Livingston County officials call on state to stop using social factors to determine COVID vaccine distribution
Updated Feb 27, 2021;
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LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MI Livingston County commissioners claim the state of Michigan is distributing COVID-19 vaccines unfairly due to its use of social factors to determine allotment.
The state uses a Social Vulnerability Index, a metric from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to establish a community’s virus risk level based on health and economic factors. But Livingston County officials want the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to stop using this metric, and replace it with a “scientific medical factor based plan” that results in uniform distribution.
Livingston County commissioners criticize using social vulnerability index for COVID-19 vaccines michiganradio.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from michiganradio.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Mike Kruzman & Jon King / news@whmi.com
The Livingston County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution calling on Gov. Whitmer and the state health department to replace the plan currently utilized to determine vaccine allocation.
When the full Board met Monday night to discuss the resolution that came from the General Government Committee last week, it was many of the same players and opinions again protesting and supporting the decision.
County Commissioners are actively challenging the stateâs use of the CDCâs Social Vulnerability Index to determine vaccine allocations. SVI scores and ranks counties on socio-economic factors like household composition, minority status, and transportation. Age is one factor, and 6.25% of the equation. SVI rankings put Livingston County at the bottom of the ladder for vaccines coming into the county. County Commissioners argue that with senior populations being the most at-risk, a plan that takes that in
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Keara Williams, a teacher at Hawkins High School, has already spent time this winter break to reach students in danger of failing her class if they don t make up assignments. She is among teachers setting up online office hours to help their students lift their grades after the district extended its grading policy to give students more time. Photographed in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times/TNS)
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Facing a spike in Fs, winter break isn’t a vacation for many teachers and students [Los Angeles Times :: BC-EDU-PANDEMIC-FAILING-GRADES:LA]
LOS ANGELES – During her winter break, English teacher Keara Williams has hit the phone, making call after call determinedly trying to make contact with her students and their parents.
She needs to reach 28 students, including 11 seniors, who received an “incomplete” grade at the end of the fall semester. She tells them they will fail her class if they don’t complete make-up work to raise their grade to at least a D by the end of January. There is still time to get the work done, do not give up, Williams says. And she lets them know that she is here for them all winter vacation if that’s what it takes to avoid an F.