Michigan parents are split on whether or not students should be required to get vaccinated or wear a mask this school year, according to a study done by the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, a Lansing-based advocacy group.
Delta variant
Michigan is experiencing a COVID-19 surge comparable to spring 2020 based on current trends, said Sarah Lyon-Callo, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health. Although the number of vaccinated Michiganders is slowly growing, the increase in all COVID-19 metrics is growing much faster.
Michigan Advance’s Susan J. Demas holds nothing back in this scathing op-ed about the current state of affairs in America as it pertains to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency (SFA) has calculated that, given the state’s current trajectory, it will take until mid-November for Michigan to reach the desired 70% vaccinated threshold to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
This week, just three states with lower vaccination rates — Florida, Texas and Missouri — accounted for 40% of all cases nationwide. One in five cases occurred in Florida alone.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Tuesday that a total of 898,626 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 19,862 have died from the virus — an additional 1,028 cases and 14 deaths since Friday.
The Delta variant is a mutant strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Early estimates suggest the new strain may be 35% to 60% more transmissible than the alpha variant, another mutated strain that was already 43% to 90% more transmissible than the original.