217 Today: Wars can give rise to disease outbreaks. This poses potential risk to public health in the U.S. too

November 29, 2023

Today’s headlines:

• Gun owners in Illinois have just a month left to register their semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines that are restricted under a new state law. But relatively few gun owners have complied thus far.
• The state is adding 48 small businesses to the “Illinois Made” program.
• State public health officials are urging Illinois lawmakers to declare that racism is a contributing factor to a public health crisis.
• The number of COVID-19 infections is going up in some parts of Illinois.

In today’s deep dive, we’ll learn about how wars overseas can still impact public health locally.

217 Today is produced by Stephanie Mosqueda. Reporting contributed by Mawa Iqbal, Alex Degman, Michael Puente and Farah Yousry.