Whitmer Administration Officials Head to the Beach as Michigan COVID Numbers Climb

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s request for more vaccines from the Federal Government was shot down by Biden administration health officials, but a report in the Washington Post said state health officials may have dropped the ball on ordering as many as 360,000 available vaccines.  This, while two of Michigan’s top health official was spending Spring Break down on the Gulf of Mexico.

Michigan leads the nation in new COVID-19 cases with a record number of children hospitalized, but Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Director, Elizabeth Hertel traveled to Gulf Shores, Alabama with her immediate family, according to MIRS News.

A release from the Michigan GOP points out that news of Hertel’s vacation comes just days after another top Whitmer aid, responsible for the state’s vaccine distribution, vacationed to Florida last week. Breitbart reported that Tricia Foster not only made the trip to Florida and posted about it on Facebook, but she inadvertently revealed that a family member contracted COVID-19 yet she still got an airplane with family and friends, putting other people at risk.  Posts of screen shots of her vacation at Siesta Key near Tampa were removed, but not before many took note.

In an article in the Detroit News, Whitmer’s press secretary Bobby Leddy lashed out at Breitbart News for reporting on the Trish Foster vacation.  Leddy didn’t refute the Breitbart report but said, “This is a partisan attack from a garbage white nationalist website.”

The GOP release says Hertel and Foster have remained silent on revelations of the vacations, indicating the intention to keep it a secret, and asks the question, “How did the vacation travel of top staffers impact the Whitmer Administration’s failure to secure over 360,000 vaccines that were originally meant for the state?”

Get our free mobile app

As for the unordered vaccines, Leddy said the Washington Post received a single-day “snapshot” and that the requests were in the works.  He also indicated that Michigan was offered 347,000 doses, and not 360,000.  Michigan’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, said she met with the White House team and concluded that they agree that Michigan is “ordering all of the vaccines that are available to us.”

The big question for many in Michigan is simple.   With COVID numbers shooting up in the state, are residents confident that the Whitmer Administration has all hands on deck?