Jesse Jackson and his wife Jacqueline attend the Phoenix Dinner for the 48th Annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation on September 15, 2018, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Earl Gibson III / Getty
A new report suggests that Rev. Jesse Jackson‘s wife is not making as speedy a recovery as her civil rights icon husband following the couple being hospitalized last weekend after they tested positive for COVID-19.
Jacqueline Jackson has been moved to a hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) while Rev. Jackson has been moved to a rehabilitation center “as his symptoms abate,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
Rev. Jackson is now in the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago while his wife remains in the nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she has been receiving COVID-19 treatment since Aug. 21.
It was unclear when Rev. Jackson was moved from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and transferred to the rehab center, but the relocation seemingly bodes well for the 79-year-old’s recovery and implies he’s well enough to leave the medical facility.
The opposite seemed to be true for Jacqueline Jackson, who is 64. Even though the Tribune reported that she was “receiving increased oxygen and breathing on her own,” the fact that she remained hospitalized while her husband did not is open to interpretation.
Both the reverend — who in 2017 announced he had Parkinson’s disease — and his wife are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but the prevalence of the delta variant of the coronavirus may have caused breakthrough infections in them.
Chicago, where the Jacksons call home, has experienced a resurgence in COVID-19 cases as the delta variant continues to surge. The city reinstituted a mask mandate for the windy city that began just before the Jacksons were hospitalized. Chicago recently crossed the threshold of 400 COVID-19 cases per day earlier in the week.
Prayers have been pouring in for the Jacksons since their hospitalizations were announced.
They include positive thoughts and hopes for speedy recoveries from the likes of Dr. Bernice King, Rev. Al Sharpton, writer Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, the late John Lewis’ successor, Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams and Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly.
It was unclear how the Jacksons may have contracted COVID-19, but the reverend has been very active during the pandemic, including being arrested in June during a public protest at the U.S. Capitol demonstrating against Senate Republicans blocking legislation that would counter restrictive voting laws recently enacted that have been decried as “racist.”
The Religion News Service reported at the time that Jackson suggested he was prepared to be arrested before he was taken into custody.
“We come not as an insurrection group, but as a resurrection group,” Jackson, who in 2017 announced he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, said Wednesday. “Today we must fill up the jails.”
Jails, of course, have been where COVID-19 has been reported to have spread exponentially among the population of prisoners.
According to statistics from the centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black people have among the highest rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
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