NEW YORK — Laurie Metcalf smiles and laughs when she thinks of her character Jackie and her assorted misadventures on the “Roseanne” spinoff, “The Conners.”
Dating back to her introduction in Roseanne Barr’s 1988’s sitcom, Jackie has reinvented herself many times over. She’s been a cop, a truck driver, a factory worker, co-owner of The Lanford Lunch Box (which was reopened on “The Conners), and was for a time, as the character describes it, “Lanford’s leading life coach.”
The role earned Metcalf three Emmy Awards while “Roseanne” was on the air, but she’s content with Jackie being a supporting role.
“A little bit of Jackie goes a long way, so I’m always the weirdo B storyline. Too much of Jackie would be just overdose.”
While the character’s overall persona has remained unchanged through both series, it’s provided a chance to grow as an actor. When “Roseanne” started, Metcalf was a theater actor with no experience in television.
“Everything was new to me. I had a big learning curve to jump into a multi-camera sitcom. The writers started writing to each one of our different strengths,” Metcalf recalled.
“I’m assuming that one of my strengths was to be this victimized loser who didn’t have a clue that’s what she was to begin with,” she said laughing. “But (Jackie) just went out every day with her head up and determined to to do something great or make something. And then it would all come collapsing down around her. But, she had definite, firm opinions about things. And she still to this day meddles in the rest of the family’s business, even though her own life is collapsing around her.”
That sometimes involves Jackie’s romantic interests, which have been played by actors including George Clooney, Jim Varney and Matthew Broderick. She also dabbled in a throuple but that was short-lived because Metcalf says, “Jackie was clueless.” Her current love interest is Neville, portrayed by Nat Faxon.
“It’s so funny now when we go to work because we’re wearing masks all through the week and we don’t see each other until they say, ‘Action.’ We drop our mask and we tape the scene and then we put them right back on again. So. I didn’t know what Nat even looked like for the first episode we did together until they said, ‘Action’ and then I saw his whole face.”
Filming has wrapped on “The Conners” season three and the cast is waiting to see if they’ll be renewed by ABC for a fourth season. Metcalf said there’s more to be seen from Jackie, including whether she has any actual life coaching experience.
“One of my regrets was that you never really got to see her at work advising someone, so in hindsight there’s a tiny piece of me that wonders if she just lied about the whole thing,” said Metcalf. “There’s no proof, right?”
Metcalf will soon begin production on a film in New York, directed by and co-starring Ray Romano, about a big Italian family in Queens. She’s been working with a dialect coach on her accent.
“I’ve never thought that I was very good at them, so I’ve always shied away from a role that had an accent in it, but I’m going to tackle this one. I hope once we all get on the set and I’m surrounded by it, I’ll start to absorb it.”
A two-time Tony winner, Metcalf is anxious for theater to open back up because it’s her first love. When Broadway shut down due to the pandemic, Metcalf had done nine previews of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
“‘Company’ with Patti LuPone was on the same block as me and we saw their lights go out, but everybody thought, ‘Oh, two weeks, you know, we’ll be back.’ That was like having the rug pulled out for sure. The whole theater community has been reeling now for more than a year. I can’t wait to be in a rehearsal room again for a play.”
When the White Sox welcome back a limited number of fans to Guaranteed Rate Field for games this spring, parents with young children can expect a new state-of-the-art accommodation to make it easier to enjoy a day at the ballpark.
Two years after the club introduced a Mothers’ Nursing Room to provide a clean and convenient area in the stadium for breastfeeding women, the space will now also offer a self-sanitizing diaper changing table that uses a “patented UV-C light system which is known to kill 99.9% of germs, including COVID-19,” in less than a minute.
The table comes from a Chicago-based company called Pluie, which was started by a pair of local mothers, Addie Gundry and Brittany Hizer, who decided to address the fact that public diaper changing stations haven’t changed in decades.
The company says the UV-C technology in the device is widely used today by hospitals to sanitize patient rooms. It has plans to install the self-sanitizing tables in other public areas such as restaurants, parks, and retail, healthcare and education facilities.
The Guaranteed Rate Field nursing room, along with the Sensory Room installed in 2019, are part of an ongoing effort by the White Sox to make their game experience more inclusive to all fans. In addition to the new Pluie table, breastfeeding mothers will also find comfortable chairs, electrical outlets for pumps and a television to follow the game.
A woman receives a Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine from registered nurse Gina Reed at a vaccination center established at the Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, on March 5, 2021.Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday announced a new vaccination site in partnership with the Chicago Federation of Labor that will help get doses of COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of essential union workers.
The announcement on Monday comes as the city expands eligibility requirements to what’s called Phase 1C. That expansion includes residents ages 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions, such as chronic kidney disease or cancer.
“You all know this, but it bears repeating. Chicago is 100 percent a union town,” the mayor said in making the announcement at the vaccination site, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, 2260 S. Grove St.
“It’s our union workers who make up the backbone of this city.”
