Announcer:

The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Frederica Freyberg:

A stratospheric rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across the state, with all counties in the critically high category.

Karen Timberlake:

We have heard health care providers in Wisconsin and around the country sounding this alarm and we need to hear them.

Frederica Freyberg:

To help support the state’s strained health care workforce, the governor deployed the National Guard, greeting members returning home from overseas late this week and asking if they’d like to train up as nurses.

Tony Evers:

And as we continue to see COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge, we are pursuing every available option to bring needed staffing support to Wisconsin’s health system.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, testing and N95 masks take on critical importance as the Omicron surge shatters records. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” the latest on COVID-19, with the state’s health secretary. Insight into Ron Johnson’s reelection bid with Marquette pollster Charles Franklin. And a sit-down with one of the Democrats running in the 3rd Congressional District. It’s “Here & Now” for January 14.

Announcer:

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

Frederica Freyberg:

As Omicron crushes the state, the cavalry is on the way, literally. Governor Tony Evers has called in the National Guard to help hospitals and nursing homes as COVID-19 case counts continue to hit pandemic highs. Latest numbers show a seven-day average of 10,985 positive cases in Wisconsin, with hospital capacity on the brink. Soldier nurses, testing masks and vaccine clinics all being deployed to try to counter the crush. We’re joined now by Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake for more. Thanks very much for being here.

Karen Timberlake:

You’re welcome.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is this what an all-out mitigation push against Omicron looks like?

Karen Timberlake:

This is part of the strategy we’ve been using from the very beginning of the pandemic, which is to match the moment with the resources that are needed to make sure that Wisconsinites have access to the tests that they need, the vaccinations that they need and certainly the medical care that they need. Our National Guard has been an amazing partner with us from the very beginning of the pandemic. They did some of our first testing that was done out in the community. They’ve given hundreds of thousands of vaccines at this point. And now we are asking them to step up and help us build capacity in our health care system by serving in our nursing homes as temporary nurse aides and certified nursing assistants.

Frederica Freyberg:

How does the guard serving in nursing homes help the hospitals?

Karen Timberlake:

Yep. So what we know is we have numbers of patients who are in hospitals today ready to be discharged. They no longer need a hospital level of care, thankfully, but they’re not quite ready to go home. And so some of them may need some care in a post-acute care setting. What we know is that our nursing homes, just like our hospitals, have been experiencing real staffing shortages due to the pandemic and so by deploying the National Guard in nursing homes, we actually create more capacity in those nursing homes. We allow hospitals to discharge patients who don’t need to be in the hospital any longer and then we improve hospital capacity for that really critical care that does need to be provided in a hospital setting.

Frederica Freyberg:

Can we catch up to Omicron at this point?

Karen Timberlake:

Good question. What we all can do is keep ourselves safe and keep our family members safe and try to avoid catching Omicron to the very greatest extent that we can. I know we’re in this kind of push/pull of isn’t it a less serious illness than Delta was or than original COVID was. The answer to that question is if you’re fully vaccinated and you’ve gotten your booster shot, all the national data is showing us that you will do very well if you contract Omicron. If you are not vaccinated, you will have a tough time. And it is those unvaccinated people that we are seeing in our hospitals and that are really making it challenging for people who need other kinds of care to get that care. So the way we catch up to Omicron, the way we get ahead of it, is by making sure that we all do what we can to get vaccinated, get boosted, wear a good-fitting mask and just try to stay safe.

Frederica Freyberg:

Because again what is the current situation with cases and hospitalizations?

Karen Timberlake:

Right. The current situation with cases is that we’re at a record high in our seven-day average. We continue to see cases rising at a very, very steep rate. We know that hospitalizations also are at are a record level. And so the fact that we have more than 2200 people today in the hospital with COVID, including hundreds — more than 400 people in the ICU, means we have fewer than 5% of hospital beds of any kind across our state that are available. So we know that people continue to need other kinds of medical care and medical treatment and that is just getting harder and harder for our hospitals to provide. So we should be taking care of ourselves for our own sakes and for the sake of our health care system.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, the state is deploying, I understand, testing capacity across the state, but is there enough testing available and enough capacity there to deliver timely results?

Karen Timberlake:

We have fantastic testing capacity across the state. With that said, we’ve also seen about a 50% growth in the number of cases that we are processing in any given week since just early November. So just in the last, you know, four to six weeks or so, testing has gone up by about 50%. So like any other system that will put some strain on our lab capacity and on our result time frames. But what I can assure people is if you go to our website and you look at the community testing link, you will find lots of options. Check your local pharmacy. Check with your local public health department. Testing is available. You may have to do a little research. But testing is available. And results are also available still typically within about two to three days.

