Harsh NY Times COVID-19 column has WI echos

The US COVID-19 death mark will hit 135,000 this week as total known cases surpass 3.3 million, CDC data will show.

Wisconsin's toll exceeds 40,000 cases and the death count stands at 828, data show.

1:00 p.m. update: New York State, wise to what recklessness is afoot here, had added Wisconsin to its list of states whose visitors must let New York know they're flying in, abide by a 14-day mandatory quarantine and pay heavy fines if they break New York's effective COVID-19 controls.

Horrible, unimaginable and infuriating, which is why The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman posted a tough read on how we got there and the terrible consequences lie ahead:

Americans drank away it's children's future

...many states not only rushed to reopen, they reopened stupidly. Instead of being treated as a cheap, effective way to fight contagion, face masks became a front in the culture war. Activities that posed an obvious risk of feeding the pandemic went unchecked: Large gatherings were permitted, bars reopened.

And the cost of those parties and open bars extends beyond the thousands of Americans who will be killed or suffer permanent health damage as a result of Covid-19’s resurgence. The botched reopening has also endangered something that, unlike drinking in groups, can’t be suspended without doing long-run damage: in-person education. 

It didn't get a lot of attention, but the record shows the Tavern League of Wisconsin filed a brief to support Vos and Fitzgerald's petition on which conservatives on the State Supreme Court ruled favorably.

WI GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in his 'incredibly safe to go outside' April election day get-up. Today's version would be 'everyone's on their own.'

The reopened bars was big news in Wisconsin and neighboring Illinois, where shutdown rules remained.

More here:

Wisconsin's attack on COVID is supremely screwed up

Also screwed up: planning for the school year and rules about masks, all lacking uniformity in the Badger State because the GOP legislators' court 'win' intentionally hamstrung the Governor's ability to take charge and stay a statewide course.

Urban Milwaukee's Bruce Murphy got it right almost two months ago:

Why Vos, Fitzgerald Refused to Lead

They took away Gov. Evers’ power to oversee pandemic and then did nothing. Why?

Because Evers had been too successful. As Urban Milwaukee has reported, Wisconsin had the lowest rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita in the Midwest and lower than most states in America. Meanwhile the growth in cases in Wisconsin was increasing at a slower rate than every state save Michigan in the Midwest — and Michigan was following similar policies to Wisconsin.  

And as Urban Milwaukee shows right now, the reality bodes badly:

COVID-19 Early Indicators Are “Very Troubling”

Medical College of Wisconsin CEO warns of accelerating spread of COVID-19. Positive case rate has increased for 25 days.