The Wisconsin legislature created public health statutes about a century ago so that state and municipal governments could work in tandem to fight serious deadly diseases like the 1918 influenza and the 2020 coronavirus.

In May, the Supreme Court ruled that the Wisconsin Department of Health Services did not have the authority to respond immediately to this virus, and unfortunately, yesterday they indicated that local health officers do not have the ability to close schools. This sends the message that neither the state nor localities should be taking common sense measures to protect the public from a deadly disease. That is very concerning, especially when today we hit our highest positivity rate since we began our fight against COVID.

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