LANSING Michigan’s former health director said Thursday that he resigned in January after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told him it was “time to go in a new direction,” telling lawmakers he was comfortable signing an order to relax COVID-19 restrictions despite having had a different opinion than the governor.
Robert Gordon’s statement confirmed what Whitmer’s office had refused to say publicly despite his controversial $155,000 severance deal that he was ousted after two years on the job. Gordon, with the governor’s support, tightened and eased coronavirus restrictions in the fall and winter after the state Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law that underpinned her orders.
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Michigan Governor s Office
Robert Gordon quit as Michigan health director in January on the same day he signed an order allowing restaurants to reopen for indoor dining after a monthslong shutdown following a resurgence of COVID-19.
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THE NEWS: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday announced a plan to tie the lifting of coronavirus pandemic restrictions to Michigan s vaccination rate, meaning in-office work restrictions are likely to ease before the end of May. Under the MI Vacc to Normal plan, all workers can go to their office two weeks after at least 55 percent of the 16-plus population has one shot a rate state officials expect to reach by the end of this week, meaning this first step could be reached before the end of May. After a 70 percent vaccination rate, or approximately 5.67 million adults, the state health department s broad gatherings and face mask orde
Elkan Abramowitz, who is representing Cuomo s office, said the administration was hesitant to release the numbers because they were unsure if they were reliable. The chamber was never satisfied that the numbers that they were getting from DOH were accurate, Abramowitz told the Times.
The Times also highlighted a Health Department report that was allegedly rewritten by Cuomo senior advisers a number of times. The final draft of that report insisted that admissions coming from hospitals were not a driver of nursing home infections or fatalities, instead saying that staff were the likely cause of spreading infections.
However, a previous draft included a section that put the number of nursing home residents at more than 9,700, which was much higher than the administration was saying at the time, the report said. It also stated that about 35 percent of deaths in the state were nursing home residents but the report released to the public was changed to say 21 percent.
Robert Gordon resigned as head of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in January.
LANSING Michigan s former health director said Thursday that he resigned in January after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told him it was time to go in a new direction.
Robert Gordon s statement to a legislative committee confirmed what the governor s office had refused to say publicly despite his $155,000 severance deal: that he was ousted after two years on the job.
Gordon, with Whitmer s support, issued COVID-19 restrictions in the fall and winter after the state Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law that underpinned her orders.
Gordon said he joined a video conference call on Jan. 22 with the governor and members of her staff.