The vaccination site is at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, 2260 S. Grove St. It is believed to be the first site in the nation run by the labor movement.
An Associated Press analysis of state data reveals that the coronavirus pandemic has ripped away several systemic safety nets for millions of Americans. It found that child abuse reports, investigations, substantiated allegations and interventions have dropped at a staggering rate, increasing risks for the most vulnerable of families in the U.S.
In the AP’s analysis, it found more than 400,000 fewer child welfare concerns reported during the pandemic and 200,000 fewer child abuse and neglect investigations and assessments compared with the same time period of 2019. That represents a national total decrease of 18% in both total reports and investigations.
The AP requested public records from all 50 state child welfare agencies and analyzed more than a dozen indicators in 36 states, though not every state supplied data for total reports or investigations. The analysis compared the first nine months of the pandemic — March to November 2020 — with the same time period from the two previous years.
And there are signs in a number of states that suggest officials are dealing with more urgent and complex cases during the pandemic, according to the analysis, though most child welfare agencies didn’t provide AP thorough data on severity.
A loss in reports means greater potential for harm because “there has not all of the sudden been a cure for child abuse and neglect,” said Amy Harfeld, an expert in child abuse deaths with the Children’s Advocacy Institute.
11:32 a.m. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 90% effective after two doses in real-world US study
The U.S government’s first look at the real-world use of COVID-19 vaccines found their effectiveness was nearly as robust as it was in controlled studies.
The two vaccines available since December — Pfizer and Moderna — were 90% effective after two doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. In testing, the vaccines were about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.
“This is very reassuring news,” said the CDC’s Mark Thompson, the study’s lead author. “We have a vaccine that’s working very well.”
The study is the government’s first assessment of how the shots have been working beyond the drugmakers’ initial experiments. Results can sometimes change when vaccines are used in larger, more diverse populations outside studies.
9:50 a.m. Animals likely source of COVID, WHO report says
In this Feb. 9, 2021, file photo, Peter Ben Embarek of the World Health Organization team holds up a chart showing pathways of transmission of the virus during a joint news conference at the end of the WHO mission in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province.AP
A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press.
The findings offer little new insight into how the virus first emerged and leave many questions unanswered, though that was as expected. But the report does provide more detail on the reasoning behind the researchers’ conclusions. The team proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis.
The report, which is expected to be made public Tuesday, is being closely watched since discovering the origins of the virus could help scientists prevent future pandemics — but it’s also extremely sensitive since China bristles at any suggestion that it is to blame for the current one. Repeated delays in the report’s release have raised questions about whether the Chinese side was trying to skew its conclusions.
“We’ve got real concerns about the methodology and the process that went into that report, including the fact that the government in Beijing apparently helped to write it,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a recent CNN interview. China rejected that criticism Monday.
The latest tally of reported cases in Illinois is 2,250, diagnosed from 65,729 tests, bringing the state’s seven-day positivity rate to 3.2%. That’s the highest average recorded since Feb. 11, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Over the past two weeks, the statewide positivity rate has slowly increased from a record low of 2.1% recorded on March 13.
Officials on Sunday also reported 23 deaths linked to COVID-19, including seven people from Cook County. That brings the state’s total death toll to 21,251.
Meanwhile, as vaccine supply has increased and inoculations have become more widely available, another 110,211 shots went into arms on Saturday. Over 6.2 million vaccine doses have been sent to providers in Illinois and more than 2 million residents have now been fully vaccinated, officials said.
Analysis and commentary
7:43 a.m. ‘The Last Cruise’ takes you along on a real-life outbreak at sea
If a cruise ship had been quarantined in the early days of a pandemic a generation ago, we’d have only still photographs and perhaps some choppy and grainy videotape recording of events as they played out in real time.
But when the Diamond Princess liner was put on quarantine in February of 2020 with some 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members aboard, just about everyone had a cell phone handy and recorded untold hours of video — and select footage from a number of those passengers and ship employees is utilized by director Hannah Olson in the compelling if incomplete-feeling documentary “The Last Cruise,” premiering Tuesday on HBO.
Spanning just 40 minutes, “The Last Cruise” opens with title cards explaining the Diamond Princess set sail from Japan on Jan. 20, 2020, when only a few cases of the coronavirus had been reported worldwide. It certainly wasn’t a concern for the passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, as evidenced by the home video we see at the outset of the story.
The Blackhawks have reached a crucial moment in their season. And they know it.
One by one, Alex DeBrincat, Malcolm Subban and coach Jeremy Colliton spoke after Sunday’s loss to the Predators and used the same rhetoric to describe the team’s current state.
“We’ve got to figure out what our identity is,” DeBrincat said. “We’ve got to go back to what we were doing earlier in the season: battling hard, getting cheap goals, going to the net, getting pucks on net and doing all that. We’ve gotten away from that a little bit and that’s why we’re struggling right now.”
“We just need to get back to the way we were playing,” Subban said. “We just need to embrace it and just be ready for the challenge and try to surpass these obstacles.”
