Why That 'Woman In Michigan' Keeps Drawing Donald Trump's Wrath
ANN ARBOR, Michigan ― Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) is following the advice of public health experts.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) isn’t.
Yet somehow it’s Whitmer that President Donald Trump has attacked as the one who is “in over her head” and “doesn’t have a clue.”
The difference in how Trump has treated the two says a lot about the way he has handled the coronavirus pandemic ― and why, in the view of so many people who work in public health, that approach is so dangerous.
Michigan is among the states where COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is already having a big impact, with 5,486 confirmed cases and 132 deaths as of Sunday. Whitmer, now in her second year as governor, issued a stay-at-home order a week ago, after the number of documented cases in the state passed 1,000.
Although Michigan isn’t exactly under lockdown, with grocery stores, gas stations and other essential businesses still open, Whitmer has called for strict social distancing. And the population appears to be listening. When people walk in their neighborhoods, they keep apart from each other. Even busy city streets are mostly deserted and nonessential businesses really have shuttered.
The now-familiar goal of this strategy is to “flatten the curve” ― to avoid a sudden spike in cases that would overwhelm the hospital system. And it didn’t come a moment too soon.
“Southeast Michigan is burning,” one doctor told the Detroit Free Press this week, and the region’s two large hospital systems, Beaumont and Henry Ford, are already near capacity with COVID-19 patients. Other hospitals, including the Detroit Medical Center downtown and the University of Michigan’s in Ann Arbor, aren’t far behind.
Shortages are a real concern in all of these places. The hospitals are going to need more ventilators, the machines that allow people with coronavirus-ravaged lungs to breathe. And they are already low on personal protective gear: gowns, gloves and,...
