COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Michigan and the United States, and with the Thanksgiving holiday over, experts are worried cases are going to surge even more. The state legislature is going to be back in session for the final few weeks of the year very soon, and the question on everybody’s mind right now is, will they have some sort of a comprehensive strategy or plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic?
As part of the weekly series MichMash, MLive’s Cheyna Roth and Detroit public radio station WDET’s Jake Neher sat down with MLive reporters, Julie Mack and Emily Lawler to talk about the plan - or lack there of - by the legislature and others as we move into the final weeks of legislative session for the year.
Listen to the entire conversation on the player above.
On Nov. 17, Lawler and Mack published a piece for MLive revealing that Republican lawmakers, who had spent months fighting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency orders, did not have a concrete plan for how to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
And that appears to still be the case.
“In terms of a short range, a plan to address the immediate crisis, which is looking the worst it’s ever looked in Michigan,” Lawler said. “No, there is no plan in the state legislature right now, at least from Republican leadership.”
Lawler said the state House is considering some mid-to-long-range plans that are more about metrics and when things can open up regionally. But COVID-19 is surging now. Hospitals are overwhelmed now. And people are dying now.
While health experts want to stay out of what has become a very politically charged subject, Mack said, they are getting “increasingly really upset, I think, with the lack of political leadership from the Republican side.”
“I look at these numbers every day,” she said.
“And compared to where we were two weeks ago, a month ago, they’re horrifying. I mean it. You see deaths going up, you know, in a pretty rapid clip, you see hospitalizations going up. So, it’s not just asymptomatic cases where old people have the virus and get sick. This is a genuine crisis, especially for the healthcare industry.”
More than a month ago, the Michigan Supreme Court issued a ruling that Whitmer could no longer use her emergency powers to issue executive orders such as mask mandates and gathering limits in order to curb the spread. Soon after, the state health department began issuing emergency orders limiting gatherings and taking other steps to curb the spread.
Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Robert Gordon issued an emergency order under the public health code stopping activities like indoor dining and in-person high school instruction for three weeks in an effort to control the spread.
The move was met with more criticism from Republican leadership in the state legislature.
Despite a current inability to come to a consensus on bigger measures, the legislature has passed some bills related to COVID-19 that the governor has signed, Lawler said. Those include logistical things like allowing remote public meetings and remote notarizations. They’ve also passed bills to address specific populations like nursing homes and schools.
“But there is no statewide plan,” Lawler said. “I would say that, you know, the big thing, the big thing on governor Whitmer’s wish list is a mask mandate. That does not appear to be gaining any traction.”
A mask mandate is also number one on the healthcare community’s wish list, Mack said.
“They’re just at their wit’s end about that,” Mack said about the lack of a mask mandate.
“They see this as probably the single most effective tool in their arsenal. That if everybody wore a mask, cases would go down. And I think that they’re truly perplexed at how this became politicized.”
The legislature returns from its hunting and Thanksgiving break this week. Session is scheduled for the next three weeks before the legislative session is over.
More From MichMash and MLive:
MichMash: Why health officials are worried about your Thanksgiving plans
MichMash: How absentee ballots made all the difference in the 2020 election
MichMash: Here are the biggest cyberthreats to Michigan’s election system
Exhausted in a ‘nightmare’: A look inside a Michigan hospital COVID unit
"plan" - Google News
November 30, 2020 at 10:49PM
https://ift.tt/36oQpMN
MichMash: Michigan legislature still doesn’t have a plan to fight COVID-19 as surge continues - MLive.com
"plan" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2un5VYV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "MichMash: Michigan legislature still doesn’t have a plan to fight COVID-19 as surge continues - MLive.com"
Post a Comment