Thousands Protest Stay-At-Home Orders In Wisconsin Without Social Distancing

Thousands of protesters gathered at the Wisconsin State Capitol on Friday, seeking to end the stay-at-home order instituted by Democrat Governor Tony Evers.

People are fed up and want to get back to work. Instead, many governors are extending stay-at-home orders, leaving citizens unsure when restrictions will be lifted.

The original stay-at-home order was supposed to end Friday, but last week, Evers extended it to May 26.  Evers’s new extension of stay-at-home orders does make some adjustments, including the opening of golf courses.

Well, at least he opened the golf courses.  As far as sports go, golf is a social distancing dream: outdoors, in small groups, and if you play like I do you spend a lot of time off by yourself retrieving balls.

Speaking of social distancing, the headlines out of Madison are that most protesters didn’t social distance.  Here are some shots of the event:

Incredible view from @WISN12News News Chopper 12 over Madison this afternoon showing the “stay home” protest against @GovEvers order.

That is a lot of people. Our crew on the ground reports some people are carrying long guns at this protest. @ABC @ABCNewsLive pic.twitter.com/7Cr8GUmNgC

— Tanner Kahler (@tannerkahler) April 24, 2020

I think it’s a little dumb of the protesters not to social distance. Not because of the coronavirus itself – studies have shown almost no cases have been transferred outside – but because of the optics. Because it allows sources like The Hill to run with the lack of social distancing as the headline, instead of the protest itself.

In my state, protest organizers HIGHLY encouraged wearing masks and following social distance guidelines during the protest, solely to avoid giving the media and the government reasons to say the citizens are too “irresponsible” for the orders to be lifted. In my opinion, that was a good approach.

Nonetheless, Wisconsin might serve as a good case study on the transmissibility of the virus.

As of Friday evening, Wisconsin health officials said there were 5,356 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state and 262 deaths.

Between Thursday and Friday, the state saw 304 new confirmed COVID-19 caseS, its highest increase yet.

It doesn’t look like Wisconsin has hit its peak yet. Several commentators predicted a massive outbreak following Wisconsin’s in-person election, which occurred almost three weeks ago. So far, 40 cases have been connected to the election – out of 400,000 voters. That’s an infection rate of 0.01%. Many more cases may be coming, but right now the numbers suggest the shutdown is wholly unnecessary.

Between the election and the protest, I’ll be watching case numbers coming out of Wisconsin very closely over the next few weeks.