded Moderna to develop bird flu vaccines using mRNA technology. As part of the agreement, the U.S. government stipulated it could purchase doses in advance of a pandemic. That no longer stands. Researchers can make bird flu vaccines in other ways, but mRNA vaccines are developed much more quickly because they don't rely on finicky biological processes, such as growing elements of vaccines in chicken eggs or cells kept alive in laboratory tanks. Time matters because flu viruses mutate constantly, and vaccines work better when they match whatever variant is circulating. Developing vaccines within eggs or cells can take 10 months after the genetic sequence of a variant is known, Bright said. And relying on eggs presents an additional risk when it comes to bird flu because a pandemic could wipe out billions of chickens, crashing egg supplies. Decades-old methods that rely on inactivated flu viruses are riskier for researchers and time-consuming. Still the Trump administration invested $500 million into this approach, which was largely abandoned by the 1980s after it caused seizures in children. "This politicized regression is baffling," Bright said. A bird flu pandemic may begin quietly in the U.S. if the virus evolves to spread between people but no one is tested at first. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's dashboard suggests that only 10 farmworkers have been tested for the bird flu since March. Because of their close contact with cattle and poultry, farmworkers are at highest risk of infection. As with many diseases, only a fraction of people with the bird flu become severely sick. So the first sign that the virus is widespread might be a surge in hospital cases. "We'd need to immediately make vaccines," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. The U.S. government could scale up production of existing bird flu vaccines developed in eggs or cells. However, these vaccines target an older strain of H5N1 and their efficacy against the virus circulating now is unknown. In addition to the months it takes to develop an updated version within eggs or cells, Rasmussen questioned the ability of the government to rapidly test and license updated shots, with a quarter of HHS staff gone. If the Senate approves Trump's proposed budget, the agency faces about $32 billion in cuts. Further, the Trump administration's cuts to biomedical research and its push to slash grant money for overhead costs could undermine academic hospitals, rendering them unable to conduct large clinical trials. And its cuts to the CDC and to public health funds to states mean that fewer health officials will be available in an emergency. "You can't just turn this all back on," Rasmussen said. "The longer it takes to respond, the more people die." Researchers suggest other countries would produce bird flu vaccines first. "The U.S. may be on the receiving end like India was, where everyone -- rich people, too -- got vaccines late," said Achal Prabhala, a public health researcher in India at medicines access group AccessIBSA. He sits on the board of a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to mRNA vaccines in the next pandemic. A member of the initiative, the company Sinergium Biotech in Argentina, is testing an mRNA vaccine against the bird flu. If it works, Sinergium will share the intellectual property behind the vaccine with about a dozen other groups in the program from middle-income countries so they can produce it. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international partnership headquartered in Norway, is providing funds to research groups developing rapid-response vaccine technology, including mRNA, in South Korea, Singapore and France. And CEPI committed up to $20 million to efforts to prepare for a bird flu pandemic. This year, the Indian government issued a call for grant applications to develop mRNA vaccines for the bird flu, warning it "poses a grave public health risk." Pharmaceutical companies are investing in mRNA vaccines for the bird flu as well. However, Prabhala says private capital isn't sufficient to bring early-stage vaccines through clinical trials and large-scale manufacturing. That's because there's no market for bird flu vaccines until a pandemic hits. Limited supplies means the United States would have to wait in line for mRNA vaccines made abroad. States and cities may compete against one another for deals with outside governments and companies, like they did for medical equipment at the peak of the covid pandemic. "I fear we will once again see the kind of hunger games we saw in 2020," Cameron said. In an email response to queries, HHS communications director Andrew Nixon said, "We concluded that continued investment in Moderna's H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable." He added, "The decision reflects broader concerns about the use of mRNA platforms -- particularly in light of mounting evidence of adverse events associated with COVID-19 mRNA vaccines." Nixon did not back up the claim by citing analyses published in scientific journals. In dozens of published studies, researchers have found that mRNA vaccines against COVID are safe. For example, a placebo-controlled trial of more than 30,000 people in the U.S. found that adverse effects of Moderna's vaccine were rare and transient, whereas 30 participants in the placebo group suffered severe cases of COVID and one died. More recently, a study revealed that three of nearly 20,000 people who got Moderna's vaccines and booster had significant adverse effects related to the vaccine, which resolved within a few months. COVID, on the other hand, killed four people during the course of the study. As for concerns about the heart issue, myocarditis, a study of 2.5 million people who got at least one dose of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine revealed about two cases per 100,000 people. COVID causes 10 to 105 myocarditis cases per 100,000. Nonetheless, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded an anti-vaccine organization, has falsely called COVID shots"the deadliest vaccine ever made." And without providing evidence, he said the 1918 flu pandemic "came from vaccine research." Politicized mistrust in vaccines has grown. Far more Republicans said they trust Kennedy to provide reliable information on vaccines than their local health department or the CDC in a recent KFF poll: 73% versus about half. Should the bird flu become a pandemic in the next few years, Rasmussen said, "we will be screwed on multiple levels."
