Today on Stateside, Wayne State University has a low COVID-19 infection rate among Michigan’s major universities. We talk with the school’s president about how the institution has been keeping case numbers down. Also, an activist discusses the ongoing effort to provide the COVID-19 vaccine to people with disabilities in Michigan. Plus, the co-founder of one homegrown restaurant chain talks reopening at a limited capacity.
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Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
How Wayne State kept its COVID numbers extremely low
- M. Roy Wilson is the president of Wayne State University.
Detroit will now vaccinate people with disabilities, statewide push is underway
- Dessa Cosma is the executive director of Detroit Disability Power.
Stateside reached out to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for response to criticism that the state should be prioritizing more people with disabilities and vulnerability to serious COVID-19 infection. This response came from Lynn Sutfin, public information officer at MDHHS: "The timing of the start of vaccination in a phase is dependent on the supply of vaccine from the manufacturer, how vaccine is allocated from the federal level to Michigan and the capacity to administer the vaccine to populations. Following the statement from the Biden administration that the US can expect 300 million doses by the end of May, we were ready to move to the next phase of eligibility. Michigan is accelerating vaccination of Michiganders age 50 and older with medical conditions or disabilities and caregiver family members and guardians who care for children with special health care needs due to concern around disparity in life expectancy and in an effort to remove barriers to vaccine access. Recognizing the recent update to the federal plan to increase production of the vaccine MDHHS is in active discussions finalizing our plan and will announce the next round of eligibility in the near future."
Introducing Minutes, a new tool to keep track of local government in Michigan
- Dustin Dwyer is a reporter for Michigan Radio.
Restaurants are now at half capacity. Is it enough to keep them open?
- Ari Weinzweig is the co-founder of Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor.
