Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 5:07 PM for 9h 58m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1846, after the Milwaukee Bridge War of 1845, the towns of Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify to create the City of Milwaukee.
Chris Mueller reports In Wisconsin, COVID-19 is now the leading cause of death in the line of duty for police officers and firefighters:
Rick Treadwell, 61, died Aug. 22, 2020. He was the first police officer in Wisconsin reported to have died of COVID-19 in the line of duty.
A vaccine wasn’t available at the time. The first person in Wisconsin was vaccinated against COVID-19 on Dec. 14, 2020, nearly four months after Treadwell’s death.
Since the pandemic began, the virus has been cited in more line-of-duty deaths among police officers and firefighters in Wisconsin than any other cause. By the end of 2021, at least five police officers and 10 firefighters in the state had died of COVID-19 in the line of duty, according to their employers.
Those left behind continue to face challenges every day. Many have been sick themselves, unable to avoid the virus at a job that requires frequent face-to-face contact with the public.
As the pandemic enters a third calendar year, more than 1.3 million people in Wisconsin have had COVID-19. More than 10,000 people have died. Those numbers continue to climb daily.
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Similar scenes have played out again and again in hospitals across the country.
A report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found at least 301 police officers across the country died of COVID-19 in 2021, making the virus by far the leading cause of death for police last year.
“This number appears to increase almost daily,” the report says, noting “it is anticipated that a significant number (of COVID-19 deaths) have yet to be reported by agencies.”
We have managed the pandemic poorly, to the loss of individuals and the detriment of society.
“We have managed the pandemic poorly” is admirably inclusive, but ignores the pernicious efforts of the Republican Party to monkey-wrench any attempt to manage the pandemic. This is not a “both-sides do it” issue at all. The R-Team is sabotaging any rational attempt to manage the pandemic in the name of “Freedom”, or owning the libs, or somesuch specious reason.
It is the zenith of a political party when the loyalty oath to kill youself, your loved ones, and any nearby passerby, all in the name of political purity is the mark of a “True American”. It is a situation that is self-limiting, to some extent, as the most rabid anti-vaxers are dying at a rate 20 times higher than vaccinated folks.
“We” didn’t do this. The lemmings rapidly piling up at the bottom of the cliff did.
Well, you’re certainly right —— my assessment was over-generous and that’s an understatement.
Your own assessment is, by contrast, spot-on.