Glenn Grothman Puts on a Mask

We know that Wisconsin’s Republican leaders and the rightwing litigants who scour the courts for judges to overturn pandemic restrictions will not put two and two together and embrace simple mask wearing to save their neighbors and constituents’ lives — and perhaps someone living in their own homes.

But regardless of their free-to-be-a-menace recklessness, the latest science explains yet again that the rampaging killer virus could be stemmed with the simplest of personal behaviors:

If 95% of Americans wore masks in public, more than 100,000 lives could be saved from Covid-19 through February, a new modeling study suggests.
The study — from the Covid-19 forecasting team at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation — notes that, in September, only about 49% of US residents reported that they “always” wear a mask in public.

If mask-wearing is 49% through February and states continue with removing social distancing mandates, the Covid-19 death toll across the United States could reach about 1 million deaths by February 28, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Friday.

Wisconsin’s surge in COVID-19 is producing double the new cases in California where nearly seven times as people many live, and we’re also doubling Michigan and Indiana’s new case numbers, records show. Why is this not moving GOP Legislators to meet and help?

One Republican who shows some awareness of the problem is conservative Wisconsin congressman Glenn Grothman. And despite the ad’s many rambling tangents — from a pitch for Vitamin D (a good thing for seniors like me in our sunlight-deprived winters) to the robotically-Republican/xenophobic and off-note slam at China — give credit to Grothman for airing some masked-up images in a TV spot before its last-second reveal.

Screenshot from Grothman ad.

But Congressman, don’t put your hand in that whole bin…oops…well, too late.

Screenshot from Grothman ad.

James Rowen, a former journalist and mayoral staffer in Milwaukee and Madison, writes a regular blog, The Political Environment.