Here & Now

Governor Tony Evers Talks Pandemic, George Floyd

Frederica Freyberg:

Each week, since the pandemic started in mid-march, we have checked in with Governor Tony Evers to get the newest information on the state’s response to COVID-19. I talked with Governor Evers earlier today as we read into another summer weekend. But first, we began with his reaction to the death of George Floyd, who was killed when a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck. That officer has now been charged with murder. And, governor, thank you very much for being here again.

Tony Evers:

Thank you. Thanks, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, you put out an impassioned statement today on the death of George Floyd saying this was not an anomaly and with it we relive the pain of the death of black Wisconsinites like Dontre Hamilton. You say that we must see the trauma, fear, and exhaustion of being black in our state and our country. My question to you is, and then what?

Tony Evers:

Well, it is– it’s a personal statement that I had there, but as a state and as a nation, we do have to grapple with the issue of racism and how issues are dealt with disproportionately. Whether it’s issues around the pandemic or issues about whether people walk away from an incident with police officers and live. And so it is– it is time for all of us to reflect on that and make sure that our hearts are in the right place. Obviously, there’s policies that we can look at to change things, but at the end of the day, the change has to happen internally and I’m just– it’s such a depressing situation. But we can rise above it. But we have to address it.

Frederica Freyberg:

There was protest in Milwaukee this afternoon, the title of which was “No more being stood on; we can’t breathe.” Milwaukee, as you know, suffers some of the worst inequalities in the nation. Are these conditions urgent for you, a public emergency of sorts?

Tony Evers:

Yeah, absolutely. I had a chance to talk to several leaders in the Milwaukee community, including elected officials, but also community leaders today, and clearly this is something that we all take seriously. We just– you know, it’s always easy once we’re a week or two out from this to say– to not think about it. But this is a watershed motion for– time for our state and for our nation. I’m very hopeful that we can take a look at racism, how it impacts people’s lives and how issues around disproportionate health care outcomes affect certain people differently, certainly people of color differently, and economically, housing, you name it. There’s a disproportionationality, frankly, on all issues that face us. And so, yes, it is going to be an ongoing issue that we need to talk about.

Frederica Freyberg:

As if to mirror the disparities of which you speak in Milwaukee, COVID-19 numbers and deaths there are disproportionately affecting African-Americans and Hispanics. And now the state reopens. Today we see that there were 733 new COVID-19 cases and 18 new fatalities. Your comment on those numbers?

Tony Evers:

Well, they’re high, obviously. And we’re testing more, so that does play a role in this. But at the end of the day, we need to continue to do the really important things, you know, social distancing, making sure we’re six feet ahead, making sure our hands are clean, wear a mask. All those things are important. And we need to keep emphasizing that. Clearly– but I want to cycle back. This issue does impact people of color in a really extraordinarily different way and a negative way. And if– as a state, if we don’t state to take on that issue seriously– you know, I’ll just go back to something I worked on last year around our budget with Medicaid expansion. We could have had– we could have had resources to deal with those disproportionate health outcomes. Instead of having it be shown up again in this pandemic, we could be working on it right now. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the legislature to think through that.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think in the midst of all of this when you see crowds of people as summer breaks here not wearing masks and not social distancing?

Tony Evers:

I understand being cooped up. That isn’t anything anybody likes. But if we are going to go out, we do need to do the things that are important. It disappointments me when it does happen, when I see pictures of that, that people are congregating right next to each other without masks. That doesn’t work. The virus doesn’t really care about you being cooped up in your house. It’s going to infect you. And so we just have to keep reminding people. I think our business leaders for the most part do believe that these things are important and they’re implementing those things in their places of work. But it’s outside of that realm that scares me.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Governor Evers, we leave it there. Thank you very much for your information and comment today.