Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, March 29
Good job slowing the coronavirus in Wisconsin - but keep it up and double down
Traffic is light in Madison, even during the morning commute.
State Street and Downtown are barren.
Across Wisconsin, most people are staying in their homes to help slow the spread of the deadly pandemic.
It’s eerie and bizarre. It’s also impressive and imperative.
Keep it up, everybody. Continue to fight the novel coronavirus by sheltering in place, maintaining your distance when you have to go out, and washing your hands a lot, especially before eating.
The shutdown has been terrible for the economy. Millions of workers are losing their jobs or hours, and many businesses are struggling to survive. But our leaders in Washington agreed last week to a massive relief package to help ease financial burdens. The legislation is far from perfect. Yet a big response from government is warranted, given that governments at all levels have ordered so much of the economy to close.
The noble and necessary goal is to protect hundreds of thousands of lives from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. A surge in cases has overwhelmed hospitals in Italy, New York and Washington state. And if too many people quickly fall ill in Wisconsin, our hospitals won’t have enough beds and ventilators.
This isn’t just another flu season, in which health workers and much of the public have been inoculated against the infection. It’s the unleashing of a disease with no known cure or vaccine. The elderly and those with underlying health conditions are most at risk. Most people experience mild symptoms. Yet COVID-19 could potentially strike anyone with severity.
Wisconsin’s civic spirit is a huge advantage. Our citizens vote in higher numbers than most states. We have led the nation in responding to census forms. We generally do what we’re supposed to do.
And that’s paying off by keeping most people at home and at least 6 feet apart at groceries and pharmacies.
Traffic is down about 40% in the Madison area, according to transportation officials. An analysis by smartphone tracking firm Unacast similarly suggests Wisconsin is doing relatively well at staying put. Using location data, Unacast gave Wisconsin a “B” for social distancing, with an average decrease in movement of 40%. Dane County, with a 45% decrease, earned an “A.”
That should go a long way toward slowing this coronavirus. But strictly limiting your direct human contact to only the people in your home must continue and, if anything, tighten further.
State health officials said last week that staying home could prevent as many as 1,500 deaths in Wisconsin by April 8. It also will protect front-line workers - health care providers, emergency responders, grocery and retail clerks. We’re in a war against a deadly disease with some odd yet crucial marching orders: Pull together by staying apart.
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The Capital Times, Madison, March 25
A stay-at-home lockdown is essential to saving lives
We Wisconsinites are resilient, and we are responsible. That resilience and responsibility is critical in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.
“While we may not be able to control every aspect of this experience, we can control how we respond,” wrote Dane County Executive Joe Parisi in a piece published Sunday by The Capital Times. “Difficult times provide us opportunities to rise to the occasion - to bring out the best in us.”
We share Parisi’s Wisconsin sensibility. We echo his hope.
But we know that officials must take the next big step when it comes to educating and organizing this state of 5.8 million people to get ahead of this pandemic. That means that Gov. Tony Evers needs to make it clear that Wisconsin will follow the lead of other states in mandating a lockdown that is sufficient to slow the spread of a virus that could overwhelm our health care system.
The governor seems to want to avoid the term “lockdown.” His latest intervention, which he issued Tuesday, is referred to as a “Stay At Home” order. We would have preferred that the governor use the now broadly-accepted term “lockdown,” as that would have emphasized the seriousness of the circumstance and the absolutely necessity of quick and decisive action in a perilous moment.
As his order is implemented, the governor must now provide maximum clarity regarding the importance of actually staying at home.
That clarity is necessary because Wisconsin is in a race against time.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline on Sunday morning said it all: “Cases soar … as coronavirus carves ever deeper into daily life in Wisconsin.” The news the paper reported was grim: “The impact of the coronavirus outbreak on Wisconsin deepened and widened Saturday, with nearly 300 confirmed cases, four deaths, and daily life coming to a virtual standstill.”
In a heartbreaking statement, the family of a man who died in Fond du Lac County, 55-year-old Dale Joseph Witkowski, warned against remaining in denial about the threat posed by this virus.
“We ask you to be serious about COVID-19. Please do not panic, rather, educate yourself and your family. Please do not blame or shun, rather be supportive and compassionate, especially with the people who have tested positive for this virus,” they wrote in an online obituary. “We responded too slowly as a country and now we are seeing devastating effects in our country, state and community, and for us, our family. Knowledge and mindful, safe practices are what is needed now.”
The governor needs to put an exclamation mark on the message that, in order to save lives, it is vital to adopt those safe practices. Yes, we must be flexible enough to allow essential personnel to move about and to keep necessary industries operating. And there is nothing wrong with Evers saying, “You can still get out and walk the dogs - it’s good exercise and it’s good for everyone’s mental health - but please don’t take any other unnecessary trips, and limit your travel to essential needs like going to the doctor, grabbing groceries, or getting medication.”
But this baseline flexibility must not lull Wisconsinites into thinking they can neglect the core message that we all have a role to play in helping slow the spread of COVID-19 so we can flatten the curve of rising infection numbers. That is critical because, as Evers notes, it is the only way that we can “ensure our doctors, nurses, and health care workers have the opportunity to do their important work.”
