Announcer:

The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Frederica Freyberg:

We all remember the attack on the U.S. Capitol but one year on, unity among Americans, including in our own state, is very far from realized. President Joe Biden marked the anniversary in a fiery address.

Joe Biden:

Those who stormed this capitol and those that instigated and incited and those who called on them to do so held a dagger at the throat of America.

Frederica Freyberg:

Democracy itself under continued attack, he said, with unrelenting investigations into the 2020 election. On the pandemic front, Wisconsin health officials are calling the rapidly rising case numbers astonishing and say overloaded hospitals make it unsafe for people who need medical care. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” exploding COVID-19 infections in Wisconsin, the anniversary of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and the Wisconsin response from Congress. An interview with Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos as he expands the election investigation and powerful reporting from journalist Murv Seymour on calls to action for transgender people. It’s “Here & Now” for January 7.

Announcer:

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

Frederica Freyberg:

COVID-19 infections are exploding in Wisconsin with record high daily case numbers topping 12,000, the most since the start of the pandemic. The highly infectious Omicron variant is blamed for the explosive infection rate. It’s reported to cause less severe symptoms but the sheer case count is starting to hobble schools and hospitals. What is the latest in Wisconsin on COVID-19? For that we turn to Dr. Jeffrey Pothof, the chief quality and safety officer for UW Health, one of the largest health care systems in the state. Thanks very much for joining us.

Jeffrey Pothof:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is the current situation with your hospital?

Jeffrey Pothof:

You know, I wish I could paint you a nice picture but right now, we’re in a really rough spot. Our number of COVID-19 admissions has increased dramatically over the last week and a half to two weeks. We’re teetering with those record volumes we had last Thanksgiving. To make further — or make matters further worse, our hospital was already more full to start with. And our staff, although thankfully vaccinated, are having breakthrough cases, which is making our staffing problems even worse. So we’re in a situation where there are folks around the state calling us and saying, “Hey, can you take my patient? They’re complex. You have the expertise to deal with their problem.” And we cannot safely take them. They’re having to wait where they’re at or find a different hospital to take them because we just cannot take that next patient

Frederica Freyberg:

That is extremely scary, of course, for the people who need the services of the hospital for things like stroke or heart attack. Tell us what is happening with that.

Jeffrey Pothof:

Yeah. So you know, what we try to do when we can’t take patients physically to our location is we provide as many resources as we can to those patients where they are, whether that’s our experts available by telehealth, whether that’s coordinating with other health systems across the state, even outside the state to help find that next bed, providing our helicopters to promote transports to far away hospitals that might have a room. We’re doing things like that but ultimately what that means is that folks who otherwise would get a different standard of care are getting a little bit less than that. Folks doing the best that they can but unless we can reduce hospitalizations in the state, that’s, you know, that’s the best we can do right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

You know, we understand that these symptoms of the Omicron variant, COVID-19 are less severe and yet, your hospitalizations are up dramatically, you say. Is that just as a result of the sheer number of infections?

Jeffrey Pothof:

It is. And I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding. When folks hear that Omicron is less severe, I think they immediately think well it’s more like a cold. It doesn’t make people sick. Why are hospitals worried? That’s not what we mean when we say less severe. When we say less severe, we mean if you take 100 people and you give them Omicron, a lower percent of those people will need a hospital bed but it’s not to say Omicron cannot cause severe disease. Then when you take the extra cases we’re seeing, Omicron is so much more contagious, we’re actually seeing an increase in hospitalizations despite Omicron being less severe in general.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is this like for the staff there on the front lines?

Jeffrey Pothof:

It’s difficult. You can imagine, you know, we have a lot of staff that are out either getting tested or they’ve tested positive. They want to get back to work. We’re working with them on that. They’re typically not overly sick. They’re all vaccinated but that means those health care workers who are left are working more shifts and coming back quicker to do another shift and stretching themselves a little bit more thin. And you know, throughout this pandemic, these health care workers have been heroes and they continue to step up to the plate but it’s hard and we’ve lost a lot of people to burnout because there’s just only so much you can expect of a human being. This pandemic has certainly not been short.

Frederica Freyberg:

Have you ever seen anything like this in your career?

