Here & Now

Here & Now for February 5, 2021

Announcer:

The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Joe Parisi:

Public health has been busy coordinating city, county and state resources, making sure we were ready in the event this virus presented here. Given what we have seen in other parts of the globe, it’s reasonable to assume today’s news will not be the last positive case we hear about in our region.

Frederica Freyberg:

It was one year ago that Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced the first positive case of coronavirus in Wisconsin. At the time, it was among only 12 total cases in the U.S. Over a half million more Wisconsin cases followed, as well as nearly 6,000 lives lost. The grim anniversary gives way to hope in the form of vaccinations, shots in the arm that were hard to imagine even just months ago.

I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” Interim State Health Secretary Karen Timberlake is here with guidance on how to schedule vaccinations. A new study shows very little transmission of the coronavirus in Wood County schools. Later, the politics of the pandemic. Senior Political Reporter Zac Schultz has the latest on a burst of activity today at the state Capitol. And we will hear from Madison’s new Chief of Police Shon Barnes. It’s “Here & Now” for February 5.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Tony Evers:

That’s why today we will be issuing a new public health emergency, an order requiring face coverings in public places. Our fight against this virus isn’t over. It’s not going away, especially as we see mutations of this virus in our state and others.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Tony Evers immediately reinstates the statewide mask mandate after the Legislature voted to get rid of it this week. This afternoon, the majority-Republican Legislature passed its COVID relief bill and Evers made quick work of rejecting it with a veto. We check in with Senior Political Reporter Zac Schultz now for more. Hi, Zac.

Zac Schultz:

Hello, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:

So are the sides standing on principle here or power politics?

Zac Schultz:

Both. I think it depends on which side you’re supporting. Republicans say this is about stopping what they’re interpreting as illegal or unconstitutional orders and putting their proper place in government there. Of course, Governor Evers is saying he’s on behalf of the people and stopping the pandemic and it’s fully within his legal rights. It just depends on which side you’re playing for.

Frederica Freyberg:

Could this mask mandate just become like a ping pong back and forth, eliminate it, reissue it and repeat?

Zac Schultz:

That is until the Wisconsin Supreme Court finally issues their decision. If you remember this isn’t the first time the governor has reissued his emergency and the mask order. He did it a couple times last year. At that time Republicans voiced some concern but they decided not to do anything except go to court and then they hoped the Supreme Court would do their dirty work of killing the mask mandate because they were obviously worried about what it would look like to voters right in front of the election. The court still has not ruled. And so this time Republicans are feeling that urge they need to assert themselves especially to some of their conservative donors and conservative voters who feel like you’re just getting pushed all over by Evers on this.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile now would be about the time for the court to rule, right, after that failed in the Legislature?

Zac Schultz:

Yeah. The court kind of decides on their own on which case on when they’re going to issue that decision. When they take this long, usually there’s a sign they don’t see anything majorly wrong at the moment they need to fix. If you think back to last year when the court shot down the governor’s shutdown orders, they did that immediately and issued their written decision weeks later because they felt it was urgent so step in. They didn’t do that with this order. So that may give us some insight or it could just be it’s taking this long for them to figure out back and forth about what their decision will be but this may be the moment that spurs them in the next week or so to say, no, we really need to step in and issue our choice here.

Frederica Freyberg:

And on this, what are the implications of Governor Evers vetoing the Legislature’s COVID relief bill, which basically Republicans knew he would do?

Zac Schultz:

The biggest issue right now is for those who are about to become unemployed whether they know it or not and that’s because the first week of unemployment under Wisconsin law passed by Scott Walker more than a decade ago says you don’t get paid for that first week. But the federal government under the CARES Act last year said we’ll pay for the first week of unemployment. You just have to instate it. That expired at the end of the year and it expires February 6 for Wisconsin. This bill would have extended that match program from federal dollars. It’s now been reduced to 50% match. But basically that first week of unemployment, about $1.3 million a week for people who are just about to become unemployed. That’s going to be the major pressure point on this decision and how soon something may actually get signed in the future.

