CDC Director Calls on Michigan to Shutter Amid Covid Surge: ‘The Answer’ is ‘To Really Close Things Down’

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky advised Michigan on Monday “to close things down” in response to Covid-19 cases spreading in the state as she emphasized the Biden administration would not be sending it extra vaccines.

“When you have an acute situation, an extraordinary number of cases like we have in Michigan, the answer is not necessarily to give vaccines — in fact, we know the vaccine will have a delayed response,” Walensky said in response to a reporter’s question at a Monday briefing. “The answer to that is really to close things down, to go back to our basics, to go back to where we were last spring, last summer, and to shut things down, to flatten the curve, to decrease contact with one another, to test to the extent that we have available, to contact trace.”

Michigan has some of strictest regulations related to Covid-19 in place among Midwestern states. A statewide mandate requires residents to wear face masks whenever they’re around people living in different homes, while restaurants and bars are required to shut down at 11 p.m. each day. New cases of the virus have nonetheless surged by roughly 60 percent over the last two weeks, leading Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to call on the feds to provide a greater supply of vaccines.

“Really, what we need to do in those situations is shut things down,” Walensky added. “I think if we try to vaccine our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work, to actually have the impact. Similarly, we need that vaccine in other places.”

Watch above via the White House.

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