“We’ve got to get back to our mentality and our identity and the things we did earlier in the year that allowed us to have success,” Colliton said. “If we do, then we’ll be fine. But it’s important that we don’t wait any longer.”
The Hawks have lost nine of their last 13 games. They’ve taken almost 100 fewer shots than they’ve conceded over that span. They’ve scored only 17 goals in their last eight games.
And they’ve fallen out of a playoff spot, with the Predators holding fourth place entering Tuesday on the regulation wins tiebreaker. A few more losses and the Hawks could conceivably fall into seventh.
Compared to the optimism at the end of February, the Hawks have slipped into a discouraging, soul-searching place as the end of March nears. Not even the buzz created by Kirby Dach’s return has, so far, helped reverse the downward spiral.
And the road isn’t about to get any easier, with the Hurricanes — who, at 23-7-3, are the current NHL leaders in point percentage — coming to Chicago for games Tuesday and Thursday.
“It’s frustrating,” DeBrincat said. “We’ve lost too many games in this stretch to be OK with [it].”
“All teams go through ebbs and flows through the year,” Colliton said. “This is ours, and we’ve got to nip it in the bud. The positive is, through how we played earlier, we’re still in a good position in the standings.”
Colliton’s claim about the standings might not be exactly true, but he’s right that the Hawks’ well-above-expectations play in winter has given them a window to re-float the ship.
Every single metric, both offensively and defensively, indicates their play has declined since then, though.
They’re taking fewer shot attempts (.808 vs .843 per minute) and allowing more shot attempts (.972 vs .940 per minute).
The attempts they are taking are less accurate (55.8% vs. 58.3% on goal) and less dangerous (48.9% vs 50.0% are scoring chances), and the attempts they’re allowing are more accurate (59.3% vs. 57.7% on goal) and more dangerous (54.5% vs. 49.0% are scoring chances).
They’re winning fewer faceoffs (46.5% vs. 47.4%). Their goaltending has gotten worse (.903 vs. .914 save percentage).
Colliton is aware that the team’s struggles have spread across the board. Asked Sunday what the Hawks need to do better, he listed a dozen things in one minute.
“Skating, work ethic, competitiveness, relentlessness, defending hard,” he said. “Being willing to play a ‘zero shift’ and just leave the next line in a better spot. Being harder to play against physically. Being willing to grind. The best thing you do may be just finishing [your shift] in the offensive zone, or maybe you start in the ‘D’-zone and just don’t get scored on. That can be a positive for the team. Draw a penalty. Do little things that will help your teammates have a chance at success.”
Fixing all that at once will be difficult, if not impossible. But the clock is ticking on the Hawks to find a way to do so.
Southern Illinois has an unscheduled bye Saturday, after Illinois State canceled its remaining games, and will host Western Illinois on April 10. (photo courtesy siusalukis.com)
Two weeks ago, Southern Illinois’ record stood at 4-1 and the Salukis were ranked No. 5 in the country with visions of the FCS playoffs staring them firmly in the eyes.
However, two consecutive losses has dropped SIU not only in the national rankings but have also dimmed those playoff hopes. This spring’s pandemic-inflicted playoff bracket is designed for 16 teams, reduced from the normal 24-school fall field.
Saturday’s defeat at Missouri State was especially perplexing given that the 10th-ranked Salukis built a 19-7 halftime lead. Bobby Petrino’s Bears rallied to score three touchdowns in the game’s final 20 minutes and kicked a game-winning field goal to edge SIU 30-27.
SIU now stands at No. 18, having dropped eight spots in the Stats Perform FCS national poll. Previously unranked Missouri State vaulted to No. 19.
Six teams from the Missouri Valley Football Conference appear in this week’s poll. Moreover, three are in the Top 6 — North Dakota State (2), South Dakota State (4) and North Dakota (6).
The Salukis defeated then top-ranked NDSU, the defending national champion, 38-14 in Carbondale Feb. 27. SIU lost to both South Dakota State (44-3 on March 20) and North Dakota (44-21 on Feb. 20).
SIU’s last victory came March 13 against then-No. 4 Northern Iowa 17-16. UNI, 34-20 winners over Western Illinois Saturday, is 23rd in this week’s poll.
Southern lost an opportunity for another win when Illinois State announced it was opting out of the spring season. The Salukis were scheduled to play the Redbirds Saturday in Normal.
SIU has one remaining regular season game; the Salukis host in-state rival Western Illinois April 10.