Frederica Freyberg:

But both sides were willing to jeopardize that funding.

Zac Schultz:

I think at this point both sides think they can pin the blame on the other pretty reliably according to the people that people them. Republicans say all Governor Evers has to do is sign the bill and he saves all that money and he saves the people. Governor Evers is saying just send me a clean bill like the one that the Senate originally amended and the Assembly was this close to passing and then we can save the people that way. So who knows how long this may play out and at what point it gets really hot for politicians of both stripes.

Frederica Freyberg:

You just mentioned this but the Legislature and the governor had reached agreement on COVID relief legislation with a bill out of the Senate. Then that went out of the door. How does all of this in your mind bode for state budget negotiations?

Zac Schultz:

It doesn’t look good at all. We’ve known for a while that there’s going to be a pressure point here. The last budget before a gubernatorial election is always really touchy and this one is going to be very difficult to get through. Who knows how long it will take. We’ve already seen the new Joint Finance leaders check in and say don’t be pushing anything new, Governor Evers. We’re the reason that the state is in good fiscal shape. Governor Evers has been issuing press releases with all the new ideas he has on how he needs to go big at this moment in the economy for all the people who are suffering.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, you’re rolling up your sleeves to cover that one, too. Zac Schultz, thanks a lot.

Zac Schultz:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

As the political fight wears on over COVID response, the race in Wisconsin to get as many vaccines in arms is in its early stages. So far, according to latest tracking, 143,000 people in the state have completed the two-shot series. Turning back to more reporting from Zac, he met up with a Wisconsin doctor to show us how the vaccine process is working. A process that is, of course, also mired in politics.

Zac Schultz:

It’s Friday and Dr. Matt Anderson is about to find out from the state how many vaccine doses UW Health will receive for the next week.

Matt Anderson:

Those doses tend to show up either sometime on Monday or occasionally on Tuesday.

Zac Schultz:

Between Friday and Monday, they need to confirm appointments with patients.

Matt Anderson:

We’ve got appointments that are on the books for Monday and we’re doing a lot of logistics to balance our supplies and such.

Zac Schultz:

By Monday, the state is asking how many vaccine doses they can distribute the following week.

Matt Anderson:

What we’ll be looking at with that is how many appointments do we have capacity to do in the coming week, you know, and schedule them such and then we’re relaying that to them.

Zac Schultz:

As the shots come in, shots go out and the cycle repeats.

Matt Anderson:

Those shots are getting in and then we’re managing those and getting those put out. So it’s not a lengthy period of time that they’re sitting in the freezer.

Zac Schultz:

Dr. Anderson is the lead physician for the COVID vaccine work stream at UW Health. He says in the last month, they’ve built up their capacity to distribute 5,000 first doses of the vaccine each week. They administer second doses of the vaccine as well, but those are automatically sent out and don’t require a separate request. He soon hopes to have the staff and spacing capacity for 6,000 doses a week.

Matt Anderson:

Really the limiting factor right now is vaccine supply. If we get more vaccine, we will accommodate that by figuring out how the staffing model works.

Zac Schultz:

UW Health’s vaccine supply is determined by Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, which takes orders from vaccinators across the state and then requests that amount from the federal government and the vaccine producers.

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

Right now we just don’t have enough vaccine.

Zac Schultz:

Julie Willems Van Dijk is deputy secretary at DHS. She says the federal government has only been allotting the whole state of Wisconsin around 70,000 first doses a week. But she’s hoping the new Biden administration will soon be able to boost that number.

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

Really vaccine supply is our limiting factor right now, but the good news is we will have this system and we have vaccinators in place for the days when the supply increases.

Zac Schultz:

Dr. Anderson agrees we’ll be in a better position in a couple months. But says right now his biggest frustration is the lack of predictability.

Matt Anderson:

Predictability. I think for us knowing we’re going to get a certain number to find out on Friday what you’re getting for Monday is not ideal. We recognize that there are state limitations there with the guidance they’re getting from the federal government.

Robin Vos:

Wisconsin’s vaccine roll-out has been a national embarrassment.

