Despite the impressive progress in COVID vaccinations across the country, cases and hospitalization rates are stubbornly rising again in many states. But one state in particular has been leading the new surge: Michigan. The Great Lakes state has been reporting
thousands of new infections per day, and
hospitals are nearing capacity again. Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan asked the Biden administration for more vaccine supplies but
was rebuffed, with the government saying vaccination is not the answer to an acute surge. Now case numbers are starting to climb in several other states, including Minnesota and Pennsylvania. But what is going on in Michigan?
Benjamin Stix is an anesthesia critical care medicine fellow at the University of Michigan.* He treated patients in New York City during its disastrous first wave of COVID last spring, and he is currently doing so in Ann Arbor, Mich. Scientific American spoke with Stix about what conditions are like in Michigan right now, what kinds of patients he is seeing—and whether the surge is a harbinger for the rest of the country.
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