Saturday, May 30, 2020

WI Covid-19 deaths, hospitalizations jump after GOP's Supreme Court win

The Journal Sentinel puts it this way
Twenty people were added to the state's official count of COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, continuing an uptick that began Wednesday and which comes as the state appears to be bucking a national trend toward decreased hospitalizations. 
All told, 588 people have died of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. Of those, 71 deaths were announced in the past four days, marking a 14% increase. Just 64 total deaths were announced in the previous 10 days.    
Here are three other trends which Wisconsin's right-wing Republican legislator/litigator complex decided to buck 17 days ago: 

1) State history, and 2), placing decisions about 'safer-at-home' requirements and schedules during public health emergencies in the hands of the Governor - elected statewide - and who is advised by health-care professionals:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has struck down Gov. Tony Evers' order shutting down daily life to limit the spread of coronavirus — marking the first time a statewide order of its kind has been knocked down by a court of last resort. 
And 3), the widespread reticence of other courts to jump on the Wisconsin Supreme Court's reckless bandwagon:
There have been legal challenges to stay-at-home orders in MichiganCaliforniaKentucky and Illinois, but none of those were successful in persuading a court to fully strike down the order, as the plaintiffs in the Wisconsin case were.
Who knew they kept white doctors' coats hanging in their closets next to their traditional black robes.
WI Chief Justice Patience Roggensack wrote the 4-3 majority opinion re-opening Wisconsin without a statewide Covid-19 prevention plan in place. Her colleague Justice Rebecca Bradley called the original order tyrannical, while Justice Daniel Kelly said it treated citizens like prisoners.
You can call the jump in hospitalizations and deaths coincidental to the GOP's Supreme Court win, or you can call it a consequence. Covid-19 symptoms usually present within 2-14 days of exposure, and the Court knocked out Evers' order 17 days ago.

Perhaps Wisconsin's winning GOP legislator/litigators Fitzgerald and Vos could be asked for their opinion.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Vicious Pat Roggensack fits right in with the Zombie Apocalypse. She's just what Wisconsin Manufacturing & Commerce ordered.