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Tuesday is start of mobile vaccination pilot program

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Tuesday marks the start of a mobile vaccination program in Wisconsin. It’s a partnership between the The Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin National Guard.

DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said program will launch with nine teams tasked with supporting local and tribal health departments as needed

“We’re starting small to learn, and we will grow as we move forward,” Willems Van Dijk said.

Each 12-to-15 person team will include members who will remain with people after they received their vaccination.

“We know there have been instances of anaphylaxsis in regard to it (the vaccine), so we want to do this as safely as possible, not as rushed as possible.”

It’s anticipated the teams will initially be able to vaccinate between 70 and 140 people per day, and grow from there.

Beware of scammers offering to get you a COVID-19 vaccine for cash, says DATCP

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The state’s consumer protection division has been getting reports of scammers trying to trick people into paying to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Administrator Lara Sutherlin says those scams have come in various forms, from spam emails to robocalls to text messages.

Sutherlin says these claims fall squarely into the realm of ‘too good to be true’.

“What’s clear is you cannot pay someone to get on a list to get it faster and that’s what the scammers are often telling folks.”

“So if you’re getting unsolicited emails or texts or phone calls from people and entities telling you we can get you the vaccine and we can get it faster, you should ignore those emails.”

If you’re worried about getting a vaccine, contact your doctor or insurance company, and never ever pay someone who calls you out of the blue asking for gift cards, prepaid debit cards or money orders.

Governor Evers, Prevea Health roll out vaccination center in Green Bay

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Prevea Health and UW-Green Bay are teaming up to provide a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Kress Events Center.

As the clinic opens, law enforcement and fire personnel are becoming eligible for their shots. Governor Tony Evers says groups in Phase 1B and beyond just have to be patient.

“You will get vaccinated, as sure as I’m standing here, but we have to make sure that people are patient. We cannot do 90,000 [vaccinations of] 65 and older people in one day. It takes time.”

Prevea CEO Dr. Ashok Rai says while the goal is to provide over 10,000 doses each week – they have to start off slow for the first few weeks.

“Our goal is always to aim small, miss small. So today we’re doing 100 inoculations. And we’re allowed to do law enforcement and fire, so we’ll start with them today and will continue to expand every day to get to that 50 percent to 60 percent capacity, and then get our [second shots] going.”

Rai says while the clinic took just five days to set up, everything is aimed to maintain quality, safety, and HIPAA protections.

 

WTAQ

Rep. Gallagher heading to inauguration, despite threats

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The presidential inauguration is now just about a day away, but concerns over protests and potential violence remain high with the events of January 6th still fresh in mind.

Congressman Mike Gallagher plans to attend, but says he will have his guard up. 

“I know the same is true of federal law enforcement and local law enforcement, and I would assume the same is true for law enforcement professionals in Madison. So yeah, I do have concerns.”

He also says what happened on January 6th on Capitol Hill was disappointing.

“At the end of the day, the peaceful transfer of power is one of many things that makes America so special and remarkable. We can’t take it for granted.”

Gallagher says the intense National Guard presence and proactive defense strategy in Washington gives him some confidence. But he adds that it’s important for lawmakers to ask what they can do to reach across the aisle and slow the escalating cycle of hateful rhetoric.

WTAQ

Andrea Palm leaving DHS for Biden administration

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President elect Joe Biden has named Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm to his administration.

Governor Tony Evers’ office confirmed Monday that Palm will be nominated to be Deputy Secretary of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, rejoining the federal agency in which she served during the Obama administration.

“Andrea Palm is a public servant through and through—she’s been a critical part of our administration and a consummate professional who has done an extraordinary job helping lead our state during an unprecedented public health crisis. I know she will continue to serve our country just as she has our state—with empathy, kindness, and tenacity. I wish her our very best as she leaves us to take this new opportunity.”

Palm’s last day will be Inauguration Day, Wednesday.

Evers nominated Palm to lead DHS in January 2019, but her conformation was blocked by then Senate Majority Leader, Scott Fitzgerald. Republicans who opposed her job cited her decision to name a former Planned Parenthood lobbyist as deputy secretary.

They’ve also been highly critical of Palm’s leading role in the response to the coronavirus pandemic, and have called for her to be fired.

Evers also announced that Karen Timberlake, DHS secretary under former Governor Jim Doyle during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus response, will serve as DHS interim secretary, beginning January 25.

Assembly set to rework Senate COVID-19 relief bill

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Rep. Jim Steineke

Republicans who control the Wisconsin Assembly will be amending a COVID-19 relief bill passed by the state Senate, and which Governor Tony Evers has said he’d sign.

Majority Leader Jim Steineke said Assembly Republicans were cut out of what began as three way negotiations with the Senate and Evers.

“After the New Year the senate went directly to the governor to negotiate their package with the governor. Which they have the right to do, but we also have the right to try to work on our own ideas.”

On WKOW‘s Capitol City Sunday, Steineke said his caucus wants a final bill to include provisions like preventing employers from requiring workers to get vaccinated, and restricting local health departments’ ability to close or limit business capacities.

