COVID-19 crisis exposes fault-lines

When Gary Fowler developed breathing problems in late March, he went to three Detroit hospitals seeking treatment for COVID-19. But they turned him away, his stepson Keith Gambrell said, telling the 56-year-old security company supervisor to take care of himself at home. Mr. Fowler’s condition ultimately got so bad that he could not lie down, and took to sleeping in an armchair in his bedroom. He died there on the morning of April 7.

“He couldn’t breathe and they barely looked at him,” Mr. Gambrell said in an interview. “They’re sending people to go home to die.”

Coronavirus is hitting Michigan hard: Its 3,800 deaths are the third-most in the country, behind only New York and New Jersey, and the crisis is casting a harsh glare on the state’s racial and class divides. African-Americans, including Mr. Fowler, account for 40 per cent of deaths but only 14 per cent of the population. The outbreak is centred on Detroit, the country’s largest city with a black-majority population, and one of its poorest.

The pandemic’s politics are also particularly caustic in the state. Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has faced opposition to her stay-at-home order from the Republican-controlled legislature and the local business lobby. Right-wing groups, including some connected to President Donald Trump’s circle, have organized furious protests at the state capitol in Lansing, at which demonstrators have waved Confederate battle flags and carried semi-automatic rifles.

This week, legislators voted to roll back Ms. Whitmer’s authority to fight the pandemic, a move the Governor vowed to veto. Anti-shutdown protesters tried to storm the floor of the House chamber, and were held back by police. Several brought guns into the public gallery overlooking the Senate. On the lawn of the building, demonstrators held signs reading “tyrants get the rope” and describing Ms. Whitmer as a “witch.”

Senator Dayna Polehanki, a Democrat, said the protests were a deliberate effort to tarnish the Governor for Mr. Trump’s benefit. Ms. Whitmer is a vice-presidential prospect, and Michigan a must-win swing state in November; the President’s 11,000-vote victory there was key to his 2016 election.

“It’s coming from the top. I think people see that she’s extremely popular, and most people are following her orders,” Ms. Polehanki said.

One group opposing the stay-at-home order, the Michigan Freedom Fund, is partly financed by the family of Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s Secretary of Education. Another, the Michigan Conservative Coalition, is run by Meshawn Maddock, an adviser to the President’s re-election campaign.

A Navigator poll this week found 65 per cent of respondents approved of Ms. Whitmer’s handling of the pandemic, compared with just 43 per cent who said the same for Mr. Trump.

Ashley Phibbs of Michigan United for Liberty, one of the organizers of this week’s protest, said she believed that ordering people to stay home would cause more problems than the pandemic.

“A lot of people are still scared right now. They don’t even want to leave their house at all, they don’t want to go outside for a walk, and that hurts your immune system,” she said.

Asked if her group believed it was appropriate for protesters to brandish Confederate flags and reference hanging, Ms. Phibbs said, “No, we do not,” but that “we do, however, support their right to exercise their inherent rights.”

Mr. Gambrell said such symbolism was not coincidental.

“As soon as the news said the coronavirus is mostly hitting black and brown people, everyone else wanted to open the country back up,” he said. “What does the Confederate flag have to do with you not being able to go golfing or go to the store? What does the AR-15 [rifle] have anything to do with the economy?”

Jamon Jordan said his 66-year-old mother, Jacquelynne Jordan, couldn’t get a coronavirus test in March, despite having diabetes and high blood pressure. When she called the hospital, he said, they advised her to self-quarantine at home. She died four days later.

“This is a failure all over the country, but a more severe failure in large, predominantly black cities like Detroit,” said Mr. Jordan, who runs African-American history tours of the city. “There is almost an acceptance of black sickness.”

Despite this dire picture, some business groups are lobbying for physical-distancing measures to be lifted or loosened.

Rich Studley, chief executive officer of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, argued that Ms. Whitmer’s stay-at-home order should exempt factories and construction sites that can put physical-distancing measures in place. Michigan residents, he said, could be trusted to take precautions voluntarily.

“The Governor’s onerous statewide lockdown order has thrown hundreds of thousands of Michiganders out of work unnecessarily,” he said. “Do you have confidence in Michigan residents to exercise good judgment … or do you lack confidence in everyday folks?”

Some of the state’s iconic manufacturers, meanwhile, are biding their time by transforming assembly lines to produce medical equipment. General Motors, for instance, has made nearly a million surgical masks at a transmission plant north of Detroit. About 120 GM employees are working on the project.

Monte Duran, a GM spokesman, said the company has no firm idea of when normal production could return.

“On one hand, you want to resume production, and we all would like to get back to work,” he said. “On the other hand, we absolutely do not want to do it too soon.”

Also an open question is how all of this will play out politically.

Jenna Bednar, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, said Ms. Whitmer’s refusal to bend to the protests could help her standing by making her look decisive. But voters outside of the Detroit area could look negatively on her party if they believe she overreacted to the crisis.

“In South-East Michigan, people are questioning where the federal government is at in all of this,” Prof. Bednar said. “In the rest of the state, they’re waiting for the economy to reopen.”

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Edited By Harry Miller