Protest organizers include at least six people connected to the “medical freedom” movement, with some promoting conspiracies about the pandemic and vaccine testing. The protest comes as health officials report steep declines in child immunization rates in Michigan.
Ted Roelofs
Ted Roelofs of Kentwood, has written extensively on healthcare as well as prison and juvenile justice reform. Roelofs spent nearly three decades at the Grand Rapids Press where he covered politics, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rural poverty and mental illness among the homeless. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Reach Ted at ted.roelofs@gmail.com
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Independent doctors’ offices in Michigan under threat from coronavirus
Financial pressures from the pandemic could spell the end of more independent medical practices in Michigan, which critics fear will result in less personalized care and fewer doctors in rural regions.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
With higher suicide risk during coronavirus, Michigan makes plans to help
Mental health advocates highlight a rise in anxiety from the pandemic and economic disruption in Michigan, as experts devise ways to help health care workers and ordinary residents in an extraordinary time.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
With weeks to plan, Grand Rapids learns from Detroit’s coronavirus surge
West Michigan hospitals say they are ready as a spike in COVID-19 cases hit the region. Hospital executives are implementing techniques picked up from Chicago and Detroit to improve the odds faced by desperately-ill patients.
Posted inMichigan Government
Patients at 1 in 3 Michigan nursing homes have coronavirus, records show
For the first time, Michigan regulators released records about the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes. It’s as bad as many thought: more than 2,100 cases at 141 homes. (With database to search for homes)
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Rural Michigan hospitals gutted by coronavirus, even those without cases
A halt on elective surgeries cripples rural hospitals with few or no coronavirus patients.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan to identify nursing homes infected by the coronavirus
Michigan will follow roughly 18 other states in publicly identifying nursing homes and long-term care facilities stricken by the virus. Watchdog groups say that is critical information for residents and their families.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Amid coronavirus deaths, Michigan hospital chaplains struggle to carry on
Chaplains fight a daily battle against despair as they minister to patients, family and staff.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Seniors dying from coronavirus. Michigan still won’t name nursing homes
At least 17 states now list nursing homes infected by COVID-19. Michigan, where hundreds of nursing home residents have died, is not among them.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan farmers fear ruin as coronavirus lockdown collapses prices
Michigan’s stay-at-home order has shut supply chains to restaurants and schools and decimated the market for many farmers. ‘This is about as worried as I’ve ever been,’ one says.