We can see that the governor is cautious about speaking in bold language. We know these are jarring times for Wisconsin. But Evers will best serve Wisconsin by speaking in clear and unequivocal terms.
He can and should acknowledge the economic pain the coronavirus outbreak is causing. To ease that pain, he must work even more closely with federal representatives like U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, to implement innovative programs that protect small businesses, keep workers on the job (even if it is only part-time from home) and maintain a strong and flexible unemployment insurance program.
The governor must also assure that Wisconsin’s historic commitment to civil liberties and civil rights is respected. When the Bush administration and its allies adopted the Patriot Act in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, this newspaper opposed them at every turn. We’ll maintain this vigilance, calling out federal and state officials - be they Republicans or Democrats - who abuse out liberties now.
Evers can maintain the proper balance by addressing issues directly - and by communicating the message that locking down and staying at home will save lives.
That is no longer a debatable point.
We reviewed mounds of data from around the world and around the U.S. before coming to this conclusion. To our view, the research coming from the Imperial College of London’s COVID-19 Response Team is most convincing. A World Economic Forum report summed things up well and wisely: “The study’s models show that, painful as lockdown may be for many of us, it works. Without any lockdown or social distancing measures, we can expect peak mortality in approximately three months. In this scenario, 81% of the UK and U.S. populations would be infected, with 510,000 dying in the UK and 2.2 million dying in the U.S. In contrast, isolating confirmed and suspected cases and social distancing the elderly and vulnerable would ’reduce peak critical care demand by two-thirds and halve the number of deaths.’”
At the very least, we want the latter result. And, as good Wisconsinites, we hope for much better.
But we’re convinced that the only way to do this is by staying at home.
Read the World Economic Foundation report and the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team study.
Read up on what works. Lock down. Stay at home. And hold tight to the knowledge that Wisconsin can and will get through this.
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The Journal Times of Racine, March 30
A game changer? Let’s find out quickly
After we saw toilet paper and sanitary wipes disappear from our grocery shelves overnight with the coronavirus panic, this probably shouldn’t have surprised us.
When President Donald Trump touted the use of two little-known drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in conjunction with an antibiotic, as possible “game-changers” to treat COVID-19 in a television address, it immediately prompted a run on the drugs.
The problem is the two drugs haven’t been clinically tested and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of coronavirus - they’re used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. And they have potential serious side effects and serious risks for those susceptible to renal failure and hepatic disease.
No matter. Once the president gave his pronouncement, there was a run on the drugs. In just a few days, there were reports that those afflicted by lupus were having trouble getting their regular prescriptions because pharmacies were sold out and the drugs were on back-order.
Unlike the run on toilet paper, the sales of these drugs required someone with a prescription pad and it became apparent quickly that some of the hoarding was being done by doctors who were stockpiling it for themselves, family and friends.
John Q. Public was out of luck.
“This is a real issue and it is not some product of a few isolated bad apples,” said Jay Campbell, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy.
According to a ProPublica news report, a pharmacist in Houston said he was recently asked by a surgeon for an unusually large quantity with unlimited refills. “He said it was because his wife had lupus,” the pharmacist said, “but when I asked him for her name and diagnosis, he told me just to put it in his.” Another pharmacist said he was called a communist when he rejected a doctor’s self-prescription.
Within short order of the hoarding deluge, pharmacy boards in seven states issued emergency restrictions on dispensing the drugs to curb the behavior of prescribers. The American Medical Association denounced the stockpiling and said it was “calling for a stop to any inappropriate prescribing and ordering of medications, including chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, and appealing to physicians and all health care professionals to follow the highest standards of professionalism and ethics.”
Hopefully, that will put an end to the ethically challenged script-writing and lupus and rheumatoid arthritis sufferers will be able to get their regular supplies.
But, that’s only half the battle. The real challenge for the Trump administration and the FDA is to determine as quickly as possible if these drugs really are game-changers - now while the deadly game is playing out across the country. If that means expediting - or even forgoing - clinical trials without months of delay, then so be it - issue an emergency waiver.
New York moved to begin trials last week after procuring 70,000 doses of the drugs and Bayer pharmaceutical company has donated 3 million doses of its brand of chloroquine to the federal government.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a study document in the current issue of the journal Bioscience Trends, that “chloroquine phosphate has demonstrated apparent efficacy and acceptable safety against COVID-19-associated pneumonia” in trials in China.
The CDC said it is thus considered a recommended anti-viral for COVID-19 treatment in China and several countries are recommending both drugs for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, according to news reports.
Given that, Trump should use the Defense Production Act of 1950 to ramp up production of the chloroquine drugs immediately and allow patients to sign waivers to get the drugs. Isn’t that what the “Right to Try” law passed by Congress was all about?
Our guess is that many Americans who find themselves lying in a hospital bed in the next several weeks with a ventilator and what feels like a 500-pound gorilla sitting on their chest will gladly sign a waiver and grasp at this straw if it might mean they’ll be kept off the fatality list.
Just ask the doctors who signed bogus prescriptions to protect themselves and their families and friends.
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