STATS PERFORM FCS TOP 25 (MARCH 29)
1. James Madison (4-0, 2-0 CAA), 982 points (31 first-place votes)
Previous Ranking: 1; Week 7 Result: 38-10 win at William & Mary
2. North Dakota State (5-1, 4-1 Missouri Valley), 937 (5)
Previous Ranking: 2; Week 7 Result: Canceled at South Dakota
Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots): Maine 82, Monmouth 61, Tarleton 37, San Diego 36, Duquesne 35, Gardner-Webb 35, New Hampshire 30, Jackson State 28, Austin Peay 11, ETSU 10
Blog co-authors Barry Bottino and Dan Verdun bring years of experience covering collegiate athletics. Barry has covered college athletes for more than two decades in his “On Campus” column, which is published weekly by Shaw Media. Dan has written four books about the state’s football programs–“NIU Huskies Football” (released in 2013), “EIU Panthers Football (2014), “ISU Redbirds” (2016) and “SIU Salukis Football” (2017).
Like recently, when I came across a YouTube video by Ross Rosenberg, a psychotherapist, author, speaker, and trainer, among other roles.
I was out for a run, listening to videos (yes, I know, I used to listen to Led Zeppelin while working out, and now I listen to self-help, biography, and other videos – I guess I am officially old).
Anyway, that’s when I came across Ross. And what I heard stuck.
Why was I watching? Because, in addition to being a writer and speaker myself, I have been on my own transformation “journey” for several decades now. You see, I grew up a people pleaser with codependent behaviors. And though the term “people pleaser” sounds relatively benign, being one is anything but. In fact, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Well, maybe them. But no one else.
So, here came the coincidences.
Coincidence #1. Not only did it seem like Ross knew my personal story, but he openly shared his own challenges, and I could tell that he was passionately compassionate for those trying to heal from codependency. Plus, when I looked him up, I saw that not only does he own the Self-Love Recovery Institute, but that he also owned Clinical Care Consultants in Arlington Heights, Illinois, not far from where I live.
After that, I picked up his best-selling book, The Human Magnet Syndrome, and quickly came across Coincidence #2. In the Introduction, he mentions that he had a pivotal moment in his adult transformation when attending a Men’s Day conference at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 2005.
I spoke at that conference.
Coincidence #3. Later in the book, he writes about how when he was a teenager, in 1978, his parents placed him in a mental health facility for a 90-day drug treatment program, though he actually thought he’d be going to an REO Speedwagon concert that night after a one-hour counseling session there.
I was at that concert.
I have learned to follow coincidences like that. For great truths that way lie.
So, I contacted Ross. And we talked. And talked. And, as he said, it was like finding “a brother from another mother.”
Here are my top five takeaways from the conversation:
Changing ourselves means first admitting we need to change. Yes, I know that will ring several bells for anyone familiar with Twelve-Step programs, but that doesn’t make it any less true. As Ross explained, after he had gone through challenging times, he had to finally make the decision to change. “At one point,” Ross explains, “I had to say, ‘This is where I came from, this is what I’m struggling with, and this is who I am.’ Until I did those things, I could not move forward. And in doing them, I have received incredible support from a worldwide community, and just as important, I wasn’t judged.”
To heal a sick tree, you start with the roots. “You can’t solve a problem if you’re only treating the symptom,” Ross shared. “Many people think that, if you are codependent, the issue is that you’re dependent on how someone else feels, thinks and behaves. But, really, people are codependent for reasons much deeper than that. Namely, that they are trying to escape pervasive feelings of shame and loneliness and the lack of love brought on from how they were raised. If you want to really solve the problem, that is where you need to start – to learn how to give yourself the love and attention you did not receive as children. That’s why, when I talk about codependency, I dig deeper into the foundational issue of Self-Love Deficit Disorder. So, in all, it is not about an addiction to a specific person, but addiction to relationships in general to try to not feel so alone and ashamed.”
Codependency recovery should come with a warning. In his work, Ross does not sugarcoat things. He lets his clients, readers and followers know that recovering love of self will be hard, very hard. And that there will likely be a lot of conflict faced and relationships lost along the way.That’s why he created a “Surgeon’s General Warning for Codependency Recovery.” To help people prepare. “In recovery,” Ross says, “they’ll like shed many of their relationships.” After all, those past relationships are likely based on them being inauthentic so when they become more authentic, those depending on their inauthenticity probably won’t like it. “By understanding this warning,” Ross continues, “they will not be as surprised when things happen, like losing relationships or having to face storms of conflict, and they’ll be more resilient. It’s also why I let my clients know when they’re making progress, and to not give up if they happen to relapse into old behaviors.” As Ross explains, recovery is a long road but one worth walking.Having good mental health does not mean you don’t struggle. “A big misconception,” Ross says, “is that having good mental health means you have an absence of problems. But that’s not true. Good mental health means that someone has the internal resources to manage their problems, and if they don’t, to seek external resources to help them manage.” Thinking that we’re the only ones who struggle can compound the issue, so it’s good to know what the real yardstick is.Recovery involves helping others. Ross made a point during our conversation of saying that part of his healing involves being a leader. “I do believe that once we begin to learn how to love ourselves, to heal” Ross says, “that it then becomes our responsibility to help others do the same,” though they ultimately must admit they need to change and take responsibility for doing so. If they don’t, as Ross advises, it won’t work.Which brings me to the final coincidences.