Zac Schultz:

Republicans in the Legislature say the blame for all of this falls on Governor Tony Evers. The Assembly passed a bill that requires DHS to submit their plans for vaccination to legislative committees and expand eligibility for the shots to anyone above age 60. Currently vaccinators are working with people above age 65.

Robin Vos:

Here we are in Wisconsin, where if you ask the average citizen, they have no idea what our plan is, they have no idea when they can get a vaccine and they have no idea besides calling their local hospital frantically how they can get access to the vaccine.

Zac Schultz:

Of course, DHS does have vaccine plans which are available to the public. Democrats say it’s ironic Republicans are criticizing the governor about vaccines at the same time they’re eliminating his mask mandate. They say Republicans are just trying to blame Governor Evers for a supply problem that stems from the Trump administration.

Gordon Hintz:

Eligibility is not the same as availability. If I say we only have 70,000 vaccines made available to us each week because there wasn’t a plan, because there aren’t enough vaccines and we know that we have 700,000 people over the age of 65. I think everybody can do the math.

Zac Schultz:

Republicans are basing their claim of ineptitude off a CDC website which tracks the number and percentage of vaccines each state has distributed. For a time, Wisconsin ranked near the bottom of the country. DHS says that was largely a reporting error, with the CDC website comparing three-day-old Wisconsin numbers to current numbers from other states.

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

I really caution people about these comparisons on different sites that they may not be apple-to-apple comparisons.

Zac Schultz:

Another issue in the early days of vaccine distribution was many of Wisconsin’s doses were being sent to Walgreens and CVS drug stores, who were responsible for vaccinating people in skilled nursing facilities.

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

We have a lot of facilities in this group and a lot more than a lot of other states and CVS and Walgreens are finding that out as they go to schedule people.

Zac Schultz:

Some states like West Virginia used local pharmacies for that program and found themselves at the top of the CDC’s list.

Matt Anderson:

I think the West Virginia’s model, from my understanding of it, really gets to that simplicity factor of simplicity, centralization.

Zac Schultz:

Dr. Anderson says you can compare the early days of vaccine distribution to the early days of COVID testing. A year ago, tests were hard to come by. But within a few months a number of different tests were available. With new vaccines coming online and production ramping up, Dr. Anderson says we’ll be in a better place by spring.

Matt Anderson:

I would be very hopeful we’ll be in a much different place when we talk about late March, April, into there.

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:

The person newly in charge of managing COVID-19 response in Wisconsin, including vaccine distribution, is Interim Secretary of the Department of Health Services Karen Timberlake. She takes over from Andrea Palm who left for the Biden administration. Secretary Timberlake served in the same role under Governor Jim Doyle. She joins us now and thanks very much for being here.

Karen Timberlake:

You’re very welcome.

Frederica Freyberg:

Same role, different times. How different is this going to be?

Karen Timberlake:

Very different times. You know, certainly here at the Department of Health Services we’ve always been committed to protecting and promoting the health and safety of the people of Wisconsin. But that mission has never been more meaningful than right now as we continue to manage our way through this unique COVID-19 pandemic.

Frederica Freyberg:

What are the next concrete steps that you expect to take in Wisconsin’s response to this?

Karen Timberlake:

There really are three top priorities related to the response. The first is to get vaccines into arms of people all across the state of Wisconsin. We have made tremendous progress in that regard. We have given over 700,000 people in our state their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. So that means 12% of our entire state population has received their first dose. The second priority is to continue with all of the preventive measures that we know work: wearing masks, keeping physically distant from people who are not in our immediate household, keeping our hands clean as much as we can. And the third priority is to continue with testing. Testing has sort of fallen a little bit off of everyone’s radar screen as we’ve been focused on the vaccine. But the reality of it is we need to be able to continue to track this disease very carefully. In order to do that, we need people to get tested.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your expectation and hope that the Biden administration will be able to quickly solve issues of vaccine supply and consistency of shipments to Wisconsin so that your agency can offer the same to the vaccinators out there?