Frederica Freyberg:

The CDC recommends high-quality masks and your agency I understand has a stockpile of those. Who can get them and are there enough of those?

Karen Timberlake:

We have just recently done a survey with our local public health partners and with our county emergency management personnel to make sure that some of our most vulnerable and critical settings across the state are able to access those masks. So that can be long-term care settings, that can be schools, that can be afterschool providers. We really want to make sure that people who don’t have easy access to a high-quality mask can get one from those state supplies and I’d encourage people to check in with local public health and with county emergency management for those more local plans.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there, but thank you very much for your information, Secretary Karen Timberlake.

Karen Timberlake:

You’re welcome.

Frederica Freyberg:

The Department of Health Services is dipping into its stockpile of N95 masks to give out across Wisconsin, as they’re recommended but, for some, hard to come by. Marisa Wojcik reports on one effort to get masks into the hands of the community.

Man:

Hey.

Laura Ford-Harris:

It’s been nonstop. This line behind us has been going on since actually before noon today.

Marisa Wojcik:

Cars continue to fill and refill the parking lot of the Boys & Girls Club Allied Family Center in Fitchburg this week as they distributed free N95 masks to the community.

Laura Ford-Harris:

Michael Johnson, Governor Evers’ office worked together to get 200,000 N95 masks.

Marisa Wojcik:

The Omicron variant is more contagious and spreading to even those who are vaccinated.

Jacquelyn Hunt:

I’m going to give you a pack for the baby as well, okay?

Woman:

Thank you.

Jacquelyn Hunt:

And now these new variants are coming up. We have people in our community who are at a greater risk.

Latisha McDuffy:

I wanted to get a few KN95s ’cause I have the regular mask but which is not working as well because the virus is spreading so I’m a little nervous and I’m on dialysis.

Marisa Wojcik:

There’s a new demand to mask up beyond the protection of cloth and surgical masks and to use designated N95s. But there’s a problem.

Latisha McDuffy:

It’s really hard to find. The prices are super high when you try to order them online. I’m very happy and grateful for them. I’m grateful.

Marisa Wojcik:

For “Here & Now” I’m Marisa Wojcik reporting from Fitchburg.

Jacquelyn Hunt:

Be well!

Frederica Freyberg:

President Joe Biden is expected to announce a plan next week to also make N95 masks more readily available to the public.

In electoral politics, incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson announced this week he would in fact run for reelection after vowing he would only serve two terms. He is known for maligning COVID-19 vaccines, has described January 6th as mostly peaceful protests and is a reliable defender of Donald Trump. A dozen Democratic candidates have lined up to run for the seat. Numbers that will narrow to one in an August primary. Wisconsin as usual is in the spotlight with this election regarded as a state to very much watch. Director of the Marquette University Law School poll, Charles Franklin, has some thoughts on this race and he joins us now. Hi, Charles. Happy New Year.

Charles Franklin:

Hey. Happy new year to you.

Frederica Freyberg:

So would you describe Ron Johnson as vulnerable in this election?

Charles Franklin:

Yeah. I think vulnerable is probably the right way to put it. In late October, we asked would you vote to reelect Johnson or vote for someone else. Just 38% said they’d vote to reelect. But we asked the same question about Governor Tony Evers and only 40% said vote to reelect. So I think both incumbents face the need — they’re building from a strong base, but they still need another 10 or 12 points to reach that magic 50% level. Senator Johnson’s favorability is a little bit more unfavorable than favorable now and that has come down over the last three years, sort of steadily. So that puts him in a vulnerable position. But a lot hinges on the campaign between now and next November.

Frederica Freyberg:

How do his strident positions on things like COVID-19 vaccines play in Wisconsin, which is now overrun with infections and hospitalizations?

Charles Franklin:

Right. We’ve asked how much do you trust Senator Johnson for information about COVID and the coronavirus. That’s down in the 30% range that say they trust him. It’s over 50% that say they don’t trust him. Again, Tony Evers is sort of the reverse of that. About 54 or 55% trust him and 30ish or 40% don’t trust him. So Senator Johnson’s positions on that play well with Republican voters, and especially Republican voters who are themselves skeptical of the vaccine. But even among Republicans who have been vaccinated and are concerned about the coronavirus, Senator Johnson’s favorabilities are lower among that group of Republicans. So at the margin it helps him with the base, but maybe hurts him with some of those Republicans that have some doubts about where the party has gone lately. That’s only about 20% of Republicans, so it’s a small minority.

