With respiratory illnesses on the rise in Chicago, health care providers warn children’s medications may be hard to find

A 4-year-old boy sits on his mother’s lap after getting his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the Blue Door Neighborhood Center in Morgan Park. (Mariah Rush/Sun-Times)

With respiratory illnesses on the rise in Chicago, health care providers are warning that children’s medications may be difficult to find these days as worried parents are facing empty shelves and understocked pharmacies across the city.

“Kids can’t cope with pain like adults,” said Gwen Smith, a mom of three from Chicago’s North Side. “It’d be like torture, in a way, to have to witness your child suffering if your local pharmacy doesn’t have what you need.”