The Daily - When the Pandemic Came to Rural Wisconsin

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

When the pandemic struck, Patty Schachtner, in her capacity as both a member of the Wisconsin State Senate and chief medical officer for St. Croix County, tried to remain one step ahead. It was an approach criticized by many in her conservative community. She was preparing for the worst-case scenario. And now it has arrived — cases and deaths are on the rise in Wisconsin. We chart her journey through the months of the pandemic.Guest: Julie Bosman, who covers the Midwest for The New York Times, spoke with Patty Schachtner over several months about how she was experiencing the pandemic.We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurveyFor more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: The recent coronavirus outbreak in Wisconsin has escalated rapidly. Here is our case tracker for the state.As coronavirus cases rise across the United States, death rates have been rising far more slowly. But there are signs that this is shifting. Last week, Wisconsin was among a number of states that recorded more deaths in the previous seven days than in any other week of the pandemic.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today. From the earliest days of the pandemic, my colleague, Julie Bosman, began talking to an official in rural Wisconsin who was preparing for the worst. The worst has now arrived.

It's Friday, November 20th. Hello, Patty? Oh, thanks. Thanks for calling back. I was working with some new technology and needed a little assist to figure it out. Julie, tell me about Patty. I first got to know Patty Schockner in 2018. She was a Democrat who had just won a seat in the Wisconsin State Senate, and she won in a pretty conservative area.

and she won in a pretty conservative area. St. Croix County is 94,000 people, very rural. Where I live, we're right next to the snowmobile trail. So, you know, I just love that. Every winter, that's the best part, is really hopping on our snowmobiles and going. And it seemed to me that one of the reasons that she had won that seat was because she was such a known person in the community. My dad's family's been here forever.

And, you know, my parents graduated from high school in Somerset. Me and my husband graduated from high school in Somerset. Our kids all graduated from high school in Somerset. And now we have grandkids in Somerset. So, yeah, we've got some pretty deep roots here. So Patty served in the state legislature in Wisconsin, but that is really only a part-time job. Her day job, one that she had held for several years, was the chief medical examiner in St. Croix County. And what does it mean to be a medical examiner in a county like that? In Patty's case, she directed a team of four other investigators. And these were the people who showed up when there was a car accident, when there was a suicide, when there was a gun death, when there was any kind of death that happened under suspicious circumstances or when no one else was there when the death occurred. So it was Patty's job to go there, gather the evidence, work with other agencies and figure out what had happened. and figure out what had happened.

And this job requires Patty to work with families during what is probably the worst moment of their lives. It's our job to be able to, you know, connect with them and be able to help them really adjust to this new life without that person that they love so much. us to this new life without that person that they love so much. And if we do it wrong, we can cause negative impacts onto the family and cause more trauma. They're dealing with trauma. And as a death investigator, you acknowledge that you will be a trigger to people forever. Because if they call 911 and ask for, you know, ask for an ambulance to help save their loved one, when they see you as a first responder, you're always that

person that did everything you could to help. But as a last responder, you're the person that took all that hope away. And you confirmed that my loved one was deceased. We are continuing to follow new developments of the spread of the mysterious coronavirus. World Health Organization officials holding an emergency meeting today. So as the pandemic begins, Patty was in a really unique position. As a lawmaker, she was thinking about how to protect her constituents. And as the chief medical examiner, it's her job to plan for a worst-case scenario. Back in China, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak

is rising over the weekend to 361 cases. So she was glued to the news from China. Our top story, Italy is closing all schools, universities, and cinemas. She was watching very closely what was happening in Italy. The death toll there has jumped to 107 now. And she was thinking, what do I do if this virus comes to my rural county

in western Wisconsin? You know, when you work in emergency services, you plan all the time for events, whether it's a plane crash or a bus crash or a tornado. But you plan and you plan and you plan. So Patty is counting hospitals. She's counting ventilators. She's thinking about what is going to happen if this actually comes here. There are certain things that I wanted to make sure that we had because as a medical examiner, I knew what we had for resources on crematoriums, funeral homes,

who had coolers, who didn't have coolers, where would these bodies go? What would happen if you had multiple people at one time die and you didn't have the resources to pick them up? And every horror story we heard of, it made me think of, okay, what would we do when and if this happened here? So that's why we made the decisions that we did to get a refrigerator truck ahead of time and secure it so that we would have it. And I think nothing better encapsulates how much planning Patty was doing than her decision in March to rent a refrigerated truck in case there were so many deaths that the funeral homes couldn't handle the capacity. And this was before there was a single confirmed coronavirus case in her county. So well before the rest of us,

