Preckwinkle defends decision to fire Cook County health official

Dr. Terry Mason was "very good at public education and outreach," but not so much at "strong operational leadership," Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said Friday, explaining her decision to fire the county health department chief operating officer in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mason's firing last week has raised eyebrows because he was the man in charge of the county's response to the pandemic.

At the time, Preckwinkle would say only that Mason had been "terminated." She heightened the drama on a Friday - when politicians routinely bury bad news - by announcing that she was closing the emergency room at Provident Hospital for a month to figure out a better way to handle the "large volume of patients" and the "challenges of a pandemic" at the South Side hospital.

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