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Two more belugas from Canada are making their way to the Shedd Aquarium. Also, read to the bottom of this email for hot dog recommendations.
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(Vadym Terelyuk / iStock)
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As their kids head back to school, parents are navigating conflicting messages about childhood vaccines after President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month recommending changes to the federal vaccine schedule.
The executive order recommends splitting the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three separate shots and reducing the number of vaccines recommended for all children from 18 to 11.
The Trump administration said the order is based on “gold-standard science,” but medical professionals have been quick to dispute the changes, arguing they could endanger children’s health.
More context:
Dr. Julia Rosebush, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago and pediatrician at Comer Children’s Hospital, said the order isn’t based on science.“This upended decades of science,” Rosebush said. “There was no new science that prompted this change. I was very concerned and am still concerned that this is going to lead to a lot of confusion amongst providers and also amongst our patients and their families.”
Dr. Anita Chandra-Puri, a pediatrician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and president of the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said splitting the MMR vaccine into separate shots would undo years of progress.
“There is no separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in the United States,” Chandra-Puri said. “There hasn’t been a production of separate measles, mumps, rubella since 2009. We’ve been using MMR as a vaccine for decades very successfully, very safely.”
Single-antigen vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella aren’t widely available in the U.S. and could take years and tens of millions of dollars to develop. The executive order also recommends administering the vaccines at separate medical visits, potentially requiring families to make multiple trips to the doctor.
“As a practicing pediatrician, there’s no viability to what they suggested we do,” Chandra-Puri said. “There’s no practical way to actually implement that executive order.”
The order also recommends that several vaccines, including those for hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningitis, be given only to high-risk groups rather than all children.
Vaccines for rotavirus, COVID-19 and influenza would be moved to a shared decision-making category, meaning parents and doctors would decide together whether children should receive them.
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A child plays with block letters in a file photo. (Kostikova / iStock)
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Some of the nation’s most in-need families might face new changes to childcare.
Last month, the Trump administration announced a proposal to overhaul Head Start, an early childcare education program that aims to serve children below the federal poverty level — including those who are experiencing homelessness or are in foster care. The changes would remove the program’s national standards and give states and parents more control.
Some backstory:
Head Start provides educational and medical services, parent coaching and nutritional needs to qualifying families from birth to age 5. The program follows a federal-to-local funding model, which allows federal dollars to reach local communities without passing through state governments. Experts say this model allows Head Start staff to address the unique needs of their communities.
Illinois Head Start Association Executive Director Lauri Morrison-Frichtl said the proposed changes to Head Start could mean decreases in the quality of care.
“It’ll have a critical impact on our children and families across the state, including removing those comprehensive services that make our Head Start programs so impactful, directly for children and families,” Morrison-Frichtl said. “And increasing our class sizes leaves less opportunity for children to have individualized services.”
In Illinois, Head Start serves 28,000 children across more than 600 childcare and classroom centers. Some services are housed in specialized centers, while others are provided through home-based care. Supporters of the proposed deregulation say the changes could create thousands of open spots for children in need.
According to Head Start’s website, children enrolled in Head Start are more likely to graduate high school and attend college. Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, a nonprofit company delivering research and commentary about Illinois’ economy and government, said the effects of Head Start don’t always last.
While some see local regulations as a positive alternative, Head Start advocates are concerned that states will not be able to secure the necessary resources and funding to continue programs. Morrison-Frichtl said this funding is necessary to ensure the needs of the nation’s most vulnerable children can be met.
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The Dirksen Courthouse is pictured in Chicago. (Capitol News Illinois)
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Anosh Ahmed, the former Loretto Hospital executive who allegedly fled the U.S. amid a federal investigation into fraud and money-laundering schemes, appeared before a federal judge in Chicago on Monday and pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen charges.
Ahmed allegedly fled to Dubai after he was charged in a separate embezzlement scheme, but was taken into custody in Serbia early this year and eventually returned to the U.S., according to federal prosecutors.
On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to all charges in a new, 15-count indictment returned against him last week.
Ahmed was already set to remain in federal custody ahead of Monday’s hearing after he appeared in court last week, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Young Kim ordered that he remain at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in downtown Chicago following a separate hearing last Friday.
