The Wisconsin Supreme Court has shut down the “shutdown extension,” instituted by Democrat Gov. Tony Evers. (Screen snip, YouTube, NBC TODAY)
Hours after the Wisconsin state Supreme Court smacked down the extension of Gov. Tony Evers’ “stay-at-home” order in a split 4-3 ruling, Fox News was reporting “Several bars across Wisconsin were flooded with patrons,” and in at least one establishment, packed “with mostly young people,” they weren’t social distancing or wearing masks.
They were celebrating an abrupt end to caps on group size, doing business and maybe getting back to work and earning paychecks.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the majority opinion was “written by four of the court’s conservatives — Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justices Rebecca Bradley, Daniel Kelly and Annette Ziegler.”
The newspaper also reported, “The ruling immediately lifts all restrictions on businesses and gatherings imposed by the administration’s order but keeps in place the closure of schools until fall. It comes after Evers had already begun lifting some restrictions because the spread of the virus has slowed for now.”
While Wisconsin residents appear to be happier, the same can’t be said in neighboring Michigan, where the Detroit News is reporting trouble at another demonstration against Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Lansing. The newspaper said two protesters got into a fight over the display of a doll hanging from a noose, and police confiscated an ax.
Protesters carried signs that read, “It’s not the virus, it’s the election” and another calling for Whitmer’s recall. Others called Whitmer a “tyrant” and told reporters they need to get back to work and earn paychecks.
While the Wisconsin high court’s ruling applies only to the Badger State, it might send a signal to activists in other states who have grown weary of the economic shutdown over the COVID-19 outbreak.
Tensions are rising in Washington State, where Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee is facing increasing criticism from conservatives, business owners and others. An Op-Ed in the Wenatchee World, a newspaper serving Central Washington farm and ranching communities, called for the shutdown to end.
Written by health care professionals Karl W. Lambert, Medical Director, Redimedi Integrative Clinic; Dr. Gillian Shaw, MD, Cashmere Redimedi Integrative Clinic; Amy Wood, Redimedi Integrative Clinic; Shawn Needham, R.Ph and Janet Needham, R.Ph, Moses Lake Professional Pharmacy, the article asserts “The idea that we should live in a perpetual state of fear that any healthy person could be spreading the virus is not backed by scientific evidence.”
Lambert and Wood are advanced registered nurse practitioners. The Needhams are pharmacists.
The Op-Ed raises some serious issues. The authors contend that “with data accumulation we have learned that the virus is less deadly than originally feared and primarily harmful only for a specific, identifiable portion of the population.”
Elsewhere, they tell readers, “According to the latest data from the state Department of Health, 90 percent of all Washington COVID-19 deaths are individuals 60 or older and more than half are age 80 or older. Sixty-one percent of COVID-19 deaths are associated with long-term care facilities. These older, vulnerable individuals should be protected, and we should concentrate our quarantine and isolation efforts where they will be effective.”
Perhaps the most compelling argument they make is this: “There is no clinical data supporting the restraint and quarantine of healthy individuals to prevent the spread of a virus, and that is proving true with COVID-19. It is a travesty that our response to this crisis has been to saddle future generations with crippling debt, bankrupt hundreds of businesses, and force unemployment to Great Depression levels.”
