News Bite

Is It Prudent To Confront Strangers For Not Wearing A Face Mask?

The governor asks you to

Is it prudent to "politely, but forcefully" confront another person not wearing a face mask in public?

That’s what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asked Michigan residents to do at a July 9 press conference.

“But at the end of the day, it’s on all of us to do our part to educate the people around us whether it is in the store or it’s in our household or it is in our neighborhood or in our work place,” Whitmer said. “We’ve got to implore one another to step up and do the right thing. And Michiganders are smart. We’re tough. We can figure out how to do it politely, but also forcefully. Because it is on all of us.”

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Bite

Refrigerated Morgues On The Way For Southwest US

National deaths at a fraction of pandemic’s peak

KSAV-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, ran a story about hospitals and counties in Arizona and Texas moving to acquire refrigerated trucks because morgues have or will soon reach capacity.

The story said: “A long-expected upturn in U.S. COVID-19 deaths across the U.S. has begun, driven by fatalities in states in the South and West.”

On July 13, there were 465 total deaths in the U.S. linked to COVID-19. On July 12, there were 380, according to WorldoMeters.info.

By comparison, on April 27, the U.S. experienced 2,749 coronavirus deaths, the most of any day.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Bite

Michigan COVID Deaths Way Down, Hospitals In Good Shape, Face Mask Mandate Expands

The rationale when Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer imposed a coronavirus epidemic “stay-at-home” order on March 23 was that it’s “the only tool that we have to fight it at the moment and to support our healthcare system to respond is to give them the opportunity by buying some time.”

According to state of Michigan data, there were 543 people in state hospitals with COVID-19 as of July 13. By comparison, on April 27 there were 2,974 COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

There were 127 Michigan deaths linked to COVID-19 in the first 13 days of July. That's just under 10 coronavirus deaths a day.

By comparison, the state’s highest single-day loss during the epidemic was 232 dead from COVID-19 on April 21.

Hospital bed occupancy rates in Michigan were at 68% as of July 13, according to the state of Michigan.

In 1980, the bed occupancy rate on average was 78%. The rate fluctuates from year to year. It was between 65 and 66 percent in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On July 10, Whitmer expanded a statewide face mask mandate to include all indoor public places and outdoors when social distancing isn't possible.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.