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Whitmer’s messaging problem

Among all the dilemmas Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is confronting these days, you can now officially add that she has a messaging problem.

When she shut down the state to bend the COVID-19 curve two times before, she steadfastly clung to the notion that the “science” justified the move. The science looked at the number of positive COVID-19 tests and an ever-increasing hospitalization rate, and she acted accordingly. Then she took a bow and praised the state for helping to bend the curve.

Fast-forward to this current surge, during which the same science is staring everyone in the face. Michigan leads the nation in the number of B117 variant cases, which is now driving higher infection caseloads, overstuffed hospital beds, and over 500 cases per million residents.

Yet, when asked about imposing another shutdown, the governor made no reference to what the science says. Instead, she asked folks to voluntarily obey the mask mandate and other safety protocols.

Hence her messaging mess.

Others have a different view.

“We need a lockdown here in Michigan,” said Dr. Abdul El Sayed. Asked if would order one if he was governor today, El Sayed quickly offered: “There is no question.”

You may recall that Dr. El Sayed was bit of a pain in the neck to candidate Whitmer in 2018, as he challenged her for the Democratic nomination for governor. He still supports the governor and will not run against her again, but he says the majority of the science community believes the governor must change her strategy — and now.

“Every day you fail to do it, the problem will get linearly worse, expediently worse,” the epidemiologist and former public health director in Detroit contends.

Yet the governor deflects that option, relying, instead, on pumping more shots into more arms, but her former opponent asserts that won’t work, either.

“It’s going to take too long,” he said. “That is not a viable approach. The only viable approach here is a lockdown.”

Some in this town suspect the governor has caved in to the constant carping from Republican lawmakers, who want her to open up the state and allow the citizens “to do the right thing.” In fact, in a rare show of solidarity, the two GOP legislative leaders praised the governor for ignoring the “tremendous pressure to lock down.”

To which Dr. El Sayed retorts, “When you are getting plaudits from the GOP Senate leader … you gotta ask yourself whether or not you’re doing the right thing.”

The governor’s supporters might be mumbling that it’s easy for this guy to harp away at the governor, because he is not in charge.

He concedes the point.

“She has a more complex job than mine, and juggling all those responsibilities,” he said. But, having said that, he boils the case down to this lifesaving choice, as he puts it.

“If it’s between saving Michiganders lives or doing what’s political feasible, I know the governor is going to make the right decision,” he said.

But it’s pretty darn clear at this juncture, he has concluded, she has not.

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