Coincidence #4. As I said, I’m a speaker and writer. But I’m also a musician and adjunct professor. A man with many roles. Like Ross.
Finally, recently, I wrote a song called “Do you remember?” It’s about remembering the sound of our own voice, the voice that, for many, was lost in childhood.” After talking with Ross, and sharing the song with him, I realized that remembering our own voice is about recovering and loving ourselves.
And remember, that Ross is the founder of the Self-Love Recovery Institute.
1) Ross also has an audiovisual and technical background – yes, a man of many, many roles – and he graciously enhanced the production of “Do you remember?” for me. Thanks, Ross.)
2) You can also learn more about attachment trauma, transformation, codependency and other important mental health topics by visiting the websites of Kyle Cease, Michelle Farris, Dr. Nicole LePera and Lisa Romano.
Comments Note: All comments are reviewed. Any that are considered to be a personal attack or hate speech will be removed. In my blog, I always try to be respectful. I expect the same from my readers, both in responses to me, and about or to each other. And, again, thank you for reading.
James Warda, author of “Where Are We Going So Fast?”, is a keynote speaker who focuses on connecting to each other, and ourselves, through our moments. His background also includes being a writer and speaker for Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, and a columnist for the “Chicago Tribune” and Pioneer Press.
It took Maria Teresa Kumar weeks to find out why her mom wouldn’t take a COVID-19 vaccine and to convince her it is safe.
Kumar’s mother, a Colombian-American woman who runs a small elder-care facility in Northern California, received a video on WhatsApp featuring a speaker who claimed to be a pharmacist. In Spanish, the speaker warned viewers not to get the shot, because it was a “new technology never introduced into humans before.”
It was one of several alarming videos her mother shared with her, all laced with unbacked, fear-mongering claims surrounding COVID-19 vaccines.
Disinformation has been circulating on social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp. Experts worry it’s targeting people of color most vulnerable to the illness, contributing to vaccine hesitancy and fueling mistrust.
“It took me seven weeks to convince my mother to take the vaccine. And she’s in the health care profession,” said Kumar, head of civic engagement group Voto Latino. “She was embarrassed to tell me why. So, I think deep down she knew something was off, but she didn’t know how to explain it to me.”
According to a recent survey by Voto Latino, almost 73% of Latino people surveyed knew someone who had COVID-19, and a third knew someone who died of the illness.
Despite that, just shy of half — 47%– said they were reticent about getting the shot. Around a quarter said they would not take it at all.
“It’s a huge number,” Kumar said in a recent online panel discussion about the topic. “Of the 47%, you had a good 23% that said ‘maybe I’ll take it.’ The other part is going to be a lot harder.”
About the videos, she added, “It was also with undertones of ‘you can’t trust the government,’ ‘the government is not on your side,'” – sentiments that only fuel mistrust already planted by government-backed medical abuses on Black, Latino and Native American people.
Hector Alcala, a public health professor at Stony Brook University, echoed Kumar’s experiences.
His mother also received a concerning video she saw on Facebook. In it, a Spanish-speaking person who claimed to be a medical professional said the vaccine was being developed too quickly and cautioned the shot would cause a slew of diseases.
“I had to tell her this isn’t true, this isn’t vetted,” said Alcala, who specializes in family, community and population health. “I had to be proactive with my own family.”
Though Facebook has said in company statements it will work to fight disinformation pervading its platform in Spanish, advocates say damage has been done. They say Facebook’s Spanish fact-checking system pales in comparison to English.
Dani Lever, a Facebook spokeswoman, wrote in a statement that the platform is “labeling all content that discusses the vaccines, including Spanish-language content.” She added that Facebook offers vaccine information in “dozens” of languages and is limiting frequently forwarded messages on WhatsApp.
“We also understand that a key part of getting accurate information out is working with communities, which is why we’re providing free ads to health organizations to promote reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines,” Lever wrote.
“When you introduce that targeted social media into communities like African Americans who have natural mistrust, where the ground is fertile to receive that information, those weeds take root and grow like wildfire if there is no opposition, if there is no one uprooting the weeds,” Dr. Melissa Clarke, an emergency medicine doctor and population health expert said in another ‘infodemic’ webinar hosted by the Center for Health Journalism. Clarke is co-founder of the Black Coalition Against COVID-19.
Adding to the insidiousness of the issue, Clarke said “the best misinformation has grains of truth in it.”
History, disinformation create ‘perfect storm’ for low vaccination rates
History’s medical abuses — the Tuskegee syphilis study that withheld treatment from Black men, or coerced sterilizations of Black, Latina and Native American women — don’t help to cultivate trust.
“If you’re trying to say, ‘trust us’ – you have to have earned that trust,” Clarke said. “And unfortunately we don’t have a history in this country of earning the trust of the African-American community.”
But, Clarke noted, contemporary health care inequalities experienced by people of color also fuel vulnerability to disinformation. Studies show Black patients receive fewer referrals for life-saving treatments, such as heart catherization for heart disease, treating pain or kidney dialysis.
