Chicago Monument to Honor Pandemic Frontline Workers, People Who Died of COVID-19

WTTW/PBS ^ | March 11, 2025 | Abena Bediako

[IncPen]

According to the World Health Organization, more than 7 million people across the globe have died from COVID-19 since the virus was first declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

Chicago will soon be home to a global monument designed to honor those killed by the virus and pay tribute to frontline workers who risked their lives during the pandemic.

Sally Metzler, board chair of the COVID-19 Monument Commission, leads the project under the Hektoen Institute of Medicine. Metzler said the idea came to fruition for her during the pandemic.

“It was a great hardship for the entire world, but I learned through this hardship heroes emerged,” said Metzler. “There are the nurses, the doctors, all of the frontline health care workers, the delivery drivers, the bus drivers, those that prepared our go-to meals, the grocery store workers. They sacrificed for us, and this monument gives them a voice.”

The Illinois Medical District is collaborating with the commission and providing the project with a location to place the monument.

“We’ve always wanted to do a park,” said Allyson Hansen, CEO and executive director of the Illinois Medical District. “We wanted to create something green and beautiful here.”

Hansen described the one-acre triangle plot as the center of the district where all the hospitals can see into a space that acts as the back porch of Chicago where the community can come together and honor all frontline workers.

The 25-foot stainless steel monument titled “COVID-19 Memorial Monument of Honor, Remembrance & Resilience” will be located between Stroger Hospital and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center at 2023 W. Ogden Ave., near West Polk Street.

The unveiling of the park and statue are set for 2026.

The commission opened a competition to the world for artists to submit their designs for the monument with a chance to $20,000 if chosen. Casey Schachner, a sculptor and art professor at Georgia Southern University, created a dandelion design that spoke to the board.

“It features sculptures that are a hybrid of the COVID virus and the dandelion,” Metzler said. “It’s a visual metaphor for the virus, hope and resilience. The dandelion itself has many beautiful philosophical moments. It’s omnipresent throughout the world, just like COVID-19 was.”

Opening the competition to the entire world was the commission’s first attempt at making this project as inclusive as possible. There is also a virtual memory garden on covidmemorialmonument.org, in an effort to share and build on the momentum of recognizing frontline workers. People can put up a tribute on the site to a loved one who was lost or to a frontline worker.

Hansen said the Illinois Medical District is more than hospitals and universities — it’s also a community. They pride themselves on listening to members’ needs and wants at various public engagement sessions. During those open conversations, the district was able to form stronger relationships and form the best practices at the height of the pandemic.

The Illinois Medical District is hosting a special public engagement session on March 18 from 4-6 p.m. at 2100 W. Harrison St. to discuss the new park coming to West Ogden. Community members will have a chance to voice what they want from the park and get a better idea of plans to come.

“This is an opportunity for us all to come together not only to honor what happened in the past, but look to the future and talk about wellness and talk about continuing to be a community together,” Hansen said. “This park will allow us that opportunity.”

[IncPen]

Because Chicago has nothing else to be concerned about.

No mention of Wuhan, Fauci, tyranny, clot-shots, dead grandparents, dancing nurses. It’s really just a celebration 🙄

[Tennessee Nana]

...and People who Died of the Covid-19 Vaccines

[LittleBillyInfidel]

The Marxists miss their glory days. They’ll likely build something that looks like the Statue of Friendship in Kiev, but the figures will be holding up a giant mask.

[ComputerGuy]

Much of the money will be siphoned off.
The taxpayers will get stuck with the bill.

[13Sisters76]

How very ironic...coming from the very organization that CAUSED the whole mess, with little Rat Fauci’s help.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

FIVE YEARS later and they are still reliving the biggest thing in their lives. In the 1970s, I met a WW II vet who could talk about nothing but his experiences in teh war. He didn't amount to much career-wise, but that war experience really defined him. Now it's the same with people who worked for a living when a virus his. In 2055, they'll still be reliving their glory days on the "front lines" in the Great COVID Pandemic of 2020.

* The 1918 Influenza Epidemic killed 675,000 Americans (estimates range from 500,000 to 850,000). That's 6.55 deaths per 1,000. This rate reflects the total deaths over the pandemic’s duration (1918–1920), with the majority occurring in 1918–1919.

* Conservatively, there were 1,200,000 deaths by COVID from 2020–2025. That is 3.61 deaths per 1,000.

