Friday, October 2, 2020

The day Trump tested positive, WI COVID case count exploded by 3,004

It's definitely a big deal that Trump tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday, Oct. 1.

But in already hard-hit Wisconsin, where, thankfully, Trump's rally plans have been canceled, it should be just as big a story that on the same day Trump's infection became known, national disease hotspot Wisconsin reported a mind-blowing state-record-breaking 3,004 new cases, The New York Times disclosed:

At least 20 new coronavirus deaths and 3,004 new cases were reported in Wisconsin on Oct. 1. Over the past week, there have been an average of 2,490 cases per day, an increase of 68 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

As of Friday afternoon, there have been at least 132,176 cases and 1,358 deaths in Wisconsin since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database. 

That's more than one new positive every 30 seconds. 

Using similar but less severe data, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put it this way:

Wisconsin reports more than 2,700 new coronavirus cases as outbreak continues to lead nation

This while the GOP-led state legislature is approaching 180 days without having created a pandemic prevention plan they claimed was their bi-partisan goal - before abandoning it and later letting surrogates go to court to upend Gov. Evers' effective masking and virus-management orders.

Update - and filing court papers to directly support the litigation:

Republican legislative leaders went to court Friday to show support for a lawsuit against Gov. Tony Evers' statewide mask mandate after more than 17,000 people in Wisconsin tested positive in the last week and some hospitals are on the brink of being overwhelmed. 

The move also came the same day President Donald Trump, who does not wear face masks regularly, tested positive for the coronavirus. 

And while legislators keep collecting full salaries and benefits without addressing or in any way accepting any accountability for the escalating outbreak they and their allies have been enabling since March.

Why is this intentional dereliction of duty in the face of an out-of-control killer epidemic in Wisconsin not a biggest source of outrage here? How is this in anyway acceptable? 


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