The only way Michigan can get its COVID-19 surge under control in the short-term is by shutting down completely, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a Monday press briefing. The state continues to battle the worst COVID spread in the nation at present, but Walensky said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s request for additional vaccine doses wouldn’t produce results for another six weeks.

“So when you have an acute situation, an extraordinary number of cases like we have in Michigan, the answer is not necessarily to give vaccine,” Walensky explained. “In fact, we know that the vaccine will have a delayed response. The answer to that is to really close things down, to go back to our basics, to go back to where we were last spring, last summer, and to shut things down, to flatten the curve, to decrease contact with one another, to test to the extent that we have available, to contact trace...I think if we tried to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work, to actually have the impact. Similarly, we need that vaccine in other places. If we vaccinate today, we will have, you know, impact in six weeks, and we don’t know where the next place is going to be that is going to surge.”