Thread by @BauerJournalism

Arwady: "I am very worried about the hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans who have not" gotten vaccinated yet.

https://twitter.com/chicagosmayor/status/1474063325575073809

Arwady: There is vaccine. You might not be able to get an appointment today because of the holidays, but there are vaccine doses available and you can get your shorts.

Ald. Pat Dowell: I'm navigating this by not going anywhere, and I don't have many people over to my place.

But if you're fully vaccinated, have your booster, you've put in testing protocol for the event, "you should do that, and keep your mask on."

Arwady: "I cannot make a decision for you in terms of sort of what are your individual risks, what is the situation. But very top line, what I say" her decision-making is: "Vaccinated and boosted is the top thing for me." ...

She's getting together with her smaller, immediate family. Everyone is vaccinated and boosted, and they have the ability to do testing on top of that in case of a breakthrough.

Arwady: Things that are outdoors, where you can limit risk, are good.

Arwady: "If you've got folks who aren't vaccinated, especially, or you don't know, I'm not real comfortable, at all. I'm doing everything I can to sort of limit exposure right now" to only people who are vaccinated and boosted. She was home this whole weekend.

Arwady: "Everybody has COVID right now."

"It is probably not the year to be doing as much of the large, less controlled settings."

Arwad: If you are vaccinated, boosted and wearing a good mask, "I think you can fly."

Arwady: In a setting where people are vaccinated/boosted but are worried, have everyone get tested.

Arwady: If you are vaccinated but your family members are not, she would NOT gather with the unvaccinated people or recommend it.

Arwady: CDC is now formally recommending Pfizer and Moderna over J&J for boosters.

J&J is still on the market and available.

Her recommendation is if you're getting a first, second or booster, get Pfizer/Moderna.

Arwady: Things like the mask mandate and vaccine proof requirement are in place because we are at this high-risk state.

If it goes down, mitigations go away.

Arwady: They thought a lot about essential places when it came to the vaccine proof requirement, which is why schools are exempt — they're essential.

"We are not anticipating a school requirement right away at this time."

Arwady: Regardless of what variant you have, if you test positive, guidance is the same: You need to stay home.

Arwady: "Our goal, let me tell you, is to not shut down."

Arwady: Netherlands shut down. Why are they making that decision? Because they're running out of space in their hospitals.

Arwady: We cannot run the risk of running out of hospital capacity.

She was working the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and saw the health system overwhelmed: "Once you see that once — there's nowhere for people to go have babies safely, people are having heart attacks, you don't ...

"have enough room for people having heart attacks ... — the indirect effects become huge. The thing we are watching the most closely is our health care system."

Arwady: She's not anticipating a shutdown and doesn't want a shutdown.

The positivity rate is "scary," she agrees.

Arwady: "But the fact that we're seeing this kind of positivity and this kind of case increase, but many of those people not being sick enough to be hospitalized, that's because of prior protection."

Arwady: They'll be back Dec. 30 (week from today), but not Tuesday.

Arwady: "I wish that we were not seeing this big surge right on top of the holidays, but we are."