For months, high COVID numbers benefited Whitmer in MI by justifying here continued emergency powers.
However, in the past month, MI has come under the spotlight in a negative way for its’ highest in the nation COVID case statistics despite draconian lock down rules from Whitmer.
Whitmer had previously been doing three things which worsened MI’s COVID count this year:
1) Sending her own appointed health experts to retrospectively review charts and reassign a COVID diagnosis to cause of death or admission - this despite the fact that the medical doctors involved in the case had not felt that COVID was the cause.
2) MI has been a state where you could get voluntary testing if you thought that you were at risk, and it did not require a Dr’s order to get a test - symptoms were not required to get it. This particular approach to testing naturally leads to many more cases of COVID being diagnosed than the approach where a Dr’s order is required- specifically it detects the asymptomatic positive Corona Virus cases. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this approach as long as you understand this and compare rates with other places utilizing the same policy (which was not happening)
3) Gretch instituted a policy of mandatory weekly testing of all high school athletes this Spring. Again this detects more asymptomatic positives, but more significantly most schools had nothing to use but the rapid test which is an antibody test. It was the only test available to them, but some type of test had to be shown for the child to compete. This test shows people with prior vaccination as positive - and they then are temporarily shut down while a formal hospital test is done. Days later, the formal test clears the vaccinated, but not before they are counted in the weekly stats for the state.
Sooooo.....what has Gretch done now that “COVID COUNT BAD”?
Well, she immediately made #2 go away - people in MI are now no longer allowed to get a COVID test without a Dr’s order which in turn requires symptoms for the Dr to order it. This will immediately drop the numbers and she knows it. BUT DOES IT MAKE ANY SENSE TO CUT TESTING WHEN THE EPIDEMIC IS SUPPOSEDLY THAT BAD IN THE STATE? No it doesn’t. You want to know about anyone who might be carrying the virus in an epidemic.
But she knows how this policy affects the numbers, and now those numbers work against her.
Regarding #3, she removed the mandatory high school sports weekly testing of all athletes. This is also inexplicable if she is actually worried about an epidemic in a state with the worst COVID numbers. You would want to screen for potential spreaders.
(How she addressed #1 is speculation only, but I would bet a lot that the charts are now being reviewed through a different lens if the reviews have not been halted).
Still, the actions of Whitmer are unconscionable if the epidemic numbers are to be believed.
Basically, Gretch created her own mess, and now she’s cleaning it up. This is not medicine, it is politics.
>How many instances of Dr's disagreeing with the causes of death or admission have there been...thousands?...hundreds?...a 'few"?...kinda matters, doesn't it?
>Regarding #2...you acknowledge her initial approach was appropriate, but later imply she 'cut testing to drop case numbers'...where's your evidence?...if she wanted to find asymptomatic cases before, what incentive does she have now, not to?...is there an election coming up we haven't heard about?
>Re: #3...You're leaving out a "Whole Lot" of information regarding testing...fast, inexpensive antigen tests have their supporters, and if used properly, can help to quickly identify "hot spots" and marshall resources to respond...you should know this...tell everyone the full story.
As regards medicine vs. politics...wasn't it Donald Trump who repeatedly admitted he didn't want any COVID testing because that just produced more "cases"?...and that's the guy you want to follow. BTW, I've got some additional insight into how inept and possibly malicious he was during the early days of the pandemic when it came to testing...back when companies and research institutions were scrambling to get approvals for new devices...it finally took Dr. Fauci, of all people, to break the logjam, or "stonewall"...whichever analogy you choose.
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