We know that Wisconsin's Republican leaders, and the rightwing litigants who scour the courts for allied enablers, will not put two-and-two together and embrace simple mask-wearing to save their neighbors and constituents' lives, and perhaps someone living right in their own homes.
But here, regardless of their free-to-be-a-menace recklessness, is the latest science that explains yet again that the rampaging killer virus - and with more than 195,000 cases recorded we'll hit 200,000 cases in less than 48 hours, data suggest - could be stemmed with the simplest of personal behaviors.
If 95% of Americans wore masks in public, more than 100,000 lives could be saved from Covid-19 through February, a new modeling study suggests.
The study -- from the Covid-19 forecasting team at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation -- notes that, in September, only about 49% of US residents reported that they "always" wear a mask in public.
If mask-wearing is 49% through February and states continue with removing social distancing mandates, the Covid-19 death toll across the United States could reach about 1 million deaths by February 28, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Friday.
A data comparison - Wisconsin's surge is producing double the new cases in California where nearly seven times as people many live, and we're also doubling Michigan and Indiana's new case numbers, records show. Why is this not moving GOP Legislators to meet and help?
And, for the record, and despite the ad's many rambling tangents - from a pitch for Vitamin D (a good thing for seniors like me in our sunlight-deprived winters) - to the robotically-Republican/xenophobic-and off-note slam at China - give credit to Glenn Grothman for airing some masked-up images in a TV spot before its last-second reveal.
But don't put your hand in that whole bin...oops...well, too late.
“It may be hard to understand what I’m saying through this mask...” Ah, no, it’s actually not, Glenn. It’s a thin piece of cloth over your mouth, not duct tape. Every second of that ad is dripping with disdain over having to wear that thing for even a moment. It perfectly encapsulates the reason for the raging, ongoing spike in this pandemic: Too many Americans are simply too selfish to be bothered with anything even remotely resembling sacrifice. Thinking about anybody’s needs other than their own. Not doing whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it. So stereotypically American. So quintessentially Republican.
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