Two women — a former army general and a former medical director of the largest juvenile detention center in the country — have one of the most important tasks in the state right now: containing the spread of coronavirus in Illinois.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker appointed Alicia Tate-Nadeau to lead the Illinois Emergency Management Agency last year — making her the first woman to lead the state’s agency. Dr. Ngozi Ezike leads the state’s Department of Public Health after having served as medical director at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center as part of 15 years spent working for Cook County Health.
Both women stood beside the governor at a press conference Monday as Pritzker announced four additional cases, bringing the Illinois tally to 11 confirmed cases. The governor also issued a disaster proclamation, in order to access additional federal and state resources to deal with coronavirus.
Ezike says she’s on the phone with everyone from Vice President Mike Pence, to former state health directors — phone calls that can begin about 7:30 a.m. end end as late as 10:30 p.m.
Ezike speaks with Pritzker once a day, and the two text throughout the day. Sometime in between, or in the middle of the night, Ezike says she’s been finding a moment of “quiet” to put together all the information she’s learned into a plan.
The internist and pediatrician oversaw medical care at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center when the H1N1 virus hit in 2009.
“It’s very similar to a nursing home, where you have a very vulnerable population in an environment that puts everyone in close quarters,” Ezike said. “We had 300 to 400 kids at any time during that outbreak, and about 600 to 700 staff that worked there. That was a really trying time but gave us opportunities to institute quarantines and identify staff that could be at risk.”
Ezike oversaw measles scares, shingles, chickenpox and less life-threatening illnesses, but said the experience has trained her to handle outbreaks in a contained setting.
In Illinois, she said, the coronavirus outbreak in Illinois is being handled by an “expert team,” which includes a preparedness group with Tate-Nadeau at the helm.
“H1N1, Zika, Ebola ... she has seen all of those outbreaks and brings a decade of experience,” Ezike said.
She’s also in touch with an advisory team at the University of Illinois at Chicago “full of people who have worked for decades on infection diseases and who have worked on previous outbreak investigations.”
“There’s a lot of support and it’s a team. It’s not an individual and I think leveraging all the expertise that we have is the way to go,” Ezike said.
Ezike said the state is reacting “proactively” thus far.
“We want the nursing homes to become much more stringent with allowing visitors, effective immediately and not wait until there is evidence of wide transmission,” Ezike said.
The approach to each specific new case is “not a one size fits all, and as we move forward and we keep track of what’s going on, we will make individual, calculated decisions with local health departments and schools or businesses or whatever communities to see what the right fit is.”
“Today is one day and tomorrow the picture could look very different,” Ezike said. “So we’re just staying very diligent and want everyone to think of the what ifs. .... if you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.”
Tate-Nadeau, who is also the state’s director of homeland security, has a background in chemical, biological and radiological emergency management. She was the first woman to earn the rank of brigadier general in the Illinois National Guard, serving military tours in both Iraq and Israel. Tate-Nadeau also worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to lead the federal response to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan — in addition to having led Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication.
Part of her duties in the National Guard were to go into chemically contaminated areas, get people out of collapsed buildings and coordinate medical groups in assessments and decontamination, according to her resume.
“I feel like the last 32 to 35 years has prepared me for what i’m doing today,” Tate-Nadeau said. “...I’m drawing on the relationships with people, both internationally and with our federal government and at the local level to be able to work in response and to react.”
A state “tabletop” exercise last year — envisioning an outbreak of a virus stemming from China — has helped state officials deal with coronavirus. Pritzker has cited that preparedness drill frequently in recent public appearances, and Tate-Nadeau said it included one of the most important things a state can have: existing plans for an outbreak.
Tate-Nadeau said the governor has also been at the forefront of a push to get personal protective equipment for medical workers — and the state also has a stockpile from federal resources.
“We’re being very proactive and making sure that should we need it, we already have it,” Tate-Nadeau said.
The governor’s office said the Illinois Department of Public Health will receive “at least $14.7 million” from a federal emergency supplemental appropriations bill passed last week; the money goes to patient monitoring, lab testing, test kits and protective equipment. The department will will pass some of that money to local health departments. Also, the Centers for Disease Control is expected to provide the state with $2.75 million in funding for surveillance, infection control and for staffing.
“The governor has been clear that we are to make sure that Illinois is very well prepared,” Tate-Nadeau said. “If we don’t hit those trigger points, no harm, no foul. At the end of the day, Illinois is better positioned for the future.”
