18 hours ago
Letters: Government's reversal on COVID-19 shots for pregnant women is alarming
Illinois has been a leader in identifying the causes of maternal mortality and creating solutions that would address the causes. Last year, the University of Illinois at Chicago was designated a Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health, building on the state's successes and allowing us to invest in the next generation of researchers, connect community members with research and investigate the impact of stress on birth outcomes.
We understand our efforts can be upended by an emerging crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is a key example. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health's most recent Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report (2023), the number of women who died during or within a year of pregnancy from 2020 to 2022 was well above the average of deaths during the five years prior to the pandemic.
While we anticipate that the next report will detail how COVID-19 impacted pregnant women in Illinois, we already know from national data that maternal deaths increased by 33% after March 2020 and that the mortality risk of pregnant patients with COVID-19 infection at delivery was approximately 14 times higher compared with those without.
As a physician researcher, I have seen the importance of gaining the trust of patients and the public. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's announcement that COVID-19 vaccine boosters will not be recommended to pregnant women, which was done without consulting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, left clinicians to navigate a situation in which research is being actively disregarded by those setting federal policy. Not recommending this vaccine jeopardizes insurance coverage of the vaccine and clinicians' ability to gain the trust of pregnant women for vaccines at a time when they are at risk for adverse outcomes.
How can we expect pregnant women to trust clinicians if we recommend vaccines that they may not be allowed to access? Are we to advise patients to disregard CDC recommendations? How do we train future researchers and clinicians if epidemiologic data is ignored?
We need to listen to research and learn from data. Barring pregnant women from accessing the COVID-19 vaccine is not clinically sound and will negate our collective efforts to improve maternal health in Illinois and nationally. This will have a chilling effect on efforts to investigate and address causes of maternal morbidity and Father's Day here, I am once again reminded of the father I was blessed with.
My mom and dad had five girls. Sadly, their first baby was stillborn, and at the ages of 19 and 26, my parents had to bury their little girl, marking her grave with a small headstone for little 'Linda Jean.' They then had four more girls — I was the second of the four, born in 1950.
My dad was a mail carrier all of his working days and oftentimes found it hard to make ends meet. We didn't have the best of everything, but we had all we needed — most importantly, his devotion, his time and his unending love. As kids, we didn't realize that times were so tough.
The one story that I remember most vividly was when Dad drove me to my piano lesson. At the time, the lesson was $2 for 45 minutes. I happened to look over when he was getting the $2 out of his wallet one week and saw him pull it out — all folded up in a neat little square in the corner of his wallet. The rest of his wallet was empty. You see, Dad got paid only every other week.
It was many years later that I realized on the off days of the month, his wallet was empty — except for the $2 that he had set aside so I could take piano lessons.
How blessed I was!I started teaching in 1975 and walked away from the classroom this year. After 36 years of teaching high school and 25 years as a college adjunct, I have some unsolicited observations and advice for the fathers out there.
In all my 50 years involved with teenagers, I have never met a messed-up kid who had a good relationship with his or her father. Granted, I have met some problem children with wonderful moms, but then I met the dads, and the source of the kid's anger and unhappiness became clear. I also should point out that not all of the kids who had terrible fathers had difficulties, but those kids with bad fathers who turned out OK usually had a positive father figure there for them — a grandfather, an uncle, an older sibling, a stepdad.
Over the years, I've heard all of the excuses for fathers not being involved with their children: 'The ex is difficult,' 'I have to work too much,' 'I have a second family to raise now,' 'My kid doesn't respect me,' 'My kid is angry.' But all of the excuses fall before this one simple truth: That child is a part of you walking around out there, and he or she needs you to assist him or her on the way to a healthy adulthood.
Another truth I've learned is that, despite acting like their intent is to spend all of their parents' money, the thing that most kids really want is time. No one really has enough time or money, and how we spend our time and our money is a pretty good indicator of what we value. Instinctively, kids know this.
So, this Father's Day, if you are a father and your relationship with your child is not the best, vow to work this year to improve that relationship. Don't blame the ex or the child or the circumstances. Just be a better dad. Be there for looking at the footage of President Donald Trump recently speaking to the German chancellor regarding D-Day, nothing these last few months surprises me except the behaviors coming from the White House.
I am the proud daughter of my late dad, who was a bombardier with the 8th Army Air Corps who flew 35 missions over Germany in a B-17 bomber. My late father-in-law fought at the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, my late uncle was wounded at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and my husband's great uncle was a sailor whose warship was sunk by the Japanese in 1942 and whose headstone may be found in Manila. My friend's father-in-law was the groom in a wartime wedding in which my mom was the maid of honor. This man was an Army paratrooper who was later killed on Omaha Beach and never met his child.
The point is that these brave men fought and many died in defense of our nation and the world. The president spoke as if a war between nations was similar to a fight between brawling children.
For all of those involved, the remembrance of D-Day was not a great what I needed, a huge belly laugh while reading the Tuesday Tribune article ('Judge denies Madigan's motion for new trial') about former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's approaching sentencing. Through his defense attorneys, he stated that he amassed a personal fortune of $40 million by choosing 'frugality over extravagance, remaining in the same modest home for more than fifty years while making prudent savings and investment choices.'
Hey, that's the same lifestyle my husband and I have chosen over our 38-year marriage! Living that lifestyle has not brought our personal fortune anywhere near $40 million. Maybe Madigan can busy himself during his retirement teaching all of the hardworking, frugal, living-below-their-means folks his personal tricks to growing our income to be multimillionaires.
Let us in on the little secrets of the good old politician's club for growing your own personal Pope Leo XIV in that White Sox cap leads me to believe that someday he'll replace St. Jude as the patron saint of lost causes.
