The 217 Today Podcast

217 Today: Friday December 11, 2020

Olivia Butts
 
Study participants shared

Study participants shared "mother wisdom" to support each other during the pandemic. Pixabay

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Friday December 11, 2020

Today's headlines: 

  • Governor JB Pritzker’s administration is sending Illinois National Guard medical staff to assist with Coronavirus testing and screening at three of the state’s four veterans’ homes.

  • The governor's office last week announced the 50 counties in Illinois that would be first in line for vaccine distribution for healthcare workers, a demographic  with the highest death rates from COVID-19, but now there's some reallocation of those doses to counties with regional hospitals. 

  • Yesterday, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced more than 11,000 additional COVID-19 cases across the state. 196 more Illinoisans have died from the virus since yesterday. The state’s seven-day average positivity rate is 9.5%, down slightly from Wednesday.

  • A group of migrant farmworkers is suffering ongoing health problems after being sprayed with pesticides in a central Illinois cornfield last year. Now they've filed a lawsuit.

In today's deep dive, for many mothers giving birth during the pandemic, pregnancy has not gone as planned. To learn about these experiences, a pair of researchers is collecting pandemic birth stories from across the country.

217 Today is produced by Olivia Butts and hosted by Brian Moline. Reporting today contributed by Hannah Meisel, Dana Cronin, and Darian Benson.