Frederica Freyberg:

Overall, though, as you were mentioning, his poll numbers in your latest polling were under water for favorability, but you said that his base very much favors and supports him.

Charles Franklin:

This is one of the things to watch throughout next year’s elections, is the base of both parties. For Senator Johnson, it’s a Republican base that overwhelmingly likes President Trump, that is skeptical about the 2020 election and at the margin at least more skeptical than the public at large on the vaccine. And Johnson’s standing with them is very strong. But the independents in the state, who are only about 10% of voters, but, hey, we have a lot of close elections where 10% could matter, those folks are more like those Republican skeptics. They’re not as positive towards Senator Johnson, and they’re going to definitely need to be won over if he’s going to win.

Frederica Freyberg:

In 2016 his Democratic challenger in a rematch, Russ Feingold, was polling ahead of Johnson going into that election. Are Wisconsin voters hard to figure?

Charles Franklin:

A little bit. That’s part of my job, is trying to figure the inscrutable voters. The thing about 2016 that I think really needs to be emphasized is that in 2015, a year before the election, Senator Johnson was getting some of his lowest favorability ratings on record. He was well under water, a little more under water than he is now. But over the next 12 months to the election, he steadily improved those ratings until he was net positive by November, and while Feingold led the race through the winter and the spring, through late summer, all the way to election day, we saw in our polling Johnson closing the gap and closing it to the point where it was a dead heat in the last polls before election day. And of course he ended up winning by just over three percentage points.

Frederica Freyberg:

So meanwhile lots of money pouring into this election race and the one for governor. Who is your money on in that race for governor?

Charles Franklin:

Oh well, I think there we also see a close race. At this point Rebecca Kleefisch is the only — as far as I know — officially-declared candidate, unless something changed in the last few hours. Here we’re seeing the money flowing into both of those campaigns. We’ve not done any polling on that race yet except, as I said, that reelect number for the governor, 40% would reelect, a little over 50% would vote for somebody else and others say they don’t know what they would do. So I expect we’re going to see two very close races here. But it’s interesting that both incumbents of two different parties are nevertheless down there around 40%. It shows that voters are grumpy and they’re kind of grumpy with both of the incumbents right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

The grumpy electorate. Charles Franklin, thank you so much for joining us.

Charles Franklin:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Also in electoral politics, a Waukesha county judge ruled Thursday that absentee ballot collection boxes run by municipal clerks are not allowed under state law. The order outlawing these so-called ballot drop boxes goes into effect right away and could affect Milwaukee’s mayoral election and other spring races if the case is not appealed.

News out of the university system. Two finalists were named in the search to name a new UW president. The search committee named Foley & Lardner CEO Jay Rothman and UW-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt as the two finalists. A decision on the finalists is expected by the end of January. Tommy Thompson, the former governor who is currently interim president, announced he will step down in March.

At the state Capitol, Republicans are looking to prohibit discussions in the classroom that stereotype race or sex. The bills say that legal action could be taken or funding withheld if a curriculum or training says that one race is responsible for acts committed in the past. The legislation mirrors the national conversation surrounding concerns that critical race theory is being taught in schools. Marisa Wojcik spoke with UW Law School Professor Steph Tai and Anuj Desai about their concerns that the bills violate free speech.

Marisa Wojcik:

Why in your mind this is a freedom of speech issue?

Anuj Desai:

It’s a free speech issue in part because when you think largely about free speech in our society, we have institutions that are designed to further broad ideas about free speech and two of the big ones are our K-12 schools and the universities. And so anything really that implicates the content of discussion in classrooms is going to implicate our conception of free speech.

Marisa Wojcik:

Specifically in the setting of higher education, you are a part of a group called UW Profs that represents faculty in front of legislative bodies and the Board of Regents, so why does your group take issue with this legislation banning the discussion of race and sex on college campuses in this way?

Steph Tai:

One of the things that we represent is the academic freedom of various professors throughout the university system. There are certain threats to academic freedom posed by these bills in that the bills are structured — seems fine in general, but they could have a chilling effect on discussions, right? So the concern is that one might be talking about the history of the United States, and that might lead to students feeling bad, right, about their particular kind of history. Now, that would not necessarily be the intent of the professor, but the mere fact that a student might feel bad might mean that they could raise a lawsuit against the university and thus overall it creates a chilling effect on what faculty members might feel free to say.

Marisa Wojcik:

Is there a difference between prohibiting this in K-12 schools versus in a higher education university setting?