“One of the things that we wanted to ensure is that nobody in the state was required by their employer to take the vaccine. That’s not a partisan issue. There’s Democrats and Republicans that agree with that. That’s not a partisan issue and I don’t think that’s one that would cause the governor to veto the bill.”

Steineke said the Assembly would bring the bill back to the floor on January 26 for amendments.

Record COVID-19 deaths over weekend as 7 day average and hospitalizations continue to decline

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A record number of COVID-19 related deaths were reported over the weekend in Wisconsin.

The 128 deaths reported by the state Department of Health Services on Saturday exceeded the 120 deaths reported on December 22. There was just one additional death reported on Sunday for a total of 5,451 since the start of the pandemic.

DHS reported 3, 543 positive confirmed cases over the weekend on 13,640 tests. The key seven-day positive percentage is now at 8 percent, down from 11 percent at the beginning of the month.

The number of coronavirus hospitalizations in Wisconsin continues to decrease. The Wisconsin Hospital Association dashboard showed 853 hospitalized patients as of Sunday, a number last seen on October 6, and down from a mid-November high of 2,277. The number of ICU patients was 207.

Hospitals are reportedly at 83 percent capacity, according to the Department of Health Services. Since the start of the pandemic, 4.4 percent of 512,764 people confirmed positive for COVID-10 have required hospitalization.

Evers responds to news there’s no federal vaccine reserve

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The federal government’s reserve of coronavirus vaccine has turned out to be nonexistent.

Governor Tony Evers addressed the issue, during a Friday media conference call. “Our ability to move more quickly is based upon getting vaccines from the federal government who owns those vaccines.”

Evers said governors were assured on a conference call with the vice president this week, that the feds would be releasing remaining doses.

“And that would’ve been good news. We would have more vaccines to distribute, we could get to 1B quicker. All the things that are necessitated in order to do a good job here. In any state, frankly,” Evers said, adding that media reports now indicate that “the cupboard’s bare in Washington, D.C.”

The Washington Post reports the Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December, taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line.

Later on Friday, Evers and Governors Tim Walz of Minnesota and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan sent a letter, to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

It has become abundantly clear that not only has the Trump administration botched the rollout of the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, but also that the American people have been misled about these delays. Pfizer just announced that as of yesterday, they have millions of doses of the vaccine on hand and are waiting on addresses from the Trump administration so they can deliver the vaccine to states. If you are unable or unwilling to give us that supply, we urge you to grant permission for us to directly purchase vaccines so we may distribute them to the people of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as quickly as possible.

Republicans who control the Wisconsin legislature have been critical of the Evers’ administration coronavirus vaccination efforts.

 

Fitzgerald stops short of blaming Trump for inciting violence

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Wisconsin congressman Scott Fitzgerald won’t blame Donald Trump for inciting the crowd that stormed into the US Capitol last week, an episode resulted in the deaths of 5 people.

“It’s just hard for me to believe right now, that that entire crowd was somehow fired up just by the speeches of the day to take that action. I’m not going to say there wasn’t an element of them, and they might be supporters of the president, they might not be. But I think that’s why you’ve got to do a full investigation.”

In an interview Thursday with WisPolitics, the newly elected 5th District Republican said it would be “troubling” if some Trump supporters interpreted the president’s fiery speech the morning of January 6 as incitement to storm the Capitol.

“Yeah I think he definitely fired up that crowd in a way, that some people may have believed he meant ‘got to the Capitol and intimidate.’ And if that’s the way those people perceived it. That’s troubling. That certainly is troubling.”

Fitzgerald said it’s wrong to assume that the people who participated in last week’s violence are representative all Trump voters. He said he attended numerous Trump rallies.

“This summer, some of the events, the campaign events. Boat parades on Okauchee Lake with hundreds and hundreds of boats and people. I mean they’re such great people that supported the president, and they would come together for these rallies. They’re normal Wisconsinites.”

But he also accused some Democrats of making that claim. “It’s being used, because I heard it on the floor of the House being used, to lump everybody together into one category and say, ‘all 75 million people that supported Trump or voted for Trump, you’re terrible people,’ and that’s a scary thing too.”

State will launch mobile COVID-19 vaccination teams next week

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The state Department of Health Services plans to launch mobile COVID-19 vaccination teams, starting next week.

The Mobile Vaccination Program is to roll out on Tuesday, with nine teams, and will expand in later phases of vaccine deployment. The goal is to accelerate deployment of COVID-19 vaccinations across Wisconsin.

The teams will be staffed by the Wisconsin National Guard and volunteer nursing and pharmacy students from the University of Wisconsin.

Governor Tony Evers on Friday also said he’ll issue a new public health emergency and 60-day mask mandate extension. That order requires everyone age 5 and older to wear a face covering when indoors or in any enclosed space open to the public.

As of Friday, nearly 31,000 Wisconsin residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said just over 213,000 vaccine have been administered thus far.

“That incudes 30,780 second doses, which means 30,780 of our health care workers or nursing home residents in Phase 1A have completed their vaccine series.”

Willems Van Dijk said most of those second doses were administered this week.

DHS reported 2,268 new positive COVID-19 tests as of Friday, for a seven day positive test rate of 25.9 percent. There were 32 additional deaths for a total of 5,322.