Jeffrey Pothof:

Not only have I never seen anything like this, this wasn’t even on my radar going through medical training. We have one of the most well-resourced health care systems in the entire world, and to think we’re at the point where people who need care for things like heart attacks, strokes, might not be able to get it, that never crossed my mind when I was going through medical training that that would be the scenario where I work.

Frederica Freyberg:

You know, we have read that it is the unvaccinated that are taking up the bulk of the hospitalizations for COVID-19. Is that accurate?

Jeffrey Pothof:

It’s definitely accurate. You know, we do see more breakthrough cases with Omicron. They often don’t get admitted. When they do get admitted, it’s often for a very short period of time: a day, two days. What we see with the unvaccinated is they make up a significant majority of the cases admitted to the hospital and they don’t stay just for a day or two days. Sometimes they stay for a week, two weeks. Sometimes months on high-end therapies that take a lot of our room up and a lot of our staff resources up and if we could reduce that, we’d be able to make all these other things fit. Folks in the state wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not a hospital is going to be ready for them when they suffer their medical emergency.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is it your expectation that this Omicron will burn quickly through the population and we could come out on the other side to quieter days?

Jeffrey Pothof:

I hope that is the silver lining. That is the experience they had in South Africa. I’m hopeful that, you know, this goes on for a few more weeks and then things start to taper down. We get a little bit more back to normal. Or maybe like we were this summer. But, you know, it’s going to be a rough couple of weeks before we get there. I’m not looking forward to that period of time.

Frederica Freyberg:

Good luck to you and all of you there providing care, Dr. Jeffrey Pothof. Thanks very much.

Jeffrey Pothof:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Several large school districts across the state delayed the return to the classroom as they faced rising infection numbers and staff shortages, including the Madison and Milwaukee districts. But late this week, Madison announced schools would be open in person as of Monday after securing additional personal protective equipment, testing and booster clinics. In a vote late Thursday, the Milwaukee Public School board decided to remain out of the classroom until January 18 but will stay with virtual instruction in the meantime.

Turning to an anniversary marked this week, January 6, 2021. Shocking scenes as Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol looking to overturn the election. Hundreds have been charged in connection with the breach, including six from Wisconsin. Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin spoke from the Senate floor now a year later.

Tammy Baldwin:

Far too many would like to whitewash the violent day and pretend the insurrection was not an existential threat to our democracy. We have colleagues who have inexplicably and falsely said the violent mob was a group of mere tourists. My Republican counterpart from the great state of Wisconsin even called January 6th a peaceful protest. These fly in the face of the truth. This is not right and we cannot allow the truth to be buried. We must all condemn this insurrection in no uncertain terms as well as the Big Lie about the 2020 election that drove the mob to desecrate this hallowed chamber. And we must honor and strengthen our democracy by passing legislation that puts an end to these ceaseless attacks on voters and the integrity of our elections.

Frederica Freyberg:

For his part, Republican Senator Ron Johnson’s office put out a statement that reads in part, “Senator Johnson immediately and repeatedly condemned the violence that occurred on January 6. He believes the American people deserve a full and accurate account of what happened.” He also detailed the questions he’s raised about just who was involved citing agent provocateurs and fake Trump supporters. Wisconsin U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald also reacted to the anniversary and the president’s speech marking the occasion. He tweeted out, “The President created more division, not unity, in his speech today. The V. P. shamelessly likened January 6th to September 11th and Pearl Harbor – both attacks that left thousands of Americans murdered. This isn’t leadership,” he said. “This is theater to distract from this administration’s failures.” The mindset of many Trump supporters that indeed he won the election because of election fraud in places like Wisconsin, roils Democrats as falsely undermining faith in elections and as an attack on democracy. Those include Governor Tony Evers who, in an interview with Zac Schultz, criticized Republicans for continuing investigations into the 2020 election, calling it a clown show.

Tony Evers:

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re going to take essentially lies and try to make them into truth, of course there’s going to be people that are going to be saying, you know, is this system broken or not? So I’m disappointed that the leadership and the Republican Party has decided to take this tactic because it’s self-fulfilling. I mean for them to say as well people don’t trust the system, that’s because you told them that. You’ve told them that with no data. You’ve told them that with, frankly lies. And so it’s a clown show, frankly, that needs to end. We have a good system. It’s secure and we will — I will make sure that we’ll do whatever we can to make sure that people of Wisconsin can feel comfortable that the system works and frankly, encourage people to vote instead of discouraging people to vote.

