This time of year, Michiganders are used to feeling a sense of relief.

Can you tell me about like springtime in Michigan?

Let me talk about winter first, then I'll talk about spring.

Abdul al-Sayyad is a lifelong Michigander lives in Ann Arbor.

The worst month of winter is February.

February is so oppressively cold.

I mean, it's the kind of thing where you go out and if your hair is wet, it freezes.

You know, your fingers start to tingle at the end because it's so oppressively cold.

It doesn't get any brighter than just white sky. You get the picture here. And after you've put in the work of the

winter, it just feels like you've earned your spring. Abdul is an epidemiologist. He ran the

Detroit Health Department a few years back.

He says this year, when COVID rates started to fall, and more and more vaccines started

to be available, it felt like the folks here had earned their spring in more ways than

one.

I'm not going to lie.

In early March, I felt really good about everything I was hearing and seeing.

Spring was on its way. We had a couple of really nice days, and it felt really good.

And I think when things started to level off in a real way and then tick upward, that's when my feeling of optimism started to fade a little bit.

If you pull out the list of metro areas where COVID is at its worst right now.

13 of the top 20 towns are in Michigan.

Jackson, Detroit, Flint.

That curve we keep talking about flattening.

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