“Right now he’s gonna stay in custody,” U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said during Monday’s arraignment, adding she was “glad to see you here in the flesh.”
What to know:
Ahmed exited Loretto in March 2021 amid multiple controversies during the pandemic involving improper vaccination events, as detailed in reporting at the time by Block Club Chicago. But according to prosecutors, he obtained a spreadsheet the following month which contained personal information — including names, dates of birth, gender and addresses — of some 150,000 Loretto patients who’d visited the hospital between July 2014 and June 2020.
Last year, Ahmed was hit with new charges alleging he and three others — Mohamed Sirajudeen, Mahmood Sami Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry — submitted fraudulent reimbursement claims to the federal government for COVID-19 testing materials totaling nearly $900 million, of which approximately $293 million was paid between June 2021 and March 2022.
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More From WTTW News:
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President Donald Trump is expected to return to the Chicago area this month to attend the Presidents Cup, where he'll serve as the golf tournament’s honorary chairman. The Presidents Cup will be held at Medinah Country Club in the northwest suburbs on Sept. 22-27. It will be Trump’s first
public appearance in the Chicago area since he was elected to a second term.
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Back in the Day: September 1, 1961 - TWA Flight 529
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On this day 65 years ago, TWA Flight 529 crashed in suburban Willowbrook killing all 78 people on board. The accident occurred minutes after departure from Midway Airport at 2:05 p.m. The plane originated in Boston, bound for San Francisco, with scheduled stops in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Upon takeoff from Midway, the plane pitched up violently and entered an accelerated stall. The pilot lost control of the aircraft, and it crashed into an empty field, disintegrating and leaving debris over an area 200 feet wide and 1,100 feet long. An investigation found that the crash was caused by the “loss of an AN-175-21 nickel steel bolt from the parallelogram linkage of the elevator boost system, resulting in loss of control of the aircraft."
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This Week’s Staff Recommendations
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Every Tuesday, WTTW News staffers highlight their favorite things about Chicago. This week, it’s newsletter producer Josh Terry on his favorite local hot dogs that aren’t exactly Chicago-style.
Josh Terry: The Chicago-style hot dog is a culinary miracle. It’s “dragged through the garden,” meaning it’s got yellow mustard, neon green sweet pickle relish, chopped white onions, tomato wedges, a dill pickle spear, sport peppers and a pinch of celery salt. All of these ingredients, alongside the beef frankfurter sausage and poppyseed bun, came from the city’s immigrant communities, combining for a local food classic. But sometimes, you might want to switch it up, so I’ve compiled a couple of my favorite dogs that don’t conform to the traditional Chicago style.
Chicago’s Dog House
With a name like Chicago’s Dog House, you won’t be led astray with their traditional Chicago dog offerings, but this Lincoln Park and Loop shop offers a wide range of sausages and varieties of encased meats. You can get “The Blagojevich,” which is a Chicago dog with the taboo ketchup (“guilty as charged,” jokes the menu) or chef it up with an apple brandy duck sausage or a smoked alligator sausage. I’d recommend the “Midway Monster:” spicy giardiniera, BBQ sauce, bacon and smoked cheddar. Multiple locations.
Devil Dawgs
This local chain has an excellent slaw dog topped with coleslaw, but my favorite is their version of the Icelandic dog: jumbo Vienna spicy beef hot dog topped with honey mustard, ketchup, homemade remoulade, diced onion, and crispy shallots. Multiple locations.
Rendang Republic
Arguably the best new hot dog in the city comes from an Indonesian restaurant in Lakeview. Boasting a Duck Inn chicken sausage, this explosion of flavor features sambal bawang goreng (fried shallots), acar acar (pickled vegetables), tomato, ketumbar dan bawang bombay (cilantro and green onion), jammed into a poppyseed bun. It’s perfection. 3355 N. Clark St.
Superdawg
Few places are more Chicago than this Jefferson Park and Wheeling drive-in. Less a departure from the traditional Chicago style than a loving tweak, the Superdawg is a proprietary delicacy boasting a unique sausage, piccalilli blend, pickled green tomatoes and more. The best dog in the city. Multiple locations.
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What's one Chicago business you miss dearly? Tell us why.
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published.
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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