Whitmer to keep pressing White House for more vaccines

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Apr. 11—Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she's going to continue to fight to get more vaccines for Michigan despite President Joe Biden resisting her efforts.

On CBS' "Face The Nation" Sunday, Whitmer said while she plans on working with the White House she's also going to do everything she can to get the people of Michigan more vaccine doses as the state deals with a sharp rise of COVID-19 cases.

"We are seeing a surge because of these variants, and that's precisely why we're really encouraging them to think about surging vaccines into the state of Michigan and I'm going to continue to fight for the people of Michigan," Whitmer said.

During a press conference on Friday, Whitmer confirmed that she had asked Biden to send more vaccine doses to Michigan, particularly the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot.

In a call with Whitmer late Thursday, Biden outlined that Washington is providing Michigan with more federal resources to support vaccinations, testing and therapeutics, but not vaccines, in an effort to control the state's worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 transmission rate.

Whitmer said she understands that the White House is committed to its plan but she's going to keep pushing for more vaccinations in the state.

"We are definitely grateful for the boots on the ground, that they're sending the mobile units ... the therapeutics and the increased testing, those are all really important," Whitmer said.

"We're going to continue to work well with this White House ... but I am going to also continue fighting for my state and anyone who's watched what's going on in Michigan over the last year knows that's how I am. I'm going to fight to get everything I can for the help of the people in Michigan."

Earlier Sunday on CNN, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist told host Abby Phillip that the state can "vaccinate our way out of the pandemic" with more vaccine allotments from the federal government.

"What's happening in Michigan can spread through the Midwest, it can spread through the rest of the country, but if we increase rapidly vaccinations coming into the state of Michigan now we can get it out quickly and we can slow this before it spreads to other parts of the country," Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist defended the governor's Friday request, instead of an order, that Michigan schools suspend in-person learning, youth sports suspend activities and people avoid indoor dining for two weeks.

"April 2021 is different from where were a year ago in April 2020," Gilchrist said. "We had a lot of different tools at our disposal to be able to implement those policies to the best extent of our ability to be able to keep the spread down. Those were fought politically tooth and nail here by the Republican Party in the state of Michigan."

"Nevertheless, we still have smart policies in place," he added, noting the state's remaining mask mandate and capacity limits in restaurants.