Dr. Allison Arwady, an infectious illness knowledgeable and pediatrician who guided Chicago by the COVID-19 pandemic, needs to maintain her job as the town’s public well being boss.

But her rifts with the Chicago Teachers Union, a significant backer of Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, could also be an obstacle.

In a debate earlier than the April 4 runoff election, Johnson was adamant that he wasn’t going to keep Arwady when he takes workplace subsequent month. He’s since mentioned in interviews that he’ll sit down with Arwady, however he has additionally famous displeasure over her position sending students back to Chicago Public Schools amid COVID considerations.

The two have by no means met, Arwady mentioned.

Chicago’s public well being commissioner performs a significant position, overseeing the dealing with of every little thing from opioid dependancy, HIV and different infectious illnesses to psychological sickness, environmental safety and a slew of different points.

Arwady, 46, says she will be able to define for Johnson her plan to enhance entry to well being care and lengthen the life expectancy of Chicagoans who stay on the town’s South and West sides.

“I think in many ways the values that he has really laid out in his campaign are the values of the Chicago Department of Public Health,” Arwady mentioned in an interview after a current occasion in Austin.

A variety of medical doctors and different well being consultants give Arwady excessive marks for her management through the pandemic, one thing that she touts. 

Brian Rich/Sun-Times file

“It’s hard to praise any pandemic response,” mentioned Dr. David Ansell, senior vice chairman for group well being fairness at Rush University Medical Center. “But Chicago and Illinois had among the best of any throughout the pandemic.”

Ansell mentioned he has “nothing but admiration” for Arwady and lauded efforts to guard many homeless folks from being contaminated with COVID.

But facets of the pandemic response additionally weigh in opposition to the Yale-educated physician and former epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot after serving as the town’s chief medical officer, Arwady enraged the lecturers’ union on plans to ship CPS college students again to lessons through the pandemic. At one level, Lightfoot locked lecturers out of their on-line lecture rooms and threatened to withhold their pay except they returned to the school rooms.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

The bitter fights between the Lightfoot administration and lecturers lingered all through the mayoral marketing campaign. Union officers declined to touch upon whether or not they suppose Arwady ought to be stored on.

Arwady acknowledges the rift with the lecturers union, calling them “differences of opinion.”

Separately, some medical doctors say her division might have higher addressed the inequities within the well being care system that led to greater hospitalizations and deaths within the Black and Brown communities and low uptake in vaccinations, particularly on the South Side.

Black Chicagoans accounted for nearly half of deaths and hospitalizations all through the COVID pandemic, but they make up simply one-third of the town’s inhabitants.

Dr. Monica Peek, University of Chicago professor for well being justice of drugs, mentioned she provides the town a B grade for its response as in contrast with different cites throughout the U.S.

But the evident inequities weren’t completely addressed, she mentioned.

“You can’t plan for disaster preparedness in general,” Peek mentioned. “You have to plan for equity in particular. If you don’t have that, you have inequity.”

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times file

Mental well being will virtually definitely be a subject for Arwady and Johnson to debate as effectively.

Johnson mentioned he’ll reopen the town’s six psychological well being clinics, which have been closed beneath Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and can work to enhance the care general.

Under Lightfoot, who additionally promised to reopen the clinics, Arwady pursued a distinct strategy by partnering with nonprofit health providers. She mentioned she’s open to city-run clinics however mentioned the problem of serving tens of hundreds of sufferers is just too large for a half dozen amenities.

On one other entrance, Arwady was the goal of group and environmental teams’ protests — together with an indication in entrance of her residence that led to several arrests — as she was urged to disclaim an working allow for a Southeast Side metal-shredding operation. Ultimately, she denied the permit. A citywide environmental impact study started final yr.

She says the town has made progress on well being fairness points and environmental justice, and he or she’s pleased with her division.

“I am hopeful to stay on in my role. I’m really proud of the ways we’ve been driving progressive health care, working on closing the racial life expectancy gap,” Arwady mentioned. “I’m looking forward to the conversation.”

If issues don’t work out, she mentioned, “I’m committed to public health. If I’m not doing it here, I’ll be doing it somewhere else.”

Brett Chase’s reporting on the setting and public well being is made potential by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file