Udow-Phillips in MLive: Where we need to take COVID-19 interventions to protect vulnerable populations
Marianne Udow-Phillips, founding executive director of the Center for Health and Research Transformation (CHRT), spoke with Julie Mack at MLive about where we need to create COVID-19 interventions to protect vulnerable populations.
“By multiple measures, COVID-19 has been particularly deadly in Michigan,” writes Mack in an MLive story that examines the causes. Mack reports that “Michigan’s death count equates to almost 10% of the state’s confirmed cases. That’s the highest percentage in the country.”
Looking at why Michigan has such a high coronavirus death rate is “really quite important, so we can have the best-informed strategy” going forward, Udow-Phillips tells Mack, though she cautions that “there’s a problem with some comparisons between states because some states are not reporting accurately” or in a timely manner.
“A large percentage of deaths are in congregate living settings such as nursing homes and a large percentage are occurring in African-American populations,” Udow-Phillips says. “That informs us on where we need to take interventions; we need to do more to protect those populations, in particular.”