Arguing that the Whitmer administration’s rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Michigan is “broken and must be fixed,” Watervliet State Representative Pauline Wendzel is calling for results rather than excuses.
Wendzel contends, “It’s been disappointing – and that’s an understatement,” saying, “The rollout has been too slow.” She adds, “The Whitmer administration’s overpromising of vaccine supply has sparked a demand that hospitals and health agencies cannot possibly keep pace with – because they aren’t getting the vaccine as quickly as promised. The distribution system must be fixed, and fixed immediately – because lives are literally at stake.”
Last week, administrators with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services blamed delays in administering the vaccine on the holidays and health-care workers being on vacation. The Whitmer administration has blamed the federal government for rollout problems. Wendzel notes that other states faced the same challenges and circumstances nationwide, but Michigan is still ranked in the bottom 10 states for vaccine distribution per 100,000.
The Republican legislator argues that the rollout plan MDHHS has put forward is too confusing and does not provide concise and clear information, and suggests that MDHHS has not provided a central database for hospitals to access to seek out other independent health-care workers to vaccinate.
Wendzel concludes, “The governor keeps trying to point blame elsewhere rather than trying to solve the problems that health departments – and the people of Michigan – need fixed. We don’t need excuses. We need results.”
