WBEZ’s Rundown Of Today’s Top News: Hot Vax Summer Is Here. Will We See A Surge?

Chicago Prom
Students dance under a tent during their senior prom at Senn High School on June 5, 2021. The event was held outside of the school and temperature checks and masks were recommended. Manuel Martinez / WBEZ
Chicago Prom
Students dance under a tent during their senior prom at Senn High School on June 5, 2021. The event was held outside of the school and temperature checks and masks were recommended. Manuel Martinez / WBEZ

WBEZ’s Rundown Of Today’s Top News: Hot Vax Summer Is Here. Will We See A Surge?

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Hey there! It’s Monday, and I went horseback riding over the weekend. My horse, Titan, tried eating trash out of a dumpster. Here’s what you need to know today.

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1. Illinois will fully reopen this week. Could we see a summer surge?

Restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses in Chicago and Illinois won’t be required to follow pandemic restrictions beginning this Friday. And I’ve noticed a lot of people are concerned about a potential rise in cases and deaths.

Some medical experts say that if the U.S. sees a surge this summer, it won’t be as deadly because many people in high risk groups are already fully vaccinated.

“The surge is not likely to end up tying up hospitals, and causing lots of deaths,” Dr. Edward Trapido, an epidemiologist and associate dean for research at the Louisiana State University School of Public Health, told The New York Times. “There are certain populations that are undervaccinated, and that’s where we will expect to see a rise.”

Health experts are currently worried about southern states — like Arkansas, the Carolinas, Georgia and Louisiana — which have some of the worst vaccination rates in the nation. [NYT]

In Chicago, about 53% of the population is partially vaccinated. And throughout Illinois, more than 68% of adults have gotten at least one dose.

The good news is vaccines remain the most effective way to beat this thing. Out of the more than 135 million people who have been fully vaccinated, only 3,016 breakthrough cases have been reported as of June 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2. Carbon dioxide levels reach historic high despite the pandemic

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached its highest levels since accurate measurements began 63 years ago, according to scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As Axios reports, “one would have to go all the way back beyond the beginning of human history — to the Pliocene Epoch, between 4.1 to 4.5 million years ago — to find a time when Earth’s atmosphere held a similar amount of carbon.”

Today’s news suggests that efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not going far enough as nations race to prevent the more dire effects of climate change. [Axios]

3. Antisemitism spiked during latest violence between Israel and Hamas

The U.S. saw a 75% increase in antisemitic incidents during last month’s military conflict between Israel and Hamas that left dozens of Palestinian children dead, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.

“It was like a wildfire that spread much farther than we had anticipated or really seen in the past,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL. “We were pretty staggered to see how fast this played out.”

As NPR reports, the alarming uptick has left many Jews wondering where their allies have gone. [NPR]

4. Illinois could soon become the first state to ban police from lying to juveniles during interrogations

Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to soon sign into law a bill that advocates say will prevent false confessions and wrongful convictions of juveniles.

The legislation would allow a young person’s confession to be thrown out if authorities lie to a young person about the facts of a case or the consequences of confessing to a crime.

The move comes decades after four Chicago teenagers, dubbed the Englewood Four, confessed to a brutal rape and murder in the ’90s that they did not commit. DNA evidence exonerated them almost 20 years later.

“You know, people [ask], ‘How can someone sign a confession for a crime they didn’t do?’ And I’m like ‘do you know the amount of pressure that you’re under?’ I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” said Terrill Swift, who was one of the Englewood Four. [WBEZ]

5. The FDA approved controversial treatment for Alzheimer’s

The Food and Drug Administration today approved the first new Alzheimer’s treatment in nearly two decades despite a debate over whether it works.

The drug, aducanumab, aims to slow declines in memory and thinking, but there is no conclusive evidence the drug works as intended. As NPR reports, two large studies offered conflicting evidence, and an independent advisory committee for the FDA recommended against its approval last year. But the FDA said the benefits of the drug outweighed the risks.

Aducanumab will be branded for sale as Aduhelm, and it is the first Alzheimer’s drug approved since 2003, which illustrates the high failure rate of drugs developed for the illness.

As a condition for the approval, the FDA is requiring the drug’s maker, Biogen, to conduct a new clinical trial. [NPR]

Here’s what else is happening

  • At least 60 people, including an 11-year-old girl, were shot in Chicago over the weekend, raising the alarm about city violence as summer approaches. [Chicago Tribune]
  • Despite the pandemic, private investors in Chicago’s controversial parking meter lease will make a $13 million profit. [Chicago Sun-Times]
  • New to Chicago politics and wondering how it works (or doesn’t)? Here’s a good explainer. [WBEZ]
  • An Exelon lobbyist is trying to give Illinois lawmakers a pay raise as the company seeks a massive ratepayer-funded bailout of the utility’s nuclear plants. [WBEZ]

Oh, and one more thing …

Students at Senn High School on Chicago’s North Side celebrated something that didn’t seem possible a year ago — prom.

“I walked in and I was already crying,” one joyful Senn student said.

The prom took place on Senn’s massive front lawn, decorated with red carpets, balloon-festooned tents, tables with flower arrangements and lights strung from the trees.

Many students said they couldn’t believe the school’s transformation. But they said what made it extra special was seeing friends for the first time in more than a year. [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

The other day I was talking to my neighbors about all of the movies that are coming out this summer. So I’d like to know: Which movie are you excited to see?

I’m looking forward to James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which follows a group of hapless supervillains who are recruited by the U.S. government to carry out a dangerous mission in exchange for knocking time off their sentences.

What are you looking forward to watching this summer? Feel free to email me at therundown@wbez.org or tweet me at @whuntah.

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