Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan Talks COVID-19, Floods and Census Response
Mayor Mike Duggan says he will make sure Detroit residents who want to be protected from COVID-19 will be fully protected with third dose of vaccine.
After the FDA authorized additional COVID-19 vaccine doses for the immunocompromised, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced he would offer a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for vulnerable residents. He is encouraging those with compromised immune systems to receive a booster shot of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at the TCF Center.
“I think we have to readjust our focus as a country, for the last few months we’ve been trying to convince the vaccine hesitant … but after six months the strength [of the vaccine] starts to wane a little bit.” –Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan
Duggan also discusses the increasing threat of climate change on the infrastructure of Southeast Michigan, and what Detroit’s low 2020 census response rate will mean for the city.
Listen: Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on climate infrastructure, the census and COVID-19 vaccines.
Guest
Mayor Mike Duggan says immunocompromised residents should get a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to ensure they are protected. “I think we have to readjust our focus as a country, for the last few months we’ve been trying to convince the vaccine hesitant … but after six months the strength [of the vaccine] starts to wane a little bit.” Duggan says the city of Detroit is up to 42% of residents vaccinated but still nowhere near where it needs to be. “[Those who refuse the vaccine] they’re gonna be in hospitals, they’re gonna be on ventilators, people are gonna be attending funerals for those who thought the vaccine was a hoax.”
Duggan says Detroit’s low response rate in the 2020 census was due in part by neglect from the Trump administration, “Last year was the first time the census was done electronically and Detroit and other poor areas had the lowest response rate … Michigan sent door knockers to upstate suburbs … and as they were getting sent to Detroit, the Trump administration ended the count a month early.”
On the region’s aging infrastructure facing more severe weather events this year, Duggan says the city needs updates to its stormwater and electrical systems. “Climate change is affecting people differently throughout the country … we’re living in an area where infrastructure was very well built for the climate of the 20th century … had you had this kind of [weather] 20 years ago, you’d have built different infrastructure.”
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