Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot disapproves of a measure that would allow public health officials to disclose the addresses of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the measure is only a recommendation, but the Cook County Department of Public Health is planning to follow the Cook County Board of Commissioners' instructions and share the addresses with first responders in Cook County.

According to the measure, the public health department will be allowed to disclose the addresses with 911 dispatchers in Cook County every day for two months. The resolution only applies to suburban Cook County, not Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The mayor expressed her frustration on Twitter following a vote taken by the 17-member board.

“Today, to my great astonishment and disappointment, nine members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to capitulate to ignorance and bigotry by voting to force the disclosure of the addresses of every patient who has tested positive for COVID-19,” Lightfoot wrote.

Supporters of the measure said the goal is to share addresses with first responders as part of an effort to protect frontline workers. But the mayor doesn't see it that way. 

"This allows local law enforcement to maintain databases of those impacted by this horrible virus, under the cynical guise of public safety," Lightfoot wrote. 

"We will never allow this to become law in Chicago, just as we will never allow people to be stigmatized and put at risk for being denied services or seeking assistance and support," the mayor wrote. "This is a terrible decision. The people responsible should be ashamed and the rest of us outraged."

Public health co-administrator Rachel Rubin also stands against the measure, saying it's not safe for citizens or first responders. Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Black and Latino communities would especially suffer because of the plan.

“I don't see how anyone who understands the endemic nature of racism in this country, and the discrimination that Black and brown people have experienced, will assume that this resolution is somehow going to be immune from that discrimination,” Preckwinkle said during the meeting. 
Commissioner Scott Britton, who sponsored the proposal, said he understands the concern about racism, citing the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery. However, Britton said the resolution expires in 60 days and names will not be shared, ensuring government overreach will not be a problem. 
“We all know from the incident that happened in Georgia that you can be hunted down by two racists in a pickup truck and murdered, and no one does anything for two months,” Britton said. “Can I tell you that there’s never a risk of overreach by the government or failure to act? Of course not. But I can tell you because of the limits of this resolution, that is not going to happen here.”
The commissioner said the information is important for first responders when they respond to calls in various places.
“All I'm trying to do is to try to give a little more information to those first responders, the people who enter the burning buildings, the people who respond to the active shooters, to give them some more information so they can protect themselves a little bit more,” he said.
A Cook County judge struck down a motion earlier this month that aimed to give the same type of privilege for northwest side first responders, The Sun-Times reported.
“The public’s privacy rights and the health privacy rights especially are some of the strongest rights under the constitution and the laws of the United States and Illinois,” Judge Anna Demacopoulos said at the time. “Once that data is exposed, there is no taking it back.”
Chicago mayor Lori LightfootCook County Department of Public Healthcoronavirus