Karen Timberlake:

Absolutely. The Biden administration has shown already that they are intending to be a great partner with states. We’ve already seen improvements in communication. We have seen increases in the allocation of vaccine that has come to Wisconsin just in the last several weeks. And beginning this week, we’re able to allow our many vaccinator partners, our hospitals, our clinics, our federally qualified health centers, our pharmacies all across the state to request vaccine for two weeks instead of one week, which I know is a little bit of progress, but it’s just that much more predictability for the people who help us actually administer those shots into arms to save lives all across the state.

Frederica Freyberg:

So that’s on that side. An Appleton Post Crescent reporter this week wrote she has taken more than 100 calls in two days from elderly readers desperate to figure out how to get this vaccine. What do you say to people long since eligible but still stuck not being able to find a vaccine?

Karen Timberlake:

Yeah. We’re right in that place where we know that there are so many people who are interested in getting the COVID vaccine and that’s really important. We want to make sure we connect people to vaccines. We need a couple things to happen in order for that to occur. We need all of our hospitals, public health departments, pharmacies, all those vaccinator partners, we need them to be communicating proactively in their local communities about how best to access the vaccines because honestly it is a little different organization by organization. We also really need to ask people to be patient and to understand that going from zero vaccine on December 13 to now 700,000 plus shots having been given a few short weeks later, it’s an incredible achievement really but it’s something we’re continuing to get better and better at it. And finally what I would say is anyone who has the ability to use the internet should be looking first on the website of their own doctor’s office, their local pharmacy, their local public health department to see what information they can find. If they can’t find the information that way, pick up the phone, but recognize, right, that phone lines get jammed quickly. And the third thing is that as we are able to have more vaccine supply and we are standing up more community vaccination sites, we will also be standing up a registration system on a website that will enable people to find vaccine at those community sites a bit more easily than they’re able to today but again, being able to do that requires more supply than we have.

Frederica Freyberg:

So briefly, the Legislature this week eliminated the mask mandate. The governor immediately turned around, reinstated it. Today the Legislature passed its COVID relief bill. The governor vetoes it. How are the politics of the pandemic in Wisconsin affecting our response?

Karen Timberlake:

I think for us here at the department, we are really focused on continuing to do what we need to do to support this response. So getting vaccine out, supporting the great work of our partners all across the state. I am committed to working with our hospitals, our clinics, all of our partners including our Legislature to make sure we can do to help the people of Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Karen Timberlake, thanks very much.

Karen Timberlake:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

When it comes to community transmission of the coronavirus, in the words of one Wisconsin physician, “Overall schools just really aren’t the problem.” Those words from Wisconsin Rapids pediatrician Dr. Amy Falk. Falk co-authorized a study released by the CDC that backs up her claim. In November 17 Wood County schools were monitored for coronavirus. 191 COVID-19 cases were identified among students and staff members during that time. Only seven cases were connected to in-school spread. Dr. Amy Falk joins us now from Wisconsin Rapids and thanks very much for being here.

Amy Falk:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the upshot of this 13-week study is that it is safe for students and staff to be back in school?

Amy Falk:

I think obviously that’s going to mean something different for every community. The schools around here, the 17 we followed, had a lot of mitigation measures. There was distancing to the best of their ability. There was universal masking. There was increased sanitation and ventilation. I think obviously there’s many schools that are very different from our population. The schools that we’ve been following, some are quite large and are showing that it can be done well.

Frederica Freyberg:

How difficult is it to maintain those kind of mitigation measures within a school setting?

Amy Falk:

I think — I mean, some of the things like masking, the kids have just really — of all ages, kindergarten to 12th grade have really just shown that they are unwavering in their masking ability and patience with that. So I think that’s just become part of their norm. For some of the other things, sanitation measures and those things have been taken financially on by the schools which obviously has been an undertaking. I think overall everyone settled — from what I can gather — everyone settled into this new normal to make it the safest they can.

Frederica Freyberg:

The mitigation also included kind of keeping children in pods, right, as though they were almost little family groups.

