Cleveland councilman Kerry McCormack announced Thursday that the Health and Human Services Committee he oversees will begin holding weekly meetings on Monday mornings to provide more active oversight of the city's Covid-19 response.
In a statement posted to Twitter, McCormack said that the rapidly evolving nature of Covid-19 news could be confusing for residents, and that they deserved to have "clear and timely" updates.
"This increase will allow our committee to hold weekly pubic hearings with the goal of providing regular and transparent oversight and updates on COVID-19 and the vaccine rollout to the community," he said.
Frank Jackson addressed the public this week with information about the city's sloth-like vaccine distribution. He admitted that fewer than 2,000 of the city's 6,500 vaccines had been administered and said there was no existing infrastructure for a rollout. That prompted questions from the community about why this missing infrastructure (including personnel, presumably) hadn't been created, repurposed or contracted out in the preceding months, when it was known a vaccine would be forthcoming. The Health and Human Services committee will be a venue to ask questions of that nature. McCormack is soliciting questions and comments
from the community here.
McCormack is the Councilman in Ward 3, which includes most of downtown, Ohio City and Tremont. He was recently appointed chair of the Health and Human Services Committee after its former chair, Blaine Griffin, was moved to Public Safety with the departure of councilman Matt Zone.
The Health and Human Services Committee had been meeting every two weeks. The more active schedule will begin on Jan. 25. (Monday, Jan. 18, is MLK Day.)
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