Michigan has a big problem. The virus is surging and the people are just “done” with trying to prevent it.
Michigan’s Thumb region is the hottest of U.S. hot spots for coronavirus right now.
But at Mark’s Barbershop in the small downtown of Sandusky, masks are optional.
“Just so you know, you don’t have to wear that if you don’t want to,” owner Mark Heberling says as a masked visitor walks through door.
Across the street at the Downtown Deli, an sign at the entry says: “If we see you without a mask, we will assume you have a medical condition and we will welcome inside.”
The same philosophy holds true down the road at the Sandusky Family Diner, a former Big Boy that had its franchise terminated after violating state’s the indoor dining ban in November.
“I didn’t sign up to be the mask police,” says restaurant owner Troy Tank, as a handful of maskless employees clean up after the lunch rush. Tank casually mentions one worker is home quarantining after a positive COVID test.
Past the diner is the Sandusky Walmart, where mask use has been “50/50,” Tank says. After a coronavirus outbreak among workers, the Walmart was closed for part of the day Monday and all day Tuesday for deep cleaning.
Sandusky, population 2,500, is the county seat of Sanilac County, 40 miles north of Port Huron and in the heart of the Thumb, a region known for its expansive Lake Huron shorelines, its rolling farmlands and its friendly small towns.
In recent weeks, it’s also become known for its coronavirus rates.
On Friday, five of the nation’s top 15 counties in per-capita coronavirus cases were in Michigan’s Thumb — St. Clair, Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola and Lapeer.
Collectively, the five counties have reported 3,167 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the past seven days, a per capita daily rate of 1,216 cases per million residents — six times the national average and eight times the benchmark for the state’s highest risk level of 150 cases per million residents.
The region also has an eye-popping 32% positivity rate as a seven-day on coronavirus diagnostic tests, more than six times the level considered safe.
“These communities are literally on fire,” said Dr. Mark Hamed, public medical director for Lapeer, Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola counties.
Ask the region’s health experts for the reasons behind the spike, they point to multiple factors.
Compared to the rest of Michigan, the Thumb was less impacted by previous surges, which meant fewer people had natural immunity coming into the spring. The area appears to be hard-hit by the new B.1.1.7. variant which is much more contagious and also more lethal. Restrictions implemented in November have been eased, increasing social interactions.
And fanning the flames is widespread resistance among local residents to coronavirus mitigation strategies such as masking and avoiding indoor gatherings, said Bryant Wilke, Sanilac County public health director.
“There’s been a defiance towards masks,” Wilke said, “and I think it was because it got so political at the beginning of the pandemic. People said, ‘We don’t trust this. We never had to do it before,’ even through its been proven that it is a protective factor. People haven’t gotten over the hump to say, ‘We need to do this,’ and now we’re seeing the causation of not doing it and that’s the skyrocketing numbers in cases.
“I compare us to a potential wildfire,” Wilke said. “You’ve got fuel out there and the virus hadn’t hit us that bad yet. Now it’s hitting us and we’re dealing with the U.K. variant, and it’s just moving through the population rapidly.”
At the same time, Thumb residents — like many in Michigan — are thoroughly sick of more than a year of various coronavirus restrictions. They are ready to move on, whether the pandemic is over or not.
“We’re just f—– done with it,” Heberling said.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Tank said, people were “scared enough about the virus” to pay attention to emergency orders issued by the state.
But people have moved beyond that now, he said. “They’ve had it.”
Joseph Schlichting, 29-year-old who grew up in Sanilac County and moved back just before the pandemic, He said he’s not surprised that the Thumb has become an epicenter for coronavirus.
“Some people who took the restrictions seriously saw the numbers go down, so they stopped working with the restrictions,” he said. “But I think there’s a large group of people who just never followed the rules from Day 1.
“It’s been kind of eye-opening to see people that you’ve known all your life, people you would think would take this kind of risks seriously or take precautions seriously, but they don’t or seem to just flat out think it’s a lie.”
The politics of COVID
Fueling the attitude around the pandemic are the region’s political leanings. In the November election, 72% of voters in Sanilac County cast their ballots for Donald Trump, one of the highest percentages in the state. In the five-county Thumb region, it was 67%.
Trump’s popularity in the region certainly didn’t help with public health messaging around COVID-19, considering the former president’s skepticism of the masks and the seriousness of the pandemic in general, Hamed said.
“It created mixed messages that muddied the waters for a lot of rural Michigan” where Trump is revered, Hamed said.
No question, echoes of Trump’s talking points about the pandemic are apparent in talking to his supporters about the pandemic. That said, the rhetoric of conservatives has shifted over time. A year ago, some were suggesting the pandemic was a hoax, something no more harmful than seasonal flu. Today, skeptics are less likely to offer that argument.
“I definitely don’t think it’s a hoax,” Tank said. “I do think the virus is real. I know people who have had it. I know people who have gotten very sick from it. My father got it, and he was very sick. My brother, who’s a couple years younger than me, relatively healthy guy in his 30s, had it quite bad.”
But Tank is among those who question whether the mitigation strategies have made any difference.
“We all just need to live our lives,” he said. “My opinion is that you’ve either had coronavirus or you’re going to get it.”
He points to states such as Florida that have far less restrictions than Michigan and currently lower caseloads. In his reading on the topic, he said, it appears that coronavirus particles are too small to be contained by cloth masks. He’s highly skeptical that indoor dining contributes to coronavirus transmission rates. The vaccine “makes him a little nervous” and he questions whether it really works.
Part of the problem is that the state is run by a power-hungry harpy, of course.
And then there is the monumental ignorance about the world works:
Tank said he greatly resents what he feels is government overreach. He sees Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as “extremely power hungry” who is just using the pandemic as an excuse to be an authoritative leader. He especially doesn’t trust government officials after a November election that Tank is convinced was stolen from Trump.
Another thing that’s fueled his skepticism, he said, is the changing advisories from the federal Centers for Disease Control.
“One day, a mask is great, and the next day, it’s not great. One day, you should be six feet apart. The next day, it’s three feet,” he said. “They’re just all over the map. So when the people who are supposed to be the professionals are so unclear, that kind of leaves enough doubt in my mind to where I’m just going do what I feel is best for me and my family.
“We’re strong. We’re healthy. We take care of ourselves and do the proper things that I think prevents us from getting sick,” he said.
On a mirror in Heberling’s barbershop is a sticker that reads “MI COVID POW.”
He’s scornful of lockdowns and mask use, saying keeping people indoors and masked has hurt their immune systems. “You need fresh air in your lungs every day,” he said. And people “are constantly touching their masks, so they’re transporting bacteria to the next thing they touch.”
Heberling also thinks the United States has ignored medications such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as coronavirus treatments. “I think there are medications out there if used early on could have greatly decreased the number of cases,” he said.
The article goes on and on, getting more depressing with each word. I came away wondering how we can live in this world with people who don’t understand how science works, are politically brainwashed or, in most cases, both. I know we’re supposed to have empathy and try to understand the factors that made these people like this but I’ve run out of it. Over half a million people died in one year because of this and they still refuse to see the seriousness of it. What would it take?
Update: Jonathan Cohn has a comprehensive look at what’s happening in Michigan and why. It’s not reassuring.