Pritzker's Coronavirus Testing Push Missing Minority Hot Spots?

CHICAGO — If Gov. J.B. Pritzker's response to the new coronavirus crisis really is based on "science and data" as he claims, there would be a state-run testing site in Auburn Gresham by now.

The African-American enclave sits in the 60620 ZIP Code, which has one of the state's highest infection rates. It's home to the state's first COVID-19 death, a polling place manned by an election judge who died from the virus and a handful of nursing homes and senior living centers — those congregate living centers that account for more than 40 percent of the state's coronavirus-related deaths.

"I think that it's unconscionable that a whole community was overlooked despite all the so-called determinants that [coronavirus] would have a very detrimental effect on our population that not only has a high population of underlying conditions but also senior living and nursing homes," Sen. Jacqueline Collins told me. "So many red flags should be a signal that more testing is needed."

As of Tuesday, the city testing sites closest to Auburn Gresham were miles away in Englewood (by appointment only) and at Roseland Hospital, which Collins says is too far away from Auburn Gresham to do any good in the community.

When Collins (D-Chicago) called Pritzker's administration to request a testing site in Auburn Gresham — where she says many residents are "essential workers" who rely on public transportation to get around, and don't have cars to visit faraway drive-up facilities — the response she got was non-committal.

Pritzker publicly touted the "significant" increase in statewide testing, and shrugged at a question about whether his administration has truly opened new testing locations based on public health data.

"We've been ramping up testing in a significant way. There isn't enough testing. Period, end of sentence," the governor said, curtly, at a Tuesday news conference. "Still, even though we're the second highest number on a per capita basis ... I still want more testing. Indeed, we've been aiming that testing at black and brown communities."

New data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, however, seems to suggest that the state's increased testing totals might not tell the whole story of the state's effort to test and track coronavirus transmissions equitably.

As of Tuesday, nearly 82 percent of 73,331 white people who were tested for COVID-19 received negative test results. About 35 percent of African Americans and 61 percent of Hispanics tested received positive test results, the data shows.

While the raw data is imperfect (too many test results don't identify a patient's race) COVID Tracking Project leader Alexis Madrigal said the variability in positive testing results in Illinois seems to be a meaningful statistic. The COVID-19 data project has shown similar testing disparities in Delaware and Kansas where African Americans also account for a number of confirmed cases and deaths disproportionate to their population in those states.

Chicago Ald. Ray Lopez said the statistical break down verifies what local elected officials representing minority communities have known all along and complained about only to be ignored.

"We didn't need to wait seven weeks for this data to tell us what we already knew. ... We're not getting the testing that we need, and people are getting tested that don't need it," Lopez (D-15th) said.

"It's a lie flying in our face when people say we're flattening the curve simply because we're doing more testing in areas that don't need it. We have a ticking time bomb in black and Latino communities where even with a bare minimum of testing we're still at a high number of cases. ... We're fooling ourselves with this bull---- that we're getting better when we're not. We can't ignore communities and declare victory because you haven't tested them."

State public health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the racial disparity in negative testing results "should be of concern to everyone."

Ezike said some of those disparities are due to a preexisting economic condition in Illinois — poor minority neighborhoods don't have access to quality health care. During the coronavirus crisis, many of those people are "essential workers" that put them in contact with the public and a greater risk of contracting the virus.

But she didn't offer any insight into whether locations of the state's new testing sites takes that into account.

Lopez, though, had a few thoughts about that.

"It's not happening ... and it's starting to feel like a snow job to be perfectly honest and it's an insult to my residents. If you look at their argument that what we're doing is data driven, it's not true," he said.

"They're doing this for constituencies, helping people they want to help and ignoring those they don't. Plain and simple. They're only worrying about what they're saying and crafting what they do to help with their next election. It's becoming more obvious when you see data that doesn't match what's happening in the streets when it comes to distribution of assistance. ... State reps, state senators and even aldermen shouldn't have to be jumping up and down to get attention when the numbers speak for themselves."

State Rep. LaShawn Ford will tell you that raising hell was the only way he got results from a governor who often seems a bit obsessed with putting a positive spin on his response to the coronavirus crisis.

Last month, Ford called out the governor for making testing promises to the black community knowing full well the state didn't have the supplies and capacity to deliver.

His take on long lines for drive-up tests in the suburbs landed like a gut punch: "This is an indication of how the black community at large — and not just over the coronavirus — are treated by government."

A couple weeks later, Ford said his part of town is "rocking with tests, now."

On April 27, Loretto Hospital finally started testing 500 people a day in an African-American ZIP code which at the time had one of lowest testing rates and highest number of COVID-19 related deaths in Chicago.

"It's because of the work we did blasting him ... saying how he lied," Ford said. "That’s the best way to get action, let him know it's better not to mess with us."

You don't need to be a data scientist to figure out why it worked.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN. He was a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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