Damakant Jayshi

The Marathon County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a resolution opposing any future COVID-19 mandates by a large margin, after weeks of discussion.

The board passed the measure 26-7 after adding two amendments that made the resolution more hardline. One amendment, proposed by Supervisor Chris Dickinson, included county employees, not just residents.

Supervisor John Robinson said he was concerned that amendment might impose limitations on the county administration to keep employees and county jail inmates safe, since they are in close proximity inside the jail.

He also said the amendment could impact the county’s Health Department employees who have to attend to people with communicable diseases like tuberculosis and typically need to wear masks. Robinson wondered how the county’s insurer would react to such a provision and said the administration needs a maximum amount of flexibility to protect the county’s interests, both from a legal and an employer perspective.

Dickinson responded by saying that there is no mention of tuberculosis in the resolution. He insisted the resolution protects employees who could become ill from forced testing, masking and isolation requirements, thus restricting their ability to work and earn money.

Supervisor Yee Leng Xiong also raised concerns about the insurer’s reaction to the resolution if an employee provision was added. Corporation Counsel Michael Puerner said he had no information as to how the insurer will respond.

Xiong then asked whether the resolution could place county residents at risk if a tuberculosis outbreak emerged, but Puerner said the county will continue to follow state statues related to communicable diseases such as TB.

The other amendment, proposed by Supervisor Tony Sherfinski, replaced “should” with “shall” in the last “Whereas” and “Now, therefore, be it resolved” paragraphs in the resolution. That second amendment also removed “unless required by law” from the two paragraphs.

The resolution aims to prevent the county from imposing any mandates related to COVID-19 vaccination, masking or isolation.

However, the county’s Corporation Counsel Michael Puerner said last week that the county has no such authority, anyway. The impact of the resolution is unclear, as Puerner stated unequivocally that the county does not have the statutory power to mandate such issues.

There are no such mandates under public consideration at the local or federal level.

Despite the role of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing death and hospitalizations, suspicion – some of it rooted in genuine fear given the speedy development and rollout of the vaccines – about the shots has not faded.

Of the nearly one million people who died of COVID-19 in the U.S., “a huge share of them didn’t have to,” NPR reported, referring to data from the Brown University School of Public Health’s Vaccine Preventable Deaths Dashboard.

The dashboard shows preventable deaths in each state had the people opted to take the available vaccines. In Wisconsin, of the 9,154 people who died due to Covid, deaths of 5,445 people were deemed preventable.