“That happens unequally for African-American and Latino patients – very well documented in the medical literature,” Clarke said. “A lot of times, because of those health care disparities … African-Americans don’t have a relationship with a provider that they can go to to get their questions answered. In that information gap, they’re more than likely going to turn to somebody who they do trust who might be heavily influenced by social media – and therefore, you get misinformation spreading.”
Alcala’s mother received her first vaccine dose, and her son’s expertise quelled her fears. Still, others don’t have such access.
“Right now, the main concern in terms of people of color not getting the vaccine is more an issue of access. But yes, the issue of vaccine hesitancy will become more salient and important over time and we can be proactive to address it,” Alcala said.
Alcala said “barriers combined with misinformation can create the perfect storm” for low vaccination rates.
“Ultimately what determines whether or not we get the vaccine isn’t going to be a single factor,” Alcala said. “If you think about, I’m potentially a person who is seeing misinformation online. I want to get the vaccine, but in the context of still seeing this information, I go online, find that it’s a little cumbersome and then think, ‘Well, oh well -I’m also hearing that this vaccine might actually be harmful.'”
How ‘hyperlocal’ messaging campaigns can combat COVID-19 vaccine lies
A USA TODAY-Network analysis found COVID-19 vaccination rates among Latinos lagging in Texas, particularly in the state capital of Austin.
But experts like Clarke also agree that polls shoulddisaggregate by national origin. For example, an immigrant from Ethiopia or Nigeria may not be swayed by the same lever as a Black person who is not an immigrant.
She referenced a study by George Washington University and the department of health in Washington, D.C., which has the largest Ethiopian immigrant population in the country. The study showed the population’s largest concern about the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t vaccination itself or the nation’s history of abuses, but the monetization of health care.
Understanding specific communities’ concerns can lead to more informed public health education targeted to those groups, she explained. Her group is creating polls and working on “hyperlocal” messaging campaigns for sub-communities within the African American population, partnering with trusted messengers from the communities. She also streams a weekly live show called “Excuse Me Dr.!” to debunk misconceptions.
Abigail Echo-Hawk, chief research officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board, has also been working to fight disinformation in her community.
The Pawnee Nation member pointed to a recent editorial written by a non-Native that claimed Native Americans specifically shouldn’t take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The op/ed, published on an American Indian news website, lacked sound science and caused alarm among communities, she said.
She worked with other tribal epidemiology centers, scientists and the American Indian Physicians Association to refute his claims, which she called “reckless and dangerous.”
“We spent time going through every single one of his allegations and creating documents to refute every single one of them,” Echo-Hawk said, adding the organizations published a scientific rebuttal and reached out to urban and rural groups to reassure them the vaccine is safe.
Similarly, Voto Latino is working with local groups to monitor and fact-check disinformation. “It becomes a feedback loop, and then we spit out the right information so that they’re inoculated,” Kumar said.
Kumar said many of the disinformation circulates in WhatsApp groups. The messages, videos or graphics are then forwarded repeatedly.
“I do believe there’s a very different strategy for non-native English speakers.” Kumar said, adding she’s seen the same in Caribbean and South Asian communities.
Dr. Alisahah Cole, system vice president for population health innovation and policy at CommonSpirit Health, said her team created a tool kit for outreach to people of color and vulnerable populations and chronic medical conditions.
“We used a stratification tool that uses some of those demographics and then said, ‘OK, if someone falls into that high-risk category, we need to reach out with a phone call,'” she said, adding it’s a way to initiate conversation and leverage a trusted relationship between provider and patient to address vaccine concerns.
“We need to be really, really thoughtful about the disinformation that is happening,” Cole said. “One of the key ways we can do that is to make sure we are reaching out directly to those patients and to those community members.”
In March of 1931, Knute Rockne was riding high.The 43-year-old product of Chicago’s Northwest Division High School and former mail clerk at the Chicago Post Office had become one of the most prominent Americans of his time.
For 13 seasons, his University of Notre Dame football teams won with stunning regularity, earning three consensus national championships, including those of 1929 and 1930. The Fighting Irish owned a 19-game winning streak.
Rockne was in constant demand as a speaker. He traveled to consult with others in athletics and business, and spent weeks each summer conducting “coaching schools” on college campuses nationwide, from Williamsburg, Va., to Corvallis, Ore. The Studebaker Corp. of South Bend had hired Rockne as vice president of sales promotion, and he traveled the country in football’s off-season to rally the carmaker’s sales force.
Legendary Notre Dame University football coach Knute Rockne
In late March, Rockne was headed out to Los Angeles with a multi-purpose schedule. He was going to meet with film studios about a proposed picture celebrating Notre Dame football. There were speaking engagements, including a joint appearance with his great friend Will Rogers. Rockne would represent Chicago’s Wilson Sporting Goods at a store opening; and meet with some Studebaker dealers.
