Whitmer mum on Gordon’s resignation
Governor thanks former health dept. boss for service
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly declined to answer questions Monday about whether she asked the previous head of the state health department to resign. But she did say the new leader is ready, and promised to not “barter” with Republican lawmakers threatening to hold up her appointees over COVID-19 health restrictions.
Robert Gordon tweeted Friday afternoon that he had resigned as director of the Department of Health and Human Services. Although Whitmer did not thank Gordon for his service on Friday in a news release, she did so Monday, adding that he led through “unimaginable circumstances.”
“It has been grueling, and on behalf of all the people in Michigan, I want to thank him for his service to our state. You know, he worked hard to protect our public health, and the food assistance that we talked about here today was one of one of Robert’s ideas,” Whitmer said.
“I want to wish him well, and I’m grateful for his leadership, and we’ve got a wonderful new director at the department. … We’re going to continue to forge ahead here.”
The governor used Monday’s news conference to introduce Elizabeth Hertel, appointed Friday as the health department’s new direc
tor. Whitmer repeatedly praised Hertel for her leadership qualities and knowledge of the department.
Hertel served in a senior administrative role before Friday’s appointment. She takes the reins at a pivotal time for the health department: Although the state argues it has distributed every vaccine dose received, local health departments and hospitals are crying out for more vaccines and have yet to hit administration goals.
“I have been proud to work alongside our state’s health and human services team, serving Michiganders for many years. And I am grateful for the opportunity to lead our future efforts in partnership with my great colleague Dr. Joneigh Khaldun (state chief medical executive), our employees, as well as the rest of state government, business and community leaders and local health partners.
“I would also like to thank Robert Gordon for his service in support of our mission and for his service to our state and its residents.”
She’ll also oversee the department as it loosens restrictions on indoor dining. After Gordon signed an order in mid-November, at the behest of Whitmer, that banned indoor dining, small business associations pleaded for the mandate to be removed while Republicans blasted the edict.
Republicans and associations that represent eating establishments argued the cost of closing indoor dining at restaurants and bars outweighs the health benefits, suggesting owners know how to safely serve patrons. Whitmer and health officials counter, noting GOP arguments that the mandate forces restaurants to close is incorrect while noting the CDC indicates eating indoors near people from other households is a high-risk activity.
Starting next Monday restaurants and bars will be allowed to offer indoor dining as long as they do not exceed 25% capacity and close indoor services by 10 p.m. Carryout and delivery services have never been banned, and can continue operating after the time when indoor dining must stop.
While Republican lawmakers have threatened to holdup gubernatorial appointments unless Whitmer takes action to loosen economic restrictions, the governor noted many businesses are allowed to operate in some capacity. She thanked business owners for their sacrifices while arguing the state health mandates help keep people safe.
“Our actions have worked. And so, whether it is contact sports or it is bumping up that number for in-person dining, these are actions that will increase contacts and could create spread. And that’s why we have to be really smart and incremental as we move forward,” Whitmer said.
“So bartering public health restrictions with the Legislature for nominations, for nominees, I’ve not done that for 10 months, I’m not going to start doing that now. We have to follow the science and listen to the experts.”
Michigan now is at a case rate of 203 cases per million people — down 72% since the November peak, Khaldun said during the news conference. The percentage of positive cases has dropped to 6.2% and COVID-19 hospitalizations are trending down, and now are at 9.2%.
These are great trends, part of the reason why the state is relaxing dining restrictions, she said. But given the emergence of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant, it’s just as important as ever to properly wear a mask and practice other health and safety guidelines.
Whitmer has repeatedly stressed Michigan needs more vaccine doses from the federal government, pointing to a lack of clear communication about distribution as a key holdup in ensuring doses are injected into state residents. Michigan’s allotment of coronavirus vaccines has hovered around 60,000 doses per week. Whitmer has said the state is ready to administer as many as 50,000 doses per day, and has asked the federal government for more.
While state and national data have indicated a lag in injected doses received, those metrics appear to be improving.
At the start of the month, Michigan was one of the worst states in the nation in terms of administering doses distributed to local providers. As of last Thursday, Michigan had improved on those marks: Of the nearly 1.1 million doses distributed, more than 642,000 doses had been administered.
“Two weeks ago, we had administered 44% of the Michigan-controlled vaccines, with the rest scheduled . ... Now, the number is up to 67%. This is good news, and I am proud, as we all should be, at the progress that we’ve made,” Whitmer said.
Hours after the news conference, updated state data showed about 1,476,775 doses distributed as of Monday and 730,453 administered as of Sunday. That shows the state is just shy of administering 50% of distributed doses.
The gap, health officials say, is primarily because of doses that are scheduled but haven’t been injected into arms or shots that have been given but not yet updated on the state’s COVID-19 vaccine website.
However, the improvement Whitmer cited Monday also appears to be due in large part to the state not receiving a substantial batch of new vaccine doses in recent days. From Jan. 18 to Jan. 21, the state received and distributed approximately 6,000 vaccine doses, according to state data. During the same time frame, local providers administered more than 110,000 doses.
Still, it does not appear that most local providers are meeting the state’s goal of administering every dose received within seven days of obtaining those vaccines.
But Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the newly appointed director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told “Fox News Sunday” that supply is a big obstacle to a smooth national vaccine rollout, and said it’s unclear how many doses of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines are available.
“One of the biggest problems right now is I can’t tell you how much vaccine we have, and if I can’t tell it to you, then I can’t tell it to the governors and I can’t tell it to the state health officials,” she said.
“If they don’t know how much vaccine they’re getting not just this week but next week and the week after, they can’t plan. They can’t figure out how many sites to roll out, how many vaccinators that they need, and they can’t figure out how many appointments to make for the public.”
President Joe Biden pledged to ramp up vaccine distribution, signing several executive orders last week that he said will make it easier for states to inoculate residents. It’s unclear how quickly Michigan and other states will see the impact of those orders, though.
Biden has said his goal is to deliver 100 million COVID-19 shots in his first 100 days in office. Walensky said the nation must vaccinate Americans faster than that, especially with new, more transmissible variants circulating.
“We’re really hoping that after that first 100 days we’ll have much more production, not just for these two vaccines, but we are hopeful that we’ll have another one from Johnson & Johnson in the weeks ahead, and perhaps even a fourth one coming down the pipeline.”
While the initial vaccination goal was to immunize 70% of Michiganders ages 16 and older — about 5.6 million people — by the end of 2021, now that the more transmissible B.1.1.7 or United Kingdom variant has been detected in Michigan, state epidemiologist Sarah LyonCallo said a better goal may be to aim to vaccinate closer to 90% or more of the population. That could be a tough goal to reach.
About 66% of Michiganders have said they are likely or very likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine and 34% would like to get it as soon as possible, health officials say. To close that divide and convince more people to get vaccinated, Whitmer created the Protect Michigan Commission in December.
The commission is tasked with raising awareness of the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. Whitmer appointed two dozen people to join the commission Monday, and announced it will be led by Kerry Ebersole Singh, a public policy and marketing strategist.
The appointees include a cadre of business, health, education, labor, union and religious leaders as well as county and municipal representatives and state lawmakers. The aim will be to identify areas of the state or certain groups within Michigan who are likely to be skeptical of getting the shots and develop and outreach plan to get them vaccinated.