Zac Schultz:

Democrats across the country are accusing Republicans of attacking democracy itself. Do you think Republicans in Wisconsin are attacking the democratic process?

Tony Evers:

Of course they are. Voting is the most pure and important part of a democracy, whether it’s Wisconsin or the country. And if people are out there spewing lies and mistruths and fulfilling their own prophecy that things aren’t right, that is an attack on democracy.

Frederica Freyberg:

For his reaction, Republican Speaker Robin Vos sat down with senior political reporter Zac Schultz. He started by asking the speaker his response to the governor’s clown show claims.

Robin Vos:

I think Governor Tony Evers is obviously in campaign mode. He’s focused on more hyperbole than fact. We know clearly a majority of Wisconsinites, according to some older polling but I’ll still believe it’s true, a majority of Republicans and a huge number of independents believe there were problems with the 2020 election. I have said over and over that Joe Biden is the president. The Electoral College has spoken. This is not about somehow overturning the election or ruining democracy but it is about making sure we have faith in the results, whoever wins, whoever loses. And I think we clearly know, now we’ve had the Legislative Audit Bureau. We’ve had an investigation by W.I.L.L. and the final investigation being done by Justice Gableman. All are going to show we had issues. The first two clearly did. I’m certain the last one will as well. So for Governor Evers to imply somehow the well-respected, nonpartisan audit bureau was attacking democracy and on a witch hunt, that’s not even accurate, much less it’s just a bold-faced lie. So I think we need to look and say, “Let’s focus on the facts, not on hyperbole.” We know there were problems. We know that there were things that should have been done differently. I think history is going to judge that things were not done correctly in 2020 and all we can do is try to make it better. And that’s what we’re attempting to do.

Zac Schultz:

With the Gableman investigation, there have been some process errors, some errors that seem like they shouldn’t be happening with an investigation this well-funded, this well purposed. We’ve had criticism from both Republicans, obviously Democrats, in the end, do you think that you’re going to convince the public with the results of that investigation?

Robin Vos:

Well, there’s been an awful lot of money spent by liberals to try to discredit the investigation. You’re right, not everything goes perfect. We have people who are humans. They’re doing their very best but I think when you have groups coming in and attacking from the very beginning. Once again, going after the Legislative Audit Bureau, which has been a well-respected institution in the State Capitol as any, to somehow try to discredit them, it’s no surprise they’re going to continue that all the way until the end. We now know that there have been lawsuits filed. People have tried to say the Legislature doesn’t have the right to issue subpoenas. Of course we do. It’s been a power we’ve had since statehood. These basic ideas, which are being argued in court, if you would have told me the very fundamental idea that we didn’t have the right to issue subpoenas would be in court, I would have thought you were crazy. But we are now seeing national groups coming in very well-funded on the liberal side trying to upset what has been the standard in Wisconsin. Unfortunately it’s taken longer than it should have. I thought we’d be done by the end of the year but they have thrown up every possible road block they could to try to stop what should be a simple, easy, well understood idea which is, at the end, let’s see what was done right, what was done wrong and then try to make sure that things that were done wrong are corrected.

Zac Schultz:

You have said that Joe Biden is legitimately the president but there are a number of members of your caucus and the public that don’t believe that. They say they aren’t convinced. It’s been shown they have been lied to both by Republicans and by operatives and by con men and other people trying to make a buck on them. So at what point is it up to legislators to make more of a say. To say that no, this is legitimate. We are looking at minor process issues in Wisconsin’s elections as opposed to overthrowing it which some of your own members have introduced bills that would change some of the outcomes of future elections.

Robin Vos:

