RSV causes little illness in most healthy adults, but those with underlying conditions are at risk. This first vaccine is designed for adults 60 and older, but other RSV vaccines and drugs are in the works, including a vaccine to protect infants.
Robin Erb
Robin Erb covers a range of health issues in Michigan, including the industry of aging and the issues facing older residents in Michigan, a state that is aging faster than most others. She joined Bridge in 2019 and has led investigations that tracked millions of dollars in opioid settlement money and explored severe worker shortages in health care that threaten lives and the state's economy. She chronicled the shock and grief of Michigan families in COVID’s wake, as well as state policy decisions and the triumphs of medical breakthroughs. Robin previously spent six years covering health at the Detroit Free Press, documenting the battle over, and the eventual passage of, the Affordable Care Act and Michigan's Medicaid expansion. She studied communications and political science at Miami University and has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Lourdes University (Toledo, Ohio). She and her husband raised two wonderful children — but have failed miserably at training their Beagle-Bassets — in southeast Michigan. Reach her at rerb@bridgemi.com.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, universities expand nurse training options
Michigan Tech is launching a nursing program this fall, filling a void caused by Finlandia University’s recent decision to close. And Lake Superior State is expanding its program to train nurses to work in rural areas.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
A new Michigan legislative committee on mental health gives parents hope
Michigan’s thread-bare mental health system fails children in crisis. Can a new committee filled with lawmakers who have experience in healthcare or first-hand knowledge of mental health challenges bring focus?
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Kalamazoo YWCA seeks tax dollars to support gender affirming, abortion care
YWCA leaders say it would expand access to reproductive health care for marginalized county residents. But two Republican county commissioners and other critics say it shouldn’t be done with tax money.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Cash for Flint mothers. Mott to offer up to $7500 to help baby’s first year
Pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who exposed the Flint water crisis and its impact on the city’s children, will oversee the program funded by the Flint-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
U.S. Supreme Court delays decision on abortion pill for two more days.
In overturning the 1973 Roe decision last year, the nation’s highest court pushed abortion questions back to state politics, but now it likely will decide the fate of the abortion pill mifepristone. Michigan providers have vowed to continue access.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Hit by rare fungus, U.P. paper mill to close for deep cleaning
In its announcement Friday, Billerud officials said its ‘top priority’ is its workers and contractors.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
U-M deal with Lansing’s Sparrow leaves MSU doctors unsettled about future
Sparrow has been a training ground for MSU medical and nursing students for more than a century. But with U-M Health taking over Sparrow this month, some MSU leaders worry that Spartans will be squeezed out.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Abortion pill chaos after flurry of rulings. Michigan providers say they won’t stop
The Biden administration is filing an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after a Wednesday federal court ruling restricted access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Rare fungus sickens dozens at UP paper mill. Unclear how they were exposed
More than six weeks after the first cases of a rare fungal infection were identified, officials say they are still trying to figure out where the spores came from. This comes as the company is considering a $1.2 billion expansion.