State will tout vaccine safety and effectiveness

With coronavirus cases and deaths rising, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced an executive order Thursday to create the bipartisan Protect Michigan Commission advisory committee to raise awareness of the safety and effectiveness of an approved COVID-19 vaccine and how to get it when it becomes available.

“With a safe and effective vaccine on the horizon, the Protect Michigan Commission is bringing our state together once again to ensure that every Michigander has the information and resources they need to get vaccinated at the appropriate time,” said Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, one of the commission’s co-chairs. “Our clearest path to healthy communities, a growing economy, and kids learning in their classrooms is through this vaccine.”

Currently, Pfizer and Moderna have submitted requests for emergency use authorization of CO

VID-19 vaccines to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is developing a plan to distribute the vaccine in Michigan, with a focus on the most vulnerable populations, frontline workers, and educators.

MDHHS is taking applications to serve on the Protect Michigan Commission at michigan.gov/appointments until Dec. 28.

The governor’s announcement is a backdrop at this point to the rising number of deaths and new cases from the coronavirus.

The state Thursday announced 5,937 new confirmed cases of the virus and 182 new deaths statewide with slightly more than two weeks until Christmas.

In all, the state has 421,137 confirmed cases and 10,395 deaths from the virus since it began counting last March.

Excluded from the daily and cumulative totals are cases and deaths considered “probable” since they may, or may not, become confirmed cases and deaths in the future.

Hundreds of cases and deaths in double digits were reported Thursday in the southeast Michigan counties of Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb.

There were 794 new cases and 13 deaths in Wayne County, 611 cases and 21 deaths in Oakland County, and 517 cases and 25 deaths in Macomb County. Detroit, a part of Wayne County, separately had 209 cases and two deaths.

Since the pandemic took root in March, Oakland County has had 47,307 cases of the virus and 1,401 deaths, Macomb County has had 41,979 cases and 1,329 deaths, Wayne County has had 46,857 cases and 1,572 deaths, and Detroit has had 22,727 cases and 1,624 deaths.

In all, the three southeast Michigan counties plus Detroit have accounted for 37.7% of the cases but 57% of the deaths from the virus.

Also reporting high numbers Thursday was the west Michigan county of Kent, with 544 new cases and 12 deaths.