Some Madison-area elected officials are sounding the alarm on UW-Madison’s reopening plan, alleging weak enforcement plans for students to follow public health guidelines and an “inevitable outbreak” on campus that may lead to larger community spread of COVID-19.
The heads of the University of Wisconsin System, the Tavern League of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association sent an open letter to restaurant and bar owners Monday asking they take precautions to prevent COVID-19 spread as students start to return to campuses across the state.
UW System Interim President Tommy Thompson asked businesses to “help to encourage responsible behavior of our students,” alongside on-campus efforts to bring back a portion of some 170,000 students across 13 UW campuses.
In a letter to Tavern League of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Restaurant Association members, UW System President Tommy Thompson, Tavern League of Wisconsin Executive Director Pete Madland and Wisconsin Restaurant Association President Kristine Hillmer asked that bars and restaurants encourage student patrons to physically distance, wear masks and post signage that encourages the same.
Noted: Protests in Wisconsin’s capital city started around 9 p.m., drawing out hundreds of protestors who were largely peaceful. The group marched up and down State Street and other streets near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, drawing students into their ranks, according to tweets from Emily Hamer, a reporter with the Wisconsin State Journal.
In anticipation of students returning to the classroom on Sept. 2, University of Wisconsin–Madison staff members are preparing campus with increased safety in mind.
Working with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the department surveyed 2,871 farmers at the start of the year. It’s the first time the agency has done the survey since 2010.
Protesters made their way toward UW-Madison’s campus chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Jacob Blake.” They briefly held up traffic on Johnson Street, where they shouted “all cops are bad cops” at a handful of police officers watching from the curb.
The proposed legislation, which stems from a summit Bell organized in 2017 with the S.C. Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Law School, would create an independent use-of-force advisory board that includes members of law enforcement organizations, legal scholars, mental health professionals and criminal defense attorneys.
Flu is circulating in the Southern Hemisphere and even with limited travel, there are cases on the seasonal flu in Wisconsin already, Conway said during a press conference at the Alliant Energy Center along with health officials from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UnitiyPoint Health-Meriter, SSM Health and Public Health Madison & Dane County.
The findings match what has been observed on a smaller scale in other studies, said Dave O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Superspreading events, which provide the virus with huge numbers of hosts in a small amount of time, are driving the global outbreak. Delays in returning test results make it much more difficult to mitigate their effects; by the time those infected in such events know they’re sick, they have probably infected many more people
“We’re terrified of the possibility of a ‘twindemic,’” said Dr. James Conway, medical director of UW Health’s immunization program. “If we did get a particularly bad flu season and COVID-19 continues to have these surges, both the health systems and the communities would really be in great stress.”
If Tropical Storm Laura does undergo rapid intensification, says Jim Kossin, a researcher at NOAA and the University of Wisconsin, “It’s very likely that climate change is playing some role in that.”
“People just wanted to forget about it and move on. There was nothing they were proud of, nothing they accomplished. They were just victims,” said former UW chancellor John Wiley.
Linda Plutchak recalled the morning of August 24, 1970. She was a graduate student in UW’s school of education at the time.”I drove on to University Avenue at about seven in the morning,” she said. “There was smoke everywhere and there were fire engines everywhere, and it was just an absolute mess, and I had had no idea what was going on.”
While UW-Madison rebuilt Sterling Hall, the Wisconsin Historical Museum has collected several artifacts over the years from bombing. One of those is part of the engine that was inside the van that contained the bomb and blew up.
