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NEWS
Future Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney (left) and Mayor-Elect Aftab Pureval
PHOTO: ALLISON BABKA
Cincinnati Mayor-Elect Aftab Pureval said recruiting Kearney was a “home run”
BY ALLISON BABKA
Afamiliar face will step into the vice mayor role when Cincinnati Mayor-Elect Aftab Pureval’s administration takes over in January.
During a Nov. 18 brie ng with reporters, Pureval announced that Cincinnati City Council member JanMichele Lemon Kearney will serve as vice mayor. e announcement came just days after Pureval named his administration’s transition team of Michael Fisher, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Stephanie Jones, a former senior o cial with the Barack Obama administration; and former Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory.
“ is is one of my rst and most important decisions. In Jan-Michele, I believe we have hit a home run,” Pureval said.
Fittingly, Kearney’s announcement took place at Rockdale Academy in Avondale, which the incoming vice mayor said she had attended through sixth grade. She also mentioned that Rockdale and Avondale in general in uenced her meeting and marrying her husband, former State Senator Eric Kearney.
“I feel like in some way, God had this plan that I didn’t know about to meet Eric and marry Eric. I also feel that God had a plan for me to serve the people of Cincinnati,” she said.
Kearney was appointed to Cincinnati City Council in 2020 after Tamaya Dennard was arrested on corruption charges and later resigned. On council, the Cincinnati Herald publisher has taken an interest in gun issues, including questioning the Cincinnati Police Department’s gun range in Evendale.
During the Nov. 2 general election — the same one that revealed Pureval as Cincinnati’s next mayor — Kearney was the top vote-getter of all 35 City Council candidates, with 28,161 votes.
Kearney said she shares Pureval’s priorities of economic development, equitable housing, public safety, environmental issues and infrastructure through a racial equity lens.
“Racial equity is a thread that runs through all of these topics,” Kearney said. “So as we progress as a city, we have to make sure that we pay attention to the underserved, to the people who are left behind. We have to work for everybody so that everybody has opportunities to advance and to have a safe and thriving life.”
“Our zip codes should not be the determinant of our lifespan as it is now. So we have work to do,” she continued.
Kearney also said that Pureval reminded her of her friend, former U.S. President Barack Obama. Kearney had gone to Harvard Law School with Obama.
“It’s because of his spirit of collaboration. He really cares for what people think — the way he’s really dedicated and he’s sincere about the work that he does,” Kearney said.
On Jan. 1, Pureval will replace Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, who is ending his second and nal term this year. Cranley is now campaigning to become Ohio’s governor in 2022, joining current Governor Mike DeWine, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and others in the race. ■
NEWS Local Health Offi cials Stress COVID-19 Vaccinations, Brace for Holiday Uptick in Cases
BY ALLISON BABKA
COVID-19 continues to circulate within Hamilton County and the surrounding region — something that likely will a ect upcoming holidays as well as hospital sta , o cials say.
“It’s important for folks to remember that while we’re tired of COVID, it is still here, and we need to continue to exercise caution when we are out and about and in our activities,” Hamilton County Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said on Nov. 17.
During a brie ng with reporters, Kesterman said that there were about 5,200 cases of COVID-19 within Hamilton County; that was an increase from 4,800 cases just one week prior. e seven-day average was 186 cases per day, which also had been on the rise in recent weeks after a bit of a plateau. e reproductive value (which measures how fast a virus or disease can spread within a community) for two weeks prior to that date had been 1.05 (experts say that the R value generally should be below 1.0 to slow or halt an increase in cases).
“Once again, this is very closely tied to cases, and as cases start to increase, the pandemic will start to grow within a community,” Kesterman said.
Hospitalizations also are rising within the region, with 346 COVID-19 cases admitted on Nov. 17. On that day, 110 were in the intensive care unit, and 79 were on ventilators, Kesterman said. e majority of COVID cases have occurred in people ages 50-79, and 85% of those were among unvaccinated people. Kesterman pointed out that while breakthrough COVID cases do occasionally occur in vaccinated individuals, the symptoms and danger are much more mild than in those who have not been vaccinated.
“ e number-one tool... is get a vaccine,” Kesterman said. “It’s extremely e ective at preventing people from serious COVID-19 illness.”
As of Nov. 17, about 59.74% of Hamilton County’s total population had started a COVID-19 vaccine series (children ages 4 and younger are not yet eligible). On Oct. 28, that number was 58%.
