“Republicans’ demand that Governor Evers provide a plan to re-open the economy ignores the science of the pandemic and President Trump’s own guidelines for re-opening the economy is irresponsible. Their demands also ignore the concerns of the majority of Wisconsin residents who support continuing the Safer at Home order until the data shows that it is safe to begin opening up parts of our communities in a thoughtful and safe way.
“COVID-19 does not follow the calendar. It knows nothing about dates or times. Nor does it respect geographical boundaries. What might seem like a decline one day might lead to a spike the next. What might appear as a relatively small number of cases in one area one day might turn into a hotspot the next as we are seeing in Green Bay and Brown County.
“Opening up areas of the state with low numbers of cases may only encourage people from other parts of the state to travel to those areas and bring the virus with them. That is why it is so important to continue the Safer at Home order statewide.
“Governor Evers is working with Secretary-designee Palm and a host of experts to best determine the safest way out of this pandemic so we don’t see an unnecessary spike in new cases and deaths. Polling shows their efforts are supported by a significant majority of Wisconsin residents.
“To ignore the science and push an artificial date for “re-opening” only serves to unnecessarily jeopardize the progress we are making, to endanger innocent lives and risk crashing the state’s economy all over again.
“I would encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to avoid reflexively opposing Governor Evers when it comes to this pandemic. Lives hang in the balance and we should all be working together to get this right.”