she is planning for the worst. Patty just seemed to be one step ahead or sometimes several steps ahead in the planning. And I realized at this point that this was going to be a really interesting person to keep in touch with as the pandemic went on. Did you get any reaction from people you knew, from people in the community about the preparations that you were making? Oh, yes. Yes. I mean, this was all happening

in New York. It's not going to happen here. I mean, you're talking spring break, you're talking the end of the winter in Wisconsin. People want to do stuff. They want to be engaged with people. You have to remember at this point, the virus really did feel like it was something that was happening in cities in New York, in Los Angeles, Chicago, Milwaukee, but it didn't feel like it was happening in places like St. Croix County, which are very rural. But despite that, Tony Evers, the Democratic governor, issued a pretty sweeping stay-at-home order. And that really upset a lot of people in Paddy's County who chafed at these restrictions and felt that they were really unnecessary. county who chafed at these restrictions and felt that they were really unnecessary? Around here,

because, you know, being a Democratic senator in a Republican area, there were people that just, you know, I was fear mongering that it wasn't true. It's just a whole. And when you look at a population of 94,000 and they say there's 23 people with COVID, you're like, well, what's the big deal? What does it matter? It's not going to impact me. I don't know them. I don't know anybody who has COVID. But Patty was adamant. She was looking at the science.

She felt that it was better to be prepared for a situation that might happen than to not be prepared. So at the time, she was really advocating for people to stay home. She was advocating for people to social distance. She was trying to do everything that she could to prevent the virus from coming to her county. And as the summer kind of began, just thinking about that time, it seems like it was just kind of a steady little trickle of cases like throughout, you know, June, July, what was happening with the refrigerated truck and everything that you had done to prepare? Was that just kind of sitting there waiting? Or

what was what was happening? Yeah, yeah. So it wasn't plugged in. It was there and we just had it on standby. There was one time when we did use it during the summer, we had to turn it on and use it. But yeah, it was just there, but I just was not prepared to send it back because I was afraid that if I sent it back, I wouldn't get another one if I needed it. Did it bring you a kind of comfort just knowing that it was there in case you needed it? Yes. Yes, it did. Truly, it did. So she's not starting to second guess herself at this point? She's not second guessing her preparations. But in her personal life, I think like everyone else,

she's trying to navigate all of this and figure out what the right balance is. We were pretty, you know, cautious of where we went and who we did business with from the very beginning and paid more attention. My husband and I do a lot of motorcycling and, you know, we changed a lot of the ways we did things. Did you have motorcyclist friends who went to Sturgis? I did. For example, there's this very well-known motorcycle rally called Sturgis in South Dakota. It happens every year in August, and it attracts hundreds of thousands of people from around the Midwest.

And she and her husband were talking about going. Did you go? I did. And actually, we were supposed to go. And no, we did not go. And, you know, thought long and hard about it. But I just was like, you know, my husband and I both, because we really were excited about going this year

and just decided, no, we just couldn't. Just because we've been there before, we know how in close contact everybody is. Ultimately, she and her husband decided not to go to Sturgis, which in retrospect turned out to be a very good decision because Sturgis was a super spreader event that was responsible for seeding virus throughout the Midwest. Tonight, hospitals in the Midwest and the Great Plains are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients. And roughly one third of all new cases are coming from the Midwest. So coming into the fall, they were seeing six cases a day, nine cases a day. And then in October...

They're facing a pandemic that is now out of control in the state of Wisconsin, so bad... Wisconsin just set two records no one wants, the most daily COVID cases and deaths the state's ever seen. The numbers are really starting to increase at a pretty alarming pace. More than 17,000 new cases of the virus over the past seven days. One hospital system saw a 500% rise in COVID patients in the last few weeks. More cases here in the state of Wisconsin every day than you saw in New York at the height of the pandemic in the spring.

And this is when things start to look really scary in St. Croix County. St. Croix County officials told WCCO it is one of many counties that have seen a sharp rise in COVID cases in the order. Yeah, we started seeing in October, we really started seeing the numbers increasing with our schools and then our nursing homes. And, you know, suddenly you were knowing more and more people who were testing positive. Our public health system itself was really being taxed. It was like a snowball. It just all of a sudden the reality of what everyone said was going to happen was actually happening. But what Patty is seeing at the time is that people are behaving like nothing is happening.

