Can you offer a note of optimism when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic?<\/p>\n
Mike Gousha, Marquette Law School\u2019s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, asked Jeanette Kowalik, the health commissioner of the City of Milwaukee, that question at the end of an online \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d interview on Wednesday, May 20.<\/p>\n
Kowalik tried, but it was a challenge to put a cheerful face on the impact the virus is having on Milwaukee and most of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely what\u2019s happening right now is like Haley\u2019s comet,\u201c she said. It was hard to anticipate \u201csomething at this level\u201d as a health crisis, she said, saying the United States as a whole was experiencing \u201cthese astronomical numbers\u201d of confirmed cases and deaths.<\/p>\n
The only option now is to continue social and physical distancing and use personal protective equipment such as face masks, Kowalik said, while awaiting development and widespread use of a vaccine to deal with the virus.<\/p>\n
A bit more optimistically, Kowalik said, \u201cThis is definitely an investment in our future\u201d to take all the steps that have shut down so many businesses, schools since mid-March, while stopping almost all travel. Following safety orders and guidelines has helped keep the situation from becoming worse than it has been.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is definitely something we\u2019ll look back and learn that we got through this,\u201d Kowalik said. She urged people to be careful of their own health, adding, \u201cI neglected my own health and made myself worse.\u201d Kowalik just returned from a medical leave. She did not provide details, except to say she has autoimmune issues.<\/p>\n
During the conversation, Kowalik said the number of deaths in both the city and county of Milwaukee has declined, testing for the virus has become more widely available, and \u201ccontact tracing\u201d to try to understand the spread of the virus had been substantially increased. \u201cWe\u2019re very mindful that there\u2019s progress, but we don\u2019t want to get too happy and celebrate,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re very concerned that we\u2019ll continue to see some upticks as the summer goes about.\u201d And it will not be a normal summer in terms of what people can do and how they do them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can assume we have COVID in our community; it\u2019s not going away,\u201d Kowalik said. People are eager to return to doing what they did before the virus hit, but protecting the health of people, especially those in vulnerable populations in a city such as Milwaukee, sometimes requires setting rules and limits, she said. \u201cThis is the role of government,\u201d Kowalik said. \u201cGovernment was meant to provide some protections when the public is unable to or unwilling to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due to current limitations, the \u201cOn the Issues\u201d event was conducted online, rather than in person in Eckstein Hall\u2019s Lubar Center, as has been the practice for a decade. The same will be true for an \u201cOn the Issues\u201d conversation with Milwaukee County\u2019s new executive, David Crowley, at 12:15 p.m. June 10.<\/p>\n