Well, number one, I don’t think there were minor process issues. Let’s start with that. We have a single member who has said we should decertify the election. So let’s not cast a wide net that there are a lot of people who are out there saying we should overturn the election because there’s one. I certainly don’t speak for every single Republican in the state nor in the state Legislature but I do know the vast majority of the people I speak with understand that this is focused on the future. It’s not focused on the past. Do I believe that we should allow out of state billionaires to come in and co-mingle private dollars and public funds to only turn out people in certain zip codes of a certain demographic because they tend to vote one way? I think that’s wrong. It would be wrong if we did it from the Koch saying we’re only going to go into lily white areas of Waukesha to try to make sure we turn out the most Republicans to vote. Just like it would be wrong if we said we’re going to only go into minority areas in the city of Milwaukee because they tend to vote Democrat and only put our efforts there. That’s what happened in 2020. People should be outraged that we used public resources mixed with private dollars to really, in essence, try to run an election. This wasn’t done where you buy commercials or you hire people to go door to door. That’s campaigning. That’s what democracy is about. But the idea we’re going to use public resources in a way that influences the election, that should be something that we are all outraged by and the fact that Democrats aren’t outraged is really disappointing to me because I promise you, if somehow Republicans did that, with billionaire dollars to try to influence the process by having people literally work the polling place, paid for by these partisan groups, I think they would be outraged. And they should be this way, too.

Zac Schultz:

We’ve only got a few months of this session left. Do you think the legislature still has a role to play in addressing the pandemic at this point?

Robin Vos:

I think the biggest part of what we’re doing is to make sure we focus on the priorities that we can control. We now see Governor Evers saying it’s the federal government who should fix it and Joe Biden saying it’s state government who should fix it. I think unfortunately we see at the national and the state level, we have a lot of finger pointing going around. The most important thing is I’m vaccinated. I hope the vast majority of people who are watching this choose to be vaccinated. They shouldn’t be mandated. We don’t need vaccine passports. We don’t need a requirement to go to a restaurant or any of those things. I think that’s out of line with what I think most Americans want to accept. But should we focus on the idea of keeping each other safe and trying to be vaccinated. Yeah, that’s a common sense thing we can all focus on.

Zac Schultz:

Obviously last summer the governor signed a Republican-authored state budget and he’s been out campaigning and promoting some of the items in that budget and I’ve seen a lot of negative reaction from Republicans, almost angry the governor is taking credit for a budget he did sign. Why is that?

Robin Vos:

I think the most important thing for people to remember is that Governor Evers proposed a massive expansion of welfare, almost a 10% spending increase, over a billion dollars of new taxes. All — then he was frustrated when we took all those things out of the budget. We passed one without a single iota of input from Governor Evers until the very end where all he did was sign it with a pen. So yes, he deserves credit for the ten seconds it took to sign it but for the ability to craft it and put it all together, that’s a Republican budget. I think if Governor Evers is going around the state giving credit to Republicans for the budget that he spent ten seconds signing, we’d be less frustrated but once again, he’s a politician. He can say whatever he wants whether it’s true or not. And that’s what we’re seeing right now.

Zac Schultz:

Speaker Vos, thanks for your time

Robin Vos:

Thanks very much. Take care.

Frederica Freyberg:

This news out of the University of Wisconsin, former governor and interim UW System President Tommy Thompson announced today he will step down from his post in March. Thompson was brought on as president in the middle of the pandemic and after a failed search to replace the retiring Ray Cross. In his announcement, Thompson said the UW Board of Regents will soon be announcing a final candidate to replace him and as a disclosure, PBS Wisconsin is a service of UW-Madison.

Turning now to long form reporting, reporting that brings understanding and awareness of transgender people in Wisconsin. Their hopes and fears, struggles and triumphs, even in the face of record violence against them. This excerpt of a story from “Here & Now” reporter Murv Seymour starts with the Trans Day of Remembrance at the State Capitol with those in attendance seeking justice and equality from lawmakers.

Amira Pierotti:

The Trans Day of Remembrance is not only a day to mourn but it’s a day for allies to take action, call for justice, make sure that their workplaces are trans inclusive. That we’re calling out friends and family members who continue to be transphobic. There are so many Black trans women and girls who have been assaulted.

Murv Seymour:

Hours after the emotional rally at the state Capitol —

Tim Schaefer:

I would describe this as a pretty traditional space in which we worship.

Murv Seymour:

About three miles away inside the walls of First Baptist Church of Madison —

Tim Schaefer:

That we sometimes use in a pretty untraditional way.

Murv Seymour:

The efforts to raise transgender awareness continues as history is being made here.

Tim Schaefer:

My sexuality is a big deal and isn’t a big deal. You don’t find openly gay pastors in a lot of churches.

Murv Seymour:

Pastor Tim Schaefer who prefers you call him Tim, speaks to his congregation and his community.

Tim Schaefer:

I was, in a way, called to this church despite my sexuality, not because of.