They're still holding large weddings indoors. They're still going on weekend trips and getting on airplanes. And they're still going to the bars and going to restaurants. And she's kind of looking around with dismay, wondering when people are going to start taking all this seriously. Do you ever see someone on the street who's not being safe? Someone in the grocery store is not wearing a mask and you just feel yourself getting angry? Has anything like that happened? So I did.

And someone was being a little snarky because I had a mask on and I just said, you're welcome. Where was that? It was in the supermarket. What did this person say to you? Take that effing thing off. And I said, you're welcome. And he says, what do you mean you're welcome? And I said, well, obviously, I care more about you than you care about me.

And I walked away. And he just kind of sat there with his mouth open and I just left it at that. And at the same time, throughout the fall, you have an election approaching. And on top of everything else, Patty is up for reelection as state senator. What's happening with your campaign at this point and how, you know, how worried were you about trying to keep your seat in November? You know, I was very worried about, you know, was I going to be able to keep it? And I knew they were coming after me. I had a big target on my back. I knew that they were outspending me. What made you worried though? When you said you

were worried about losing the seat, what in particular was it that made you worried? It was the way people were talking about COVID, that it was just not true, that it wasn't as bad felt like this was going to be a big effing mess. And she's not all that optimistic that she's going to win. I couldn't knock doors. I couldn't have events. I couldn't do anything that you normally do. You know, I could have, but it would have been against everything I believe as someone who is engaged in public health. lumping Patty in with a lot of other members of her party who are unpopular, like Governor Evers, who is not a popular figure in places like St. Croix County. Were you seen as a kind of government overreach? Do you think you were associated with that? Oh, for sure. Especially when it came to masks and anything that the governor wanted to do.

You know, and the governor was doing everything that he could do to keep people safe. You know, when you look at it, you have one side that's saying this thing is coming. It's going to be bad. It's going to be horrible. And you've got this other side saying, no, it's not that bad. It's not that big of a deal. You're not going to be impacted. You're like, okay, I'm going to take the side that's saying it isn't going to be bad, because that's the easy thing to do. The hard thing to do is, is to say, I'm going to trust the people that think it's going to be bad. But then what am I going to have to do? And on election night, did you did you watch from home? Or what did you do?

Yeah, I watched from home. I was out by me and my husband and just watched, you know, and I called my campaign manager at about, I don't know, maybe it was a tennis or so. I said, how's it look? And she told me it doesn't look good. And I said, should I call him? And she said, well, let me confirm. And she called me back. She goes, yep, go ahead, call him. And I called him. And that was it. To concede. Yep. But she didn't seem very upset about losing her seat.

And you have to keep in mind that at this moment, the virus is completely out of control in Wisconsin. It's completely out of control in her community. And she's really focused on that. And it wasn't long after the election that I got a message from Patty telling me that the coronavirus had hit very, very close to home. Hey, Patty. Hi, how are you? Hi. How are you doing? It's a lot. You know, the odds are we knew it was going to impact our family, but it's been impacting like gangbusters.

We'll be right back. It started about a month ago when my sister-in-law found out that she was positive. So by mid-November... Then after that, my brother-in-law got it, and he brought it home to my sister, who's a nurse. Multiple members of Patty's family have tested positive for COVID. And my dad tested positive last week, and now my niece, she's a nurse's aide, she just tested positive. And she works at the same facility where my dad is at. So she had to spend some time with him last night and then now she's going into quarantine. Oh my gosh. One thing after another. Yeah. And the scariest case was her dad, who's 88.

He has Alzheimer's, which is severe enough that he lives in a nursing home. And the virus hits him really hard. Within days of getting his positive test, he's very, very sick. And two days ago, he started refusing food and medication. And now he absolutely won't eat or take food, but he's still up and about. So today, we were able to get my mom in there, and she was completely gowned up with a suit and everything that she needed to have, and then they brought him into the room and her together. And me and my brothers watched and our kids watched from outside. And we got to observe their love for each other, the way they touched each other. You know, they've been married 63 years in January. Even though he has Alzheimer's. He had never forgot who my mom is. And as kids, he still knows who we are. And he loved life so much

that it's like you can just tell he knows he's dying and he doesn't want to. So, yeah. Sorry. What a rough time. Did your mom tell you what they said? No, and we didn't ask.