On the evening of March 30, he stopped at his mother’s place in Logan Square to help celebrate her birthday, then boarded a night train for Kansas City. From there, he would fly to Los Angeles.
Rockne knew that the rapid development of air travel in the 1920s had been fraught with danger and conflict. Aviation pioneers and stunt pilots straddled the line between testing the limits of the new technology … and death. And already, there was significant tension between the federal government’s dual roles — promoting air travel and ensuring its safety.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Anthony Fokker had become one of the best-known names in early aviation, rising to prominence as a builder of biplanes used extensively by Germany in the Great War. But reluctance to invest in research and development led to his struggles with quality control throughout his career. Flaws in both design and workmanship were traced to Fokker’s apparent insistence on using the cheapest materials and methods.
When Fokker set up shop in the United States, his F-10 tri-motor plane drew the attention of government officials; they were concerned about not being able to inspect the internal structure of the wings because it would involve removing the plywood covering and damaging the craft. The U.S. Navy tested the F-10A, found it unstable and rejected it. However, it still found a place in early commercial aviation.
On the morning of March 31, Rockne and seven other men flew out of the Kansas City Municipal Airport aboard Transcontinental & Western Airlines flight 5. The Fokker F-10A had been inspected a few days earlier by a TWA mechanic who later noted that “the (plywood) wing panels were all loose… and it would take them days to fix it, and I said the airplane wasn’t fit to fly and I wouldn’t sign the log. Nobody was safe in that airplane.”
Off it went anyway, but to reach its first stop at Wichita, Flight 5 would have to penetrate a sharp cold front — and thick clouds, fog, ice and low ceilings. An hour into the flight, its pilots radioed Wichita that “the weather here is getting tough. We’re going to turn around and go back to Kansas City.” But the Wichita station encouraged the flight to continue as planned.
The pilots responded: “It’s getting tighter … It looks pretty bad.” The flight had drifted off course, requiring navigation via the “Old Iron Compass” — the railroad track 300 feet below. A deadly situation was developing; the clouds were almost touching the hilltops. Once the crests disappeared, the Fokker would be trapped and the option of climbing to at least temporary safety forfeited, since to do so would involve a good probability of crashing into the hidden higher ground. They were being squeezed between the ground and the clouds. The failure of instruments due to icing compounded the danger.
Deprived of key references, the disoriented pilots would have been unable to keep the airliner from entering a spiral dive. The Fokker was now out of control, nose down and accelerating. When screaming engines and runaway tachometer readings alerted the pilots to their predicament, they would have pulled the throttles right back, producing the backfiring heard on the ground seconds before the plane crashed in a pasture. All eight aboard died instantly.
Local people pose with a severed wing of the plane in which Knute Rockne crashed and died, in Chase County, Kansas.Courtesy of Knute Rockne Memorial Society
Newspaper headlines nationwide screamed, “Rockne Killed in Air Crash.” For the first time, an airline accident claimed the life of a prominent American. The public was outraged and wanted answers that weren’t immediately forthcoming. The crash site had been unsecured for hours and became a haven for souvenir collectors. In the ensuing days, the Aeronautics Branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce issued conflicting statements about a possible cause. Finally, crash investigators focused on deterioration of the wooden wing spar, finding evidence of delamination and failed joints. One wing had completely separated from the plane.
Rockne’s crash had an immediate and lasting effect on aviation. It was said the industry could not have had worse publicity had the victim been the president of the United States himself. All F-10s and F-10As were barred from carrying passengers until they were thoroughly inspected. The American market for Fokker’s wooden-winged planes was immediately and permanently gone. Even the all-metal Ford Trimotors were doomed, due to their resemblance to the “plane that killed Rockne.”
The Rockne crash eventually led to the design and manufacture of the Douglas DC-2, the first airliner built using all-metal, stressed-skin construction, and a host of other innovations. It, along with the DC-3, provided the safety and comfort, combined with economy, that allowed the swift expansion of the worldwide passenger airline industry as we know it today.
The role of government in requiring safer planes also took off. Spurred by the crash of March 31, 1931, the Aeronautics Branch took on greater duties in certifying aircraft and regulating the industry, and in 1934 was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce to reflect its enhanced status within the Commerce Department. Eventually it became today’s Federal Aviation Administration.
It took the crash that killed Rockne, and another four years later that claimed Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post, to create a much more vigorous role for the federal government in airline regulation, aircraft safety and crash site security, investigation and reporting.
Today, 90 years later, we reap the benefits that came out of tragedy.
Jim Lefebvre is the author of the national award-winning biography “Coach For A Nation: The Life and Times of Knute Rockne” and executive director of the Knute Rockne Memorial Society (www.RockneSociety.org).
It is hard to imagine seeing Anthony Rizzo playing in any other jersey going forward besides the Chicago Cubs one. He has been one of the most important players in the history of the team for a variety of reasons. He has been productive on the field, helped them end the 108-year curse, and has been stellar in the community. When people think of the Cubs, Anthony Rizzo is one of the first people that should be coming to their mind. When he retires, they should retire his number and build him a statue.