Amy Falk:

Yeah. That differed among each of the schools. We really didn’t impose any sort of — we just wanted to help them see what was happening. We really never expected it to get as far as it did but we realized we had something to say. For the elementary, one first grade for example are always kept together. They can’t mix at recess with other first grade classes. They don’t eat lunch other places. Which allows them to kind of be a little closer and not stay with the strict six feet apart. That does mean when one kid in a cohort gets sick with COVID-19, they all go out in quarantine. So you can lose whole classes that way. And the older kids as well, there were many that were in the tight groups.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you spoke to this a little bit, but could those mitigation methods be replicated across the board in all Wisconsin schools, do you think?

Amy Falk:

I think that’s a tough question. You know, interestingly I was speaking with a lot of the principals involved and some of the changes to the HVAC systems are simply just running more cycles before and after school. They’re not changing out whole systems like we’ve seen in other parts of the country to help with fresh air. The sanitation stuff, I think all that’s been pretty well available. So I think the biggest part is the distancing. A lot of schools are really hung up on make sure everybody stays nose-to-nose six feet apart, where there’s many places and some emerging data that that might not be the end all/be all. If you think of mitigation like Swiss cheese is frequently how it’s described where there’s holes with every different thing you do, the masking, the distancing. But if you layer them together, that’s really where you have the most success. So I think that’s the biggest liberalizing piece to look at next.

Frederica Freyberg:

As a pediatrician, how important do you believe it is for children to be back in school or in school?

Amy Falk:

I think it is of utmost important. We’re having just growing data that children depression, anxiety rates are sky-high. I’ve seen that in my own clinic. We know that learning is just not — it’s not the same virtual no matter how great of a family or how many resources they have. It’s just not the same. Kids with special needs are obviously suffering and suicide rates in our country in teens are skyrocketing. I think it is of utmost importance we try to get them back in before other things are liberalized. Things that are equally important to people but I think we need to prioritize children and their ability to maintain a good education and a social structure.

Frederica Freyberg:

With all the mitigation and mandates around them, is it possible that children are actually safer in a school setting than not being in school?

Amy Falk:

I’ve postulated this. I’ve said it multiple times. I think if you can account for somebody’s whereabouts for 36 to 40 hours a week and you know they’re masked, they’re hand washed, they’re fed, they’re with responsible adults, I think that would be superior to sitting at home with larger and larger social groups as parents have to go to work, so they bring their children places. Kids are playing with larger groups perhaps than they would have in the school. In short, I do think kids are safer in school than out.

Frederica Freyberg:

Dr. Amy Falk, thank you very much and thank you for your work.

Amy Falk:

Thank you so much.

Frederica Freyberg:

The city of Madison swore in a new chief of police Monday. Shon Barnes takes the helm of the department after the former chief Mike Koval announced his immediate departure more than a year ago. The new chief says he is energized about the position and takes over during what he calls historically challenging times.

Shon Barnes:

You think about 2020. We’re still in the middle of a global pandemic. We still have American citizens and community members and visitors who are in our country dying every day from this virus that we’re trying to get a handle on. Officers still have to go out and keep our community safe, do community engagement and prevent crime in the middle of all that. In addition, we’re now seeing police officers do things every day on social media that make us scratch our heads or that even shock our conscience. I think the incident in Minnesota, it shocked everyone’s conscience. There were police officers who were just as upset about that as community members. So it’s an unprecedented time in our country. Added to that, almost this national sentiment of division. And so I think it’s time — I think the country is ready to move forward with that. This is one of the reasons why I’m energized about this position. The country is ready to move forward together as a country. I think we have seen that when our division isn’t healthy, it doesn’t benefit anyone. And so the same thing can be said about every police department and every community member. I think our community members — you know, they don’t want to protest just as much as officers, you know, don’t want to have to manage protests. They don’t want to protest. They want to live in a community where they don’t have to. And that’s difficult considering the global landscape of policing.

Frederica Freyberg:

Madison Police Chief Barnes. That is our program for tonight. Next week, we will have coverage of the impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.