Anuj Desai:

The short answer is in the K-12 context, the government has almost sort of complete discretion to set the terms of education under the First Amendment. There are some limits, and so one might be relevant here is, you know, the courts have indicated that if education curriculum is done in a nakedly partisan way, that that might violate the First Amendment. Whereas as Professor Tai was mentioning, in the college and university areas, teachers have just a lot more leeway, I guess is what I would say, to express their own views about things and that is that concept of academic freedom, which intertwines with freedom of speech and is, you know, part and parcel of it in constitutional law.

Frederica Freyberg:

Turning to western Wisconsin and the race to replace retiring U.S. Representative Ron Kind. In our continuing series of interviews, we sit down now with Democratic candidate Deb McGrath. She is the daughter of former U.S. Representative Al Baldus who represented the 3rd Congressional District in the 1970s. She is a former officer in the Army, who also worked in the CIA. Deb McGrath joins us now from Menomonie and thanks very much for being here.

Deb McGrath:

It’s nice to be with you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why do you want to represent the people of the 3rd District in Washington?

Deb McGrath:

Frederica, the stakes of this race are so high. After 25 years of working both in the Army and in the CIA, I know how to work with people to solve problems. And as a wife and mother, I understand the challenges that families are facing across western and central Wisconsin. I grew up here in Menomonie and it’s a place I’ve always called home. And my father, Al Baldus, was a champion for people, listening to them and fighting self-interest. So I will be a champion for those people in western Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Describe for us how your past experience readies you for a role in Congress.

Deb McGrath:

Well, Frederica, this is — one of the best things about working for our country is that we put our country above politics and we work together and shoulder to shoulder to get jobs done. And you have to listen hard to everybody’s ideas so that you can get to the best outcome. I think that’s the best attribute that my service has brought to me.

Frederica Freyberg:

You said that the stakes are high in this race. What are the most important issues you’d like to address in your district?

Deb McGrath:

Frederica, there are real threats right now to our democracy, to our nation, to our economy and our families. When I look at the things that we can work on, we can work on the child care. We can work on pre-K. We can work on making sure we get better accessibility to health care for folks in rural areas. I think the broadband is going to be — it’s so important for kids to be able to do homework in their homes instead of parking lots and of course for farmers to be able to get their — to get their product to market. So I think that there is so many issues facing us, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

The Trump-endorsed Republican in this race is himself a former Navy SEAL. He too took an oath to our country, something you speak about. How are you different?

Deb McGrath:

I work with a handshake instead of a fist. I know how to work with people and listen to them to solve problems. When I look at this great country, I know that when we work together, we will accomplish great things. I am no stranger to being the first in any challenge. For instance, I was the first woman, was the only woman in my airborne training class and the sergeants would have loved to have made me quit. Instead, I led by example. I never gave up. And I was the first one out of the plane. That is the attitude that I bring to this race.

Frederica Freyberg:

What in your belief will most help the people of the 3rd Congressional District?

Deb McGrath:

I believe when we’re looking at the measures that are being faced in Washington right now, I do believe we need to go back to strong families, strong economy and smart and strong nation. When I look at child care, that will help get people to work. I myself had to give up my job in the Army because, my career, because we couldn’t afford child care. And we budgeted for preschool. When I look at families being able to — when we look at Medicare expansion for seniors, to be able to get — to have a dignified life, with better vision and dental. So I think the things that we really need to worry about are making families strong, our economy strong and then a smart defense of our nation.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think needs to be done around making sure families have that needed child care?

Deb McGrath:

I believe we need to — well, there’s a couple things that I think would be really wonderful for us. First, incentivize people who do the work for child care. I think that if we could help people decide to go into those lines of work so that they get good-paying — those are decent-paying jobs for them. And I think it’s the same thing with seniors is that we could also incentivize people who care for seniors. So I think those are two sides of it that we could really look at trying to help people go into those careers.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Deb McGrath, we leave it there. Thanks very much.

Deb McGrath:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

As we look ahead to Martin Luther King Day on Monday, we want to alert you to special programming from PBS Wisconsin. Host Angela Fitzgerald will bring you a special edition of her program, “Why Race Matters,” touching on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here’s an excerpt.

Angela Fitzgerald:

Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. Representation is on the rise politically within the Black community. In 2020, a record number of Black women ran for Congress. It’s a small step, but an important one. The more representation we have, the more likely that policies that positively affect our communities get passed. There’s no doubt that race matters when it comes to civic engagement. But maybe it’s time to stop lecturing certain communities to vote and start asking how to earn their vote instead.

Frederica Freyberg:

That is a sampling of our special Martin Luther King Day “Why Race Matters” program with host Angela Fitzgerald. That special can be seen at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, January 17 on PBS Wisconsin. And that is our program for tonight. 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.