Murv Seymour:

He is the first openly gay pastor of this church in its almost 175-year history.

John:

I hope that we can continue to do on a yearly basis with the Trans Day of Remembrance —

Tim Schaefer:

The way we raise awareness is by sharing stories.

Murv Seymour:

On this November weekend, he too helps share the stories and struggles of transgender people.

Tim Schaefer:

Whether it’s my own story or whether it’s someone else’s story. Jesus teaches in parables, in stories. These are human beings just like you and me. Too often, they’re overlooked, very misunderstood and targeted. It is important for us to be political. We are here in this neighborhood. If we are not talking about the concerns of the city, we’re not talking about things like racism and xenophobia and homophobia and transphobia. If we just stay silent on those issues because we don’t want to upset people, then we become irrelevant.

Vica Steele:

We will hear the names of those who have died from violence.

Murv Seymour:

On day one, First Baptist hosts the first ever transgender remembrance vigil inside its sanctuary while just outside its doors, providing access to community-based transgender resources for those who need it.

Morgen Loree:

Transgender means someone whose gender identity is different than the one they were assigned at birth.

Murv Seymour:

Back inside this place of worship, on the very next day —

SunShine Raynebow:

Growing up I hated myself.

Rhiannon Tibbets:

Being transgender in and of itself is not a mental illness.

Murv Seymour:

A panel discussion to educate.

Barry Trepczyk:

The first kind of feelings that I had when I was five were just that I’m uncomfortable with my name.

Murv Seymour:

On all things transgender.

Wayne Gathright:

Suppressing my true self, my true nature was making me depressed and making me miserable.

Rhiannon Tibbets:

It began to dawn on me that I was self-destructing. I’m very happy that I was not successful in taking my own life.

Tim Schaefer:

When you are trans, you’re opening yourself up for potential violence.

Morgen Loree:

There is an estimated 1.4 to two million transgender people in the United States.

Tim Schaefer:

We have trans people. We have LGBTQ people in our pews. Even those congregations who think they don’t, they do.

Morgen Loree:

I guarantee you that at least one of the people you’ve been attracted to in your life was not born the biological sex that you maybe assumed they were. We’re a part of this world like anyone else. We’re not aliens. We’re not visitors from another planet, you know. We’re, you know, your brothers and sisters and your moms and dads and your kids. We’re not really asking for a seat at the table. We’re just trying to take up space at a table we’ve already been at. We’re just trying to say, “Hey, we’re here. We’ve been here and we deserve a voice.”

Barry Trepczyk:

Some people see me and they just decide they think I’m a woman, that I use she/her pronouns.

Wayne Gathright:

Now that I’m able to dress as I want and express myself the way I want to, I’m a whole lot happier than I ever was.

SunShine Raynebow:

I knew I was trans but I was pretending to be somebody I wasn’t. I was pretending to be a straight dude.

Morgen Loree:

When you come out, it’s — to people on the outside, it can appear very, very sudden because to them, it’s all new. But for most of us, we’ve been thinking about this for years, if not our whole life. I struggled to fit in as a child. I wasn’t saying, you know, I’m transgender, you know, as a baby. I knew something was up but I really realized what it meant when I was about ten years old. Coming to face with my own mortality made me reconsider my identity. To anyone watching who is trans, I understand the reasons to stay in the closet. I do. But I promise anyone watching that when you feel safe to come out, if you can, your life will get infinitely better. Infinitely better. And every day after coming out will be easier because that is the hardest thing that you will ever do. I don’t have any illusions that I’m going to really see the world I want within my lifetime. My dream is for calm and normality. I just want the same things that everyone else wants. And it’s the fact that basic things feel impossible. I’m tired of being depressed about being trans. I want to be depressed about paying bills. I want to be depressed about aging. People out there who are transphobic, you know, like to say things like God doesn’t make mistakes. I agree God doesn’t make mistakes. I actually feel like I’m living exactly the way I was created.

Murv Seymour:

Reporting for “Here & Now” —

Amira Pierotti:

Hopefully one day we won’t need a Trans Day of Remembrance.

Murv Seymour:

I’m Murv Seymour.

Frederica Freyberg:

You can see the full length story and its very powerful reporting on this from Murv Seymour by going to PBSwisconsin.org and then clicking on the news tab.

That is our program for tonight. Have a good weekend.

Announcer:

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