The Chicago Cubs might lose Anthony Rizzo after the 2021 season is over.
Theo Epstein was a big part of Rizzo’s development. He was there when Rizzo was drafted to the Boston Red Sox and he was the one who acquired him in a trade. Ever since then, Rizzo has become one of the key pieces to a championship team. They built a very good team around him that made many playoff appearances and had a World Series title.
Unfortunately, however, it sounds like 2021 could be his last year with the team. There are multiple reports out there that he is not going to come to an agreement on an extension with the Cubs and play out his last season there. He sees this as a potential last year with the franchise.
That would be a big loss for the Cubs in every way. He means more to that team than any player has in the last 25 years and maybe ever. There were some players who were slightly more talented but few were as consistent. There are also very few Cubs to ever have the off-the-field success that he has.
Anthony Rizzo says no new contract is on the horizon. He will not talk contract during the season.
As you can see, it seems like Rizzo was very interested and productive in trying to get a new contract done. It is sad to see these quotes come out but it is what it is. The Cubs are going into this year with it potentially being the last for Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez. It sort of has “The Last Dance” vibes to it. It could end up being where they come to an agreement later as you never know what the future holds but it is sad that this is what they’re dealing with right now.
“Just imagine,” the title character instructs near the top of Tim Crouch’s riveting “I, Banquo.” His eyes are like caverns and his tone is subtly mesmeric, so it’s not hard to go with the request. Imagine your best friend for life, he continues, your brother-in-arms who has both saved your life and you his, imagine this closest of all friends is actually evil. And you’ve been utterly blind to it. Those are the worst kind of betrayals, the hollow-eyed Banquo (Dan Waller) tells us; the ones that leave you unable to trust even yourself.
That’s the betrayal at the dark heart of director Marti Lyons’ staging of “I, Banquo” for Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Anchored by Waller in a tour-de-force performance, “I, Banquo,” creates a thrilling alternate Shakespearian universe. With Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth” as the bones, Crouch spins a fascinating psychological portrait while also delivering something of a genuine thriller — even if you already know how “Macbeth” turns out. The storytelling is just that good.
Much of that is thanks to Waller, holding down what is essentially a one-man show (the ghost of Banquo’s son, played by Patrick Scott McDermott, makes an eerie, brief appearance), filmed post-pandemic at The Yard via the new “ChicagoShakesStream” platform. It’s the first full-on, new season production since the theater shut down over a year ago due to the pandemic.
Certainly Shakespeare gave Crouch plenty to work with. “Macbeth” has witches, ghosts, regicide, blood that won’t wash off, daggers floating in midair and a dinner party marred by a host having full-on hallucinations. Shakespeare packs it all into a tragedy of sociopathic ambition, fueled by a supernatural forces. It’s a barnburner. There’s also Lady Macbeth, whose ambition and power over her husband make her one of the most fascinating female characters ever penned. Crouch fits all of it into “I, Banquo,” staying true to Shakespeare’s plot but telling it from a new and fascinating perspective.
From the moment Waller begins by telling the audience “Just imagine,” he’s got you hooked. “Just imagine we’re friends,” he continues with a roguish smile, cocking his head just enough so that the stream of blood trickling down his neck becomes noticeable. He and Macbeth were closer than most, he explains. They celebrated the birth of his son together. They mourned the devastating, early death of Macbeth’s own child together. They went to battle for their beloved King Duncan together. They put heads on spikes together.
He and Macbeth were coming home from battle, Banquo continues. They were exhausted. They were dirty. You can practically feel the grit under their feet and the weight of their weapons as Waller’s Banquo sets the scene. They were open to suggestion, Banquo says. That’s when the witches showed up.
Waller’s ability to conjure this twilight world of witches and war is stunning. There are passages where he barely seems to move, gripping the arms of a battered armchair, not even blinking, a world of emotion flickering across his face as clear as a hi-def movie. There’s wry, almost inaudible chuckle that follows his first mention of Lady Macbeth. Waller captures her powers with potent understatement: “I didn’t reckon on your wife, did I?” It is as if he’s invoking Hecate and it is a moment that will make your skin crawl.
Crouch’s script contains some of the some of the most familiar Shakespearian passages ever, but when Waller sinks his teeth into them, it’s with a revitalized sound and fury that almost makes it feel like you’re hearing them for the first time.
Yu Shibagaki’s minimalist set — that moldering black armchair surrounded by darkness and mirrors — is a fitting limbo, with Jason Lynch’s lighting and Mikhail Fiksel’s sound rendering a shadow world of shifting angles and dizzying reflections. At some points, it’s not clear if we’re watching Banquo, or Banquo’s reflection. The resulting sense of discombobulation adds to the eeriness of the whole thing.
Lyons has crafted a pandemic unicorn here: A show where If you turn out the lights on Chicago Shakes’ production, you could almost swear you were in a theater.
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