While 1,100 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, Sen. Ron Johnson says overcrowding no worse than 'bad flu season'
Drake BentleySen. Ron Johnson on Friday said hospital overcrowding in Wisconsin due to COVID-19 is no worse than what happens during "a bad flu season” — contrary to what data shows and what hospital workers and health care systems have been saying.
Johnson, who is unvaccinated and had COVID-19 in 2020, made the comments at a town hall meeting in Boulder Junction, as reported by Wisconsin Public Radio.
"Just because it happens with COVID doesn't mean there’s some massive crisis in terms of our health care system," he said.
More than 42,000 people total have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin. At the virus' peak last fall, the daily load on hospitals was more than 2,000 people, with more than 400 in intensive care units.
The flu hospitalized 7,520 people total — a record high — over the course of Wisconsin's most severe recent flu season, 2017-18.
As of Oct. 8, 1,162 patients infected with COVID-19 are in Wisconsin hospitals.
Hospitals around the state are again reaching their limits and have begun transferring patients, some "begging and pleading" to find open beds. And they're more short-staffed than they were in 2020, facing both a physical capacity issue and an exhaustion borne of a seemingly never-ending pandemic.
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Most people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, health care system leaders have said.
Johnson also repeated misleading and false claims about the vaccine Friday night, questioning their efficacy and incorrectly saying a federal database shows thousands of people have died because of the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the Wisconsin Hospital Association, communities in rural Wisconsin are registering the highest COVID-19 case counts.
Vilas County — where Johnson spoke — has more than 127 cases per 100,000 people. Menominee County is the highest, registering nearly 200 cases per 100,000 people.
Johnson won Vilas County by 25 percentage points in the 2016 election. Former President Donald Trump won the county by 22 percentage points in 2020.
Johnson has not announced whether he will seek re-election in 2022.
As of Oct. 8, nearly 8,100 Wisconsinites have died from COVID-19.
Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 or DBentley1@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS.