That can’t be right.

The experts, Democratic politicians, liberal commentators and the political left warned that Wisconsin would become the ultimate example of how to spread the deadly COVID-19 plague.

It would be so because Wisconsin is completely open, without the coronavirus lockdowns, school and restaurant closings, mask wearing and social distancing requirements the experts insisted were absolutely necessary.

Wisconsin has been open since May 13 when the four Republicans on the state Supreme Court overruled the three Democrats and declared that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers didn’t have the authority to extend the state’s “Safer at Home” lockdown until May 26.

Death, we were assured, awaits breakers of the given word. Evers called his state “The Wild West.” Ominously, the media published images of bars packed with people, who presumably within days or weeks would be dead.

Didn’t happen.

Sure one day doesn’t tell the story. So let’s look at the cumulative toll: (here and here)

Illinois, 6,647; Wisconsin, 744.

For those who ripped me for comparing Illinois with Florida, I’ll throw in that state’s fatalities. Deaths yesterday: 17; total deaths: 3,144.

You, of course, will recall that Florida was trashed for opening “too soon.” It still is being ridiculed, as the state records an uptick in the number of cases. That’s due to increased testing and an expected case increase because the coronavirus is quite contagious.

But again, the statistic that counts most is deaths, followed by hospitalizations. Deaths are most important because it is the only way to determine how “deadly” the disease actually is. It is the figure that the experts themselves chose to use when some predicted that two million Americans would die and that hospitals would be packed beyond breaking with COVID-19 cases.

Does the Wisconsin experience prove that nothing should have been closed? No, I don’t think so. But it throws a further wrench into the certainty of those most dire predictions. And adds substance to the argument that the lockdown measures unnecessarily crippled the jobs, businesses and the American economy.

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