GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The leader of a local hospital’s Coronavirus task force is calling President Trump’s planned Saturday rally a bad idea.
The head of the Bellin Health Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Robert Mead, warns that the rally could become a “super spreader” event and adds that even though the rally is set to take place outside, it’s still not a good idea.
“Outside probably reduces the risk somewhat,” said Dr. Mead. “But if it was that big of a difference, all the experts advising the NFL would say go ahead and have all your games, and have a full stadium.”
Mead says the local situation surrounding COVID-19 is dire, and that hospitals across the area, including Bellin, are struggling.
“Our hospitals are full,” Dr. Mead told WTAQ. “We’re having to shift beds, we’re having to move people around in the hospital to come in [to work]. We have three times the number of COVID patients right now than we had in April.”
Doctors and nurses at the hospital are working mandatory double shifts on a short staff. Mead says they’re even trying to call nurses back from retirement and from outside the area just to keep up with demand.
Northeast Wisconsin is one of the most active places in the country for COVID-19 transmission.
The rally, Mead says, puts the community at risk, but adds that it isn’t a political thing: Bellin Health is discouraging all forms of mass gathering right now.
If the President insists on coming anyway, Mead says he should insist people wear masks and stay six feet apart from each other.
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