So that call was last Thursday, and a couple of days later, I got a text from Patty. Hello, Patty? Yep. Hi. Hi. Hi, Julie. Hey, I got your text. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Yeah, yeah. I tell you, when we first started chatting, I never thought this was going to be part of our conversation. Neither did I, and I'm so part of our conversation. Neither did I.

And I'm so sorry that it is. Yeah, I hear you. So it happened this morning? Yeah. We got a call this morning about six, you know, that it was going to be soon. And so we got my mom and that she could go in and be with him. And then me and my brothers and sister, we all gathered outside. Okay.

You got to go back. Yeah. And so we were there when he died. And we were talking to our sister from Iowa, Pauline. And so when we called Pauline, we told her that, you know, he was taking his last breath and she was listening to music on her phone and it, he couldn't get it to shut off at all. So while we were, while we were watching him die in the background was Rod Schwartz singing Forever Young.

Wow. And it was appropriate for him because he was such a strong man. You know, no matter what, you know that this is going to happen, but it doesn't make it easier. It just is really hard. When people talk about, you know, they're just old and that there, it's so irritating because no, he was not supposed to die from COVID. He was supposed to die from something else. something else. So, you know, now you sit back and you reflect on it and you, I, my sister-in-law and I were talking about it this morning and it's just like, you see someone not wearing a mask and you cannot help but be angry. I mean, I'm just the number of people that you personally know

who have COVID, people in your family who've had COVID. I mean, that just seems so extraordinary. I mean, how, when you kind of think about that and go one by one, like, how do you process having so many family members so sick with you? I mean, my family, pretty much all of us work in service. That's what we do. And I look at this and I wonder how we will be as a family on the other side and not be bitter in what our next steps will be. I know we'll always be together as a family, and I'm not even worried about that. What I'm worried about is how many people that we have to be able to process and be able to look at them with empathy and compassion if the experiences we have knock on their doors. if the experiences we have knock on their doors.

In the next few weeks, what do you think is going to happen in Wisconsin? How do you see this continuing to play out? Well, I think it's going to get really, really bad because people are ending just being defiant right now. But pretty soon, it's going to be the gun season where people are going to be going up to their cabins and large groups. And then right after that is Thanksgiving. So that pretty much tells you that December is going to be really, it's really going to be interesting. I mean, we did open up, I sent a memo to the county today that we are transitioning into, uh, the cooler is now open. This is the cooler that you bought back in March?

Yep. Yep. Yep. We've only had to open it once, but now we will be processing and it will be open for funeral homes that need it for overflow. When I was talking to a funeral director this weekend, they were like, okay, we have seven bodies in our prep room, which is a lot. And they had to turn on the air conditioning because of the odor. And now that we're moving into furnace season and all that, we have to really think about overflow. When your funeral homes tell you they're at capacity, you have to pay attention. Well, thank you. And I hope your family takes care and keep in touch. Oh, for sure. Thanks. Thanks.

We'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye. Bye. Julie, thank you for sharing this story with us. We appreciate it. Thanks, Michael. Thanks, Michael. This week, officials in St. Croix County voted against new restrictions to limit the spread of the virus. Ready, aim, fire! Ready, aim, fire! The funeral for Patty's father was held on Thursday.

An Air Force veteran, he was honored with a 21-gun salute. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. The tragedy that could happen is that one of your family members, you know, from coming together in this family gathering, actually could end up being hospitalized and severely ill and die. And we certainly don't want to see that happen. During a news conference on Thursday, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

urged Americans not to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday and to consider canceling plans to gather with relatives outside their households. All Americans want to do the right thing to protect their families, even when there are hard decisions to be made. We all must do our best to protect those around us. And the Georgia Secretary of State reaffirmed on Thursday night that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Trump in the state after a hand recount requested by Trump that took six days.

Trump is now seeking to block or delay the certification of the results in Michigan. The president has invited the state's top two Republican legislators to the White House today to seek their help in that effort. But the effort is unlikely to succeed. Biden won Michigan by 157,000 votes, and the two legislators meeting with Trump have previously said that they would abide by the outcome of the vote. The Daily is made by Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Mark George, Luke Vanderplu, Kelly Prime, Sindhu Yanasambandhan, MJ Davis-Lynn, Austin Mitchell, Nina Patuk, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Daniel Guimet,

Hans Butow, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoit, Bianca Gaver, Liz O'Balin, Aastha Chaturvedi, Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. Special thanks to That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.