The 1918 Influenza Epidemic was TWICE as bad as COVID. So where are all the monuments to the "Front Line Workers" in 1918?

Let's all think of dandelions when we think about COVID. That'll go over big with homeowners. And "Resilience." Is there a MORE ANNOYING word than "resilience"?

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

From the article: --- "According to the World Health Organization, more than 7 million people across the globe have died from COVID-19 since the virus was first declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020."

Mortality rate calculation: ( Deaths / population ) x 100 = mortality rate. Using the article's approximate numbers:

( 7 million deaths in the world / 8 billion in the world ) x 100 = 0.0875 %

Less than one tenth of one percent over the entire five years.

The "pandemic" was a media-driven marketing coup.

[Larry Lucido]

Dead Lives Matter

[T.B. Yoits]

They should have a monument for the miracle of the flu which completely disappeared for not one, but two years, a miracle the occurred for the first time in the history of mankind.

[9YearLurker]

The psyop continues. Even here at FR, which started off with the “It’s just the flu, bro” threads, we’ve got far too many people bought in.

[faucetman]

“According to the World Health Organization, more than 7 million people across the globe have died from COVID-19 since the virus was first declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.”

According to the World Health Organization, more than 7 million people across the globe have died since the virus was first declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

But what did they actually die from?

Remember, NONE of the other illnesses got you a big fat check!

The seasonal flu deaths miraculously DISAPPEARED! Pneumonia deaths DISAPPEARED! EVERYBODY got a ventilator, extra cash for ventilator patients. Covid tests were a SCAM!

BIG health LIED! The gubmit LIED!, Media LIED!

And that’s all BEFORE the biggest LIE of all, the VAXXINE!

[ABStrauss]

More bullsh-t.

My wife and I had the two shots foour years ago and I’ve been seriously ill ever since.

My wife died last month of pancreatic cancer which is listed as a possible side effect of the damned Covid-19 shots

[ransomnote]

The PCR test in use during the Plandemic was not capable of identifying the Covid virus because the CDC said isolated samples of that virus were ‘unavailable’ when the test was created. Therefore, the PCR was designed to identify a ‘related coronavirus’, even though FAUCI had already explained to the public that Covid was classified as a ‘novel’ virus, which meant our immune systems had never been exposed to anything like it.

So the PCR was fake and had a 100% false positive rate.

But, during the Plandemic, if that PCR identified a ‘related corona virus’ in a car accident victim admitted to the hospital, they would still isolate that patient and even give them Remdesivir, the medication known to shut down organs. Actually they would run IV’s while shutting down the kidney’s with Remdesivir to the point where fluid would back up into the lungs, the patient died of pulmonary edema but was classified as a Covid death.

Now, an elderly person with a respiratory virus from which they could otherwise recover would be falsely identified as a ‘Covid’ patient and denied all care, told to go home until they need a ventilator etc.

And then there are the clot shots, forced on people with extortion (job, school, travel). But wait there’s more. The damage caused by the clot shots often includes ADE, which is often clinically indistinguishable from respiratory disease.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibody-dependent_enhancement

So those who develop ADE as a result of the clot shot can be falsely classified as ‘Covid’ and ‘Bird Flu’ patients. We need a museum to house all the monuments to Covid Crime.

[Thommas]

Conservatively, there were 1,200,000 deaths by COVID from 2020–2025.

A better revelation, according to available mortality data, is that the vast majority of deaths were WITH COVID, not BY COVID.

[healy61]

Yeah, put some lipstick on that pig so we can feel better about it.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "A better revelation, according to available mortality data, is that the vast majority of deaths were WITH COVID, not BY COVID."

Yes, indeed. And the game of "Arrows up" to heighten a "with" to a first cause was shown in April of 2020 in a WHO document advising how to "up" the causes. The whole has been a hoax, a small event blown hugely out of proportion by many "voices" all which sought to profit in a variety of ways.

Still not jabbed, my bride and I should be dead according to the hype. We traveled both to Europe and across the US by driving, did not curtail our exchanges with others, and hardly wore masks (except to bank temporarily).

"With" became "from" in most instances by manipulating data.

Another small point as to statistics. Courtesy of Fauci and friends, this nation with under 5 percent of the world's population had over 14 percent of the declared deaths, a statistical fact which has gone without much investigation.

Remdesivir. Protocol. Reimbursements. Essentially "paid to play: in a deadly game. For money.