Health

'Whitmer is practically missing in action' as Covid surges again in Michigan -- Crain's column

November 16, 2021, 8:30 AM

A Crain's Detroit Business senior editor calls out the governor for being "practically invisible as Michigan's fourth surge bears down on a health care system that's already understaffed and burned out by a pandemic entering month No. 20."


Gretchen Whitmer last week (Photo: State of Michigan)

In an opinion column, Chad Livengood cites the eerily similar Covid numbers now and at this time last November:

Michigan was recording an average of 6,288 new cases of the coronavirus and 59 deaths each day one year ago this week. ...

On Monday, Michigan's seven-day average number of new daily cases surged to 6,171 and 49 deaths per day. There are more than 3,000 Covid-positive patients occupying Michigan hospital beds this week — nearly the same number as a year ago this week.

Yet "Gov. Whitmer is practically missing in action," the commentary says.

She hasn't held any news conferences calling on Michigan residents to voluntarily hunker down and mask up to stop the near-rampant spread of the highly contagious delta variant of this airborne plague. She's not even out actively promoting any of the three vaccines or booster shots — at a time when antibodies from springtime inoculations are waning.

By contrast, Livengood notes:

On Nov., 15, 2020 ... she announced a three-week shutdown of bars, restaurants, casinos and movie theaters. ... Whitmer donned a mask inside the state Emergency Operations Center and told Michigan's 10 million residents that a second shutdown was necessary to stabilize the health care system and prevent more deaths.

He also acknowledges the reality of pandemic mandates fatigue and backlash 12 months later:

Whitmer has made a calculation to not reimpose restrictions on the movement of people. This is, by nature, a political calculation.

The public has grown tired of mandates — mask wearing for unvaccinated schoolchildren is the source of near hysteria at school board meetings. ... [Whitmer] she has shown no sign of wading back into the morass of pandemic politics.

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Read more:  Crain's Detroit Business


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