Related
CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) --While some are criticizing the move, the City of Chicago is moving forward with a plan to hire hundreds of people to trace and help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership will lead the hiring with community groups in mostly black and brown neighborhoods. The training and supervision of the contact tracers would be through Malcolm X College, UIC’s School of Public Health, NORC, and Sinai Urban Health.
But Dr. Howard Ehrman, founder of the People’s Response Network and a former Assistant Health Commissioner, did not want to see Chicago privatize hiring and training of contact tracers to help control the spread of the coronavirus. He said legally everything should be run by the health department.
"170 years of legal and practice precedent in the public health sector where this is only done - the testing and the contract tracing is only done by the public health department," he said. "They don't want to rebuild the health department. They just want to continue privatizing stuff, whether it is through a public university or private university. It does not make a whole lot of difference. It is not going to work."
Workforce Partnership Director Karin Norington-Reaves stresses the 600 jobs expected to be generated.
"This is not just about short-term, temporary work. This is about career pathway development and life-changing opportunities that then stimulate our local economies and help our communities thrive," she said.
Still Ehrman’s group, the People’s Response Network is considering court action.