Here & Now

Governor Tony Evers on Coronavirus and Wisconsin

Frederica Freyberg:

Here at home, today marks the end of the first full week of the mask mandate in Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers’ order requires Wisconsinites to wear masks indoors until the end of September. There are continued signals from Republicans at the State Capitol regarding a legislative challenge to this mandate. This week state health officials reported high activity levels of the virus in 66 out of the state’s 72 counties. Governor Tony Evers joins us again this week. And, governor, thank you so much for being here.

Tony Evers:

Thanks, Frederica. Appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, what are your public health officials telling you about whether or not your mask mandate is yet slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin as we near 1,000 deaths and I understand we are likely to surpass that this weekend.

Tony Evers:

Yeah, what a sad mark on the country and the state. It’s just too much to all take in. But we’ve had good response to the masking, whether it’s been from business leaders or from school people or general public. Obviously, we have people in the state of Wisconsin who are very independent. I’m one of them. But the fact of the matter is masks save lives. Masks slow down the transmission. And at the end of the day, it’s a minor thing for us to do. And so I feel very confident that this is going to be a difference. It’s difficult to point a metric at this point in time, but I’m confident that it is being successful and we’re very hopeful that people do what they need to do. We can slow down the transmission of this virus.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why don’t you think a Republican challenge to your mandate and emergency order has yet materialized?

Tony Evers:

That I don’t know. I mean, first of all, I think it’s horrible public policy for them to do that. And, frankly, I think it’s also horrible politics. The vast majority of people in the state of Wisconsin understand how simple and important this is. And hopefully they’re getting the idea, too. But if they’re insistent on coming in, it would be a huge mistake as it relates to public health.

Frederica Freyberg:

One of the things the GOP warns about, though, is that you will use your order to go ahead and close schools to in-person learning. What would it take for to you do that?

Tony Evers:

Well, first of all, I’ve been working with schools all across the state, talking to them. So there’s no shortage of conversation there. And I’ve been fairly happy with the process they’re using. They’re using some of the information from the Department of Public Instruction, their local public health people. And so it would be just an extraordinary circumstance for me to intervene. Almost every school district I’ve talked to has a virtual and remote option so that if parents or kids feel uncomfortable, they have that option. And I know schools are going to do a better job of that than when they were so rushed in the spring.

Frederica Freyberg:

Would you ever do it, though?

Tony Evers:

I can’t imagine. I mean, you never say never. I mean if our positivity rate goes up to 20% or 30%, obviously that would bring our entire economy to a halt, including schooling. But I think we’re in a place now that it is something that lots of school districts have figured out and I feel good about it. We have kids going to school right now in the state of Wisconsin that are in year-round schooling. So I don’t want to dismiss the problems. There are — it’s — it’s not a risk-free environment. But I think people are being very thoughtful about what it should look like.

Frederica Freyberg:

Toward that end, you have released $32 million to the UW System to conduct testing on campuses. What other help might be coming their way?

Tony Evers:

Well, certainly they’re part of our ecosystem. Whatever we can do to help them. I mean, there’s a limited amount of money that we have to provide to the UW System but we’re in constant collaboration with them, and if they have other needs, we’ll be able to seek — work with them. Contact tracing I think is going to be an issue and I think we can be helpful there, too.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Briefly, because of the coronavirus, as you well know, the Democratic Convention in Milwaukee has all but collapsed. What is your reaction to Joe Biden deciding not to accept his nomination here?

Tony Evers:

Well, it was — not — it was — it was not that it wasn’t expected. Clearly we have a pandemic going on in this country, and so him not being there isn’t the only reason it’s not going to be there. It’s just that a pandemic leads itself to making sure that we have to be as thoughtful as possible. And people were. And so it’s going to be a virtual event. And it will be fine. But it’s not fine in that a pandemic has caused us to — the Milwaukee area would have had a significant economic boost from this. And that is not going to happen. But it’s the wisest thing to do, and so I’m looking forward to doing it in a virtual way.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Governor Tony Evers, thanks so much for joining us.

Tony Evers:

Thanks Frederica.