It was easy to see this coming, with White House experts and the vice-president battling against the President’s messages.
Fox News – Dr. Birx: Michigan protests ‘devastatingly worrisome’
Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of President Trump’s coronavirus task force, warned that some activities that Americans are engaging in across the country are potentially putting lives in danger as the coronavirus pandemic continues to plague the nation.
In a “Fox News Sunday” interview, Birx weighed in on recent incidents ranging from crowds flocking to Califonia beaches to the reopening of salons and spas, but came down particularly hard on Michigan protesters who stormed the state capitol in large numbers without wearing masks.
“It’s devastatingly worrisome to me personally because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather who has a co-morbid condition and they have a serious or a very unfortunate outcome, they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives. So we need to protect each other at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.”
Fox News: Gov. Whitmer asks Pence to discourage protests due to concerns of COVID-19 spreading to rural areas
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told Vice President Mike Pence she was concerned that COVID-19 was spreading to rural parts of Michigan after groups of protesters gathered at the state capitol in defiance of her social distancing orders.
On a call with governors Monday afternoon, ABC News reports that Whitmer told Pence she was not only worried about the safety of those protesting, but also the health and safety of the communities where the protesters lived.
“We have seen from initial protests here is that we’ve got COVID-19 spreading in rural parts of our state, from which people traveled. And so, our ability to move on to the next phase and keep re-engaging our economy. I’m just concerned about it,” Whitmer said. “We’re going to keep watching those numbers and doing the tests.”
Whitmer also asked Pence to reinforce that people should take this seriously.
“If discouraging protests is something you could consider doing, I’d really be grateful,” she added.
Pence didn’t address the concerns over the protest, but later added that the Trump administration will “continue to emphasize to people the safe and responsible practices while we’ll move toward reopening.”
It might be futile for the administration to emphasize to people the safe and responsible practices while the Trump does the opposite.
Michigan has the seventh highest deaths per million of the US states at 468 which is high by international standards – there are only 4 large countries with higher rates, with the whole of USA on 252. Current deaths in Michigan 4,674, cases 48,021.
Your NZ 
Duker
/ 13th May 2020Almost 10 mill, around twice our population and yet 200x our deaths
Kitty Catkin
/ 13th May 2020It doesn’t seem to say that the protestors ARE spreading it, only that they COULD. They are not necessarily the people who have it.
Pete George
/ 13th May 2020Cellphone data shows protesters dispersed across Michigan, raising concerns of spreading coronavirus
https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/05/04/cellphone-data-shows-operation-gridlock-protesters-dispersed-across-michigan-raising-concerns-of-spreading-coronavirus
Kitty Catkin
/ 13th May 2020‘Concerns of spreading’, not ‘have spread’.
Time will show, but people are becoming desperate. The US welfare system is very limited from what I gather.
Duker
/ 13th May 2020And yet you go on about concerns over hypothetical deaths over operation delays…can’t point to a single case…yet here you are
duperez
/ 13th May 2020The intellect of quite a few Michanganders is very limited too. I’ve been checking events over there for weeks. The disgruntled get the attention which distracts from the fact that Governor Whitmer has good approval ratings.
Many of the protests carry the usual Trump supporter signage. Biden leads in polls over Trump.
Billions are being spent in the race for a coronavirus vaccine, countries and corporations are hoping to be first to come up with the magic elixir and millions of Americans are praying for the medical breakthrough. Meanwhile anti-vaxxers are doing their thing on the streets of Lansing, Michigan along with brave armed men out after their own invisible enemy.
In parts of Louisiana they have God and their right to go to church on their side so they’re getting off really easily. They have a couple of hundred thousand less than us in their population and have 2240 deaths.
Duker
/ 13th May 2020Should show up in 2 weeks when they ask those in rural areas who have a virus where they have been….may only be low risk as state capital is Lansing not Detroit , with a population similar to Dunedin
Call me Ishmael...
/ 13th May 2020Brazil, England, Russia, America – turns out anti-science nationalism is the worst thing for the health of a nation.
Pete George
/ 13th May 2020Russia’s death count of 2,212 looks way out compared to their case count of 242,271 it’s a lot different of a ratio than other countries.
Pink David
/ 13th May 2020Russians are bad.
Pink David
/ 13th May 2020As opposed to the science led Belgium’s. The science led French.
Any other country that was pro-science internationalist and had better outcomes than the aforementioned?
Duker
/ 13th May 2020Early lockdown gets good results not late, that is science results not prediction
Pink David
/ 13th May 2020“Early lockdown gets good results not late, that is science results not prediction”
Interesting. Got something that shows this relationship?
The UK locked down before NZ, so I assume you have another measure of early?
Pink David
/ 13th May 2020Just in a microcosm,
New York, lockdown 20 March 2020, 21,850 deaths.
California, lockdown 19 March 2020. 2,770 deaths.
You must be right.
Griff.
/ 14th May 2020What counted is the number of cases before lock down not the date .
NZ was proactive and locked down before we had an unmanageable number of vectors out in the community.
Other places waited to long and now have a hard time containing the spread.
Pete George
/ 14th May 2020President Trump versus Doctor Fauci:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-fauci-school-reopenings
I wonder who makes the final decision on anything like that. It may be a state level decision anyway.
Pete George
/ 14th May 2020Trump privately questions whether coronavirus deaths are being overcounted as Fauci projects the opposite
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/13/politics/trump-fauci-coronavirus-deaths/index.html
Us quibbling over how many people can go to a funeral seems minor compared to the differences there.
PM Ardern and Dr Bloomfield are very much on the same page in theior handling of Covid here.