Michigan Health Watch

Michigan health care workers have spent the last nine months in the trenches battling COVID. But not all will opt-in.

Two weeks after the holiday, coronavirus cases are declining in Michigan as they are increasing elsewhere. Health officials are optimistic families heeded the message to avoid larger gatherings.

Distribution begins with 56 hospitals and 16 health departments throughout Michigan, while those in health care settings, essential workers and the elderly are first in line.

An estimated 222,000 Michiganders lost employer-sponsored coverage in one four-month period this spring because of COVID-19, according to one report.

Vaccines may be shipped soon from Pfizer’s Kalamazoo plant, as the vaccine nears final approval. Michigan is receiving more than 250,000 doses, and first priority goes to health care workers.

The massive coronavirus vaccination effort to immunize Michigan’s roughly 600,000 health care workers — and eventually the entire population — is in high gear as Pfizer’s vaccine candidate undergoes a federal hearing Thursday to review whether it can be safely injected into the arms of millions of Americans.

Those who survive COVID-19 are often left with puzzling and sometimes debilitating conditions months after they are considered recovered from the infectious part of the disease.

Michigan is experiencing its highest levels of mortality since early in the pandemic. But COVID’s victims now are typically older and whiter.

State officials are reaching out to Black residents, who have suffered disproportionately during the pandemic. While there is significant public skepticism toward a COVID vaccine, mistrust runs even deeper in the African-American community due to a legacy of mistreatment in government public health efforts.