Wednesday, April 29, 2020

In-person voting didn't lead to spike in COVID-19, but concerns remain

From JSOnline:

, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel


Hali Fisher, 24, waits in line to vote at Riverside High School in Milwaukee. The Wisconsin primary election moved forward in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic after Gov. Tony Evers sought to shut down the election in a historic move that was swiftly rejected by the conservative majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. (Photo: Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)


Three weeks after Wisconsin residents cast ballots, researchers see no spike in COVID-19 cases attributable to in-person voting, though they say the effect from the election may be hidden in the numbers and difficult, if not impossible, to ever detect.
Predicted by some experts and officials, a surge in cases from the chaotic day of voting may have been prevented by precautions embraced at the polls. Wisconsin residents also appeared to follow the stay-at-home orders carefully in the days after the election, data show.
For roughly a week after the April 7 election, residents in most counties in the state rarely traveled from their homes and didn't gather in large numbers, according to cellphone data analyzed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other universities across the country.
In other words, the vote occurred during what appears to be Wisconsin's most compliant period of social distancing.
More recent data show that compliance with the stay-home orders is waning, both in Wisconsin and nationwide.

Why is it so difficult for our "leaders" to admit when they're wrong?

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