About 54.78% of all county residents are fully vaccinated (two doses for P zer and Moderna vaccines or one dose for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
Kesterman said that Hamilton County’s goal remains vaccinating at least 80% of its population, a benchmark that county o cials originally had hoped to reach by July 4. He said it’s di cult to estimate when the county might reach that threshold, but it’s important for individual communities to get there.
“In general, the more protected your population is, the less likely you will see a disease spread,” Kesterman said. “ ere is always, for every vaccine that we have available, a percentage of the population that is unwilling or unable to get that vaccine because of medical issues or religious concerns. Having a really high number of your population that’s vaccinated creates less opportunity for the disease to spread from individual to individual.”
Dr. Patricia ManningCourtney, chief of sta at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, also urged vaccinations, especially the newly available COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11. ManningCourtney said that in the two weeks that P zer’s vaccine had been authorized for use in younger children, Cincinnati Children’s administered 2,600 pediatric doses, with many parents saying they wanted to protect an immunocompromised family member or prepare to see grandparents over the winter holidays. She added that many doses also were administered to children of regional healthcare sta , who have seen rsthand the disease’s impact and who wanted to protect their own families.
“As a pediatrician, we’re often asked ‘Well, what would you do with your kids?’ I think it’s a great question to ask pediatricians. You should know what’s the standard we hold for our own children,” she said.
“I don’t know a pediatrician who hasn’t run to get their children vaccinated. I can tell you that pediatricians are so, so supportive of this move, and they have done this with their own children,” Manning-Courtney continued. “And so if that matters to you as a parent, what a pediatrician would do, I can promise you that they’re getting their kids vaccinated.”
But COVID still continues to spread among children, she said.
“Kids are still getting sick. We’re still seeing cases of COVID in our region. We still have children in the hospital,” Manning-Courtney said. “ ese are healthy kids. ese are kids with health concerns but who are basically healthy getting hospitalized with COVID, sometimes in our ICUs, including in this past week. So we can’t emphasize enough the importance of protecting kids, getting them vaccinated, and the safety of this vaccine.”
She added that some parents are still taking a “wait-and-see” approach, which she understands. But the pediatrician urged parents to take action soon.
“I don’t want you to wait so long so that your child is one of the remaining pieces of wood for this re that is the COVID virus,” Manning-Courtney said. “COVID will nd the unprotected individuals, and those will be unvaccinated individuals, and that’s where the virus will live and continue to circulate.”
Both Manning-Courtney and Kesterman stressed vaccination and situational awareness as the holidays approach. Kesterman said COVID19 remains a concern during the upcoming indoor months and that each group will have to determine their risk tolerance, especially when interacting with unvaccinated individuals. He added that he will be gathering with family for anksgiving, and that all attending have been vaccinated, including the children.
“If you’re getting together with a family that’s choosing not to get vaccinated, there is truly increased risk,” Kesterman stressed. “If you are vaccinated and they are not, you have some protection, and you’ll have to make that decision. If you’re inside, wearing a mask is another layer of protection to protect you and your family.”
Manning-Courtney said that hospitals would have di culty with the sustained surge of COVID-19 cases the region saw last winter, when Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health instituted a curfew and other protective measures to try to control the virus.
“Last December and January were terrifying. ey were really frightening times. We didn’t see where it was going to end. We knew that we had some vaccine on board, but it was still limited,” Manning-Courtney said. “We can’t do that again. We really can’t do that again as a healthcare system and as a region. So all the more reason to get vaccinated so we keep that peak down and we don’t live through what we lived through last winter.” e doctor stressed that local adult and children’s hospitals still are straining from COVID-19 patients, which is a ecting care and safety in other areas.
“ e volume of patients with COVID in the hospitals, they are the bu er that we usually have to absorb more patients, to take on emergencies if there’s a crisis, God forbid. But that bu er is lled right now still with COVID-positive patients,” she said. “And we’re busy. You know, hospitals are busy with deferred care, with other illnesses, and we need that bu er. We need it for sta ng purposes, we need it for safety purposes. So we need you to be protected so that if you do get COVID, you don’t have to go to the hospital.”
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center PHOTO: WILLIAM COOPER/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Find COVID-19 vaccine information or locations at testandprotectcincy.com.
