Johnson Says Overwhelmed Hospitals Not a ‘Massive Crisis’
The senator also criticized the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.
Sen. Ron Johnson speaks to reporters after a town hall Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, at Boulder Junction Town Hall in Boulder Junction, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
U.S. Sen Ron Johnson told those who gathered for a town hall meeting in northern Wisconsin Friday that vaccines against COVID-19 “are not as safe … and effective as we all hoped and prayed they would be,” and said overwhelmed hospitals weren’t a sign of a health crisis.
The comments come two weeks after Wisconsin surpassed 8,000 deaths from the pandemic disease and just days after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report suggesting the use of vaccines prevented 700 deaths in Wisconsin in the first five months of 2021 alone.
Johnson, who had an asymptomatic case of COVID-19 in 2020, said he hasn’t received the vaccine. He has spent months amplifying conspiracy theories and calling attention to rare cases of adverse reactions to it, as well as blasting medical authorities who say there’s no scientific evidence supporting the use of the drug Ivermectin as a prophylactic or early treatment for the disease.
Sen. Ron Johnson speaks to constituents during a town hall Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, at Boulder Junction Town Hall in Boulder Junction, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Johnson’s town hall Friday afternoon in far northern Boulder Junction included brief discussions of immigration, gerrymandering and climate change. But Johnson spent by far the most time at and after the event expressing his skepticism of the vaccine and his strong opposition to employer and government policies mandating it. He dismissed accusations that his actions are undermining public confidence in the vaccine.
But Johnson in the town hall made numerous false or misleading claims about the drug, including implying that a federal database that records all health events experienced by the hundreds of millions of people who have been vaccinated shows that thousands died as a direct result of the vaccine.
In fact, a new analysis by the Rural Policy Research Institute found death rates from COVID-19 in rural counties are now roughly double the rates in urban areas due to lagging vaccination rates in rural America.
Constituents listen to Sen. Ron Johnson as he answers questions Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, at Boulder Junction Town Hall in Boulder Junction, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
The room of around 150 people was overwhelmingly supportive of the senator, offering applause breaks and questions that teed up favorite topics. The northern region of Wisconsin voted overwhelmingly for former Republican President Donald Trump in 2020, and he won Vilas County by a 60-38 margin.
As Wisconsin experienced a spike in new infections in August and September, some hospital systems were overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. As recently as this week, central Wisconsin’s Marshfield Clinic was full to capacity.
Johnson said that is normal.
“A bad flu season will put stress, sometimes overwhelm hospitals for certain regions. That happens all the time,” he said. “Just because it happens with COVID doesn’t mean there’s some massive crisis in terms of our health care system.”
Sen. Ron Johnson speaks to reporters after holding a town hall Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, at Boulder Junction Town Hall in Boulder Junction, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Two questioners during the town hall said they had children who were facing being fired due to employers’ vaccine mandates. That included one who said his son was a military physician being “threatened with dishonorable discharge (and) pulling his medical license” because he is declining to give or receive COVID-19 vaccines. On Thursday, the website Military.com reported that 92 percent of active service members had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
“They are threatening to ruin him if he does not comply,” the questioner said. “Yes or no, will you help him if they do that?”
“Yes,” Johnson said.
Listen to the WPR report here.
Johnson: Hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients ‘doesn’t mean there’s some massive crisis’ was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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RoJo and all-in trumpers are in some sideways alternative reality that is a clear and present danger to representative democracy. At once, the persecutor and the persecuted, slacking their thirst, dipping their cups in a poisoned well.
Think what an improvement it would be if he was out of office, his mic turned off!
A recent quote from Prof. Timothy Snyder on Fascist Germany’s methods of swaying German public opinion: “They used new media, which at the time was radio, to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had time to ascertain facts. And now, as then, many people confused faith in a hughley flawed leader with the truth about the world we all share”. Concluding that , “Post-truth is pre-fascism”.
The death total in rural Wisconsin vs. urban Wisconsin is one unfortunate measure of the veracity offered by science vs. the baseless claims of flawed leaders like Sen. Johnson. Another will be the ability of democracy to survive in the face all this willing ignorance that currently dominates the change-fearing hinterlands of America.
Ben Franklin’s foreshadowing admonition: “We have a republic, if you can keep it” still seems to lack a firm answer.
The Democratic Party is alienating 30-35% of their voters by mandating COVID vaccinations on Democrats that don’t want to be vaccinated… Millions of Democrats are getting fired from their jobs because of Biden…
Joe Biden’s weekly approval rating dropped to 38% this week… And it will be lower next week…
Would you vote for Biden and the Democrats if they fired you from your job?
The Democrats are going to get slaughtered in the 2022 general elections… Remember this comment from NieWiederKrieg…
By early September 88% of Dems were vaccinated. Where does the 30-35% number cited above come from? The number now is likely to be 90%+.
Responsible people get vaccinated for covid19 and tell others they are vaccinated if asked. RoJo sounds like a well practiced moron every time he opens his mouth.
@JMcD
I didn’t say that 30-35% of Democrats are unvaccinated.
Millions of Democrats who don’t want to be vaccinated are getting the shot only because they don’t want to get fired from their jobs by Joe Biden. Furthermore, millions of Democrats are getting fired by Joe Biden because they refuse to get vaccinated.
P.S. – October 4, 20214:58 PM CDT – New York’s largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvaccinated workers (because of Joe Biden).
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/new-yorks-largest-healthcare-provider-fires-1400-unvaccinated-workers-2021-10-04/
Next up…. RoJo moves to Iowa and joins evangelical thug calls for Civil War while lamenting “personal” attacks on his freedom to be a subversive idiot. RoJo is one sick MoFo. It’s what rCons are these days.
@NieWiederKrieg
So…Millions of democrats who didn’t want the vaccine were still smart enough to get the vaccine when it had a personal impact. That sounds like a good government turning externalities into personal incentives.
Meanwhile, the medical field is flushing out all the bad apples who wouldn’t trust medical research for themselves but would gladly apply it to patients for money.
Personally, I thought Biden was kind of weak but now that I see him applying mandates and treating life & death situations seriously I support him a little more.
@NieWiederKrieg Actually, Northwell, the healthcare provider, itself impose the mandate. From the story you link to: “Northwell announced its vaccine mandate in August, weeks before the state requirement.” And that 1400 represents almost 2% of the companies workforce. Almost 2%.
i would vote for biden or any democrat or any sane adult who recognizes that the welfare of the whole is more important than the supposed rights of the demented few. would you like to see your child in the hospital fighting for breath?? or maybe you don’t have children, so you can be cavalier about everyone else’s. grow up niewiederkrieg.
@ czirbe & Dave Reid
Health care providers like Northwell imposed a vaccine mandate because of threats from Joe Biden….
August 18, 2021 – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that his administration will require that nursing home staff be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding. “”””“Vaccination mandates for health care personnel should be applied to all health care settings”””””, he said.
https://apnews.com/article/business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-nursing-homes-2e6189cd41068b1e0f643ee7e4bfbb92
Why is rojo still talking?
And, perhaps, more importantly – – why are any of us still listening/reading about his profound idiocy?
Includes me I guess as I had to skim the article to respond.
I dare Ron Jon to tell the therapist who collapsed in my hospital room in September that hospitals are not in crisis. Or the nurses are being told to work 17 hour shifts.
BTW flu season is just now beginning. This latest crisis began in August.