Parisi Statement: State Legislature Extends Pandemic, Ends Wisconsin Mask Requirement

February 04, 2021
Ariana Vruwink, 608-267-8823
County Executive

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi issued the following statement after the Wisconsin State Assembly adopted a resolution today ending Wisconsin’s rule on wearing masks:

“As Wisconsin heads into the coldest week of weather we have seen in this pandemic – a time in which more of us will be indoors – the legislature just made that more dangerous.

“Our state and nation have suffered because critical decisions needed to manage this pandemic have been politicized from minute one by those whose ideology orchestrated today’s vote. Science, medicine, and most businesses all agree: this is the wrong decision at the wrong time and goes against what should be a shared goal of keeping people healthy and restoring consumer confidence to get our economy back to what it was.

“Today’s vote will extend this pandemic and delay our recovery. This is why Dr. Fauci has recently championed double-masking, to blunt the ability of rapidly advancing new, more dangerous mutated variants of Covid from establishing a foothold. We’ve seen what happens when politics takes precedence over science: over 450,000 Americans have lost their lives.

“Dane County continues to have mask orders in place and we encourage other local units of government to join us in trying to end this pandemic once and for all.”