First Responder Pleads With Legislature To Keep Mask Order In Place

OAK CREEK, WI— Oak Creek firefighter Jerry Biggart, who is part of the of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin, wants legislators to know how critical it is to keep the mask requirement in place. First responders encounter people every day, in small, confined spaces, who need help and are not wearing masks.

“Firefighters and EMS workers are dealing with the outcome of the COVID virus and with the amount of sick people that we are seeing, we’re very concerned should anything be done to decrease the amount of masks being worn by the citizens in our state,” Biggart said in a news conference Tuesday, adding that many firefighters and EMS workers in Wisconsin have contracted COVID. “There already are a lot of masks not being worn, so to make a point of letting more folks know that they don’t need to wear those, to me sends a public health message that somebody that isn’t involved in science in any way would find to [give] a false sense of security that they don’t need to wear one.”

Tuesday, the state Senate passed a resolution that would overturn Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate and public health order. The measure is scheduled for a vote in the state Assembly on Thursday. Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee) received a memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau that detailed how eliminating the public health order could make the state ineligible for more than $49 million in pandemic food support for people faced with hunger during the pandemic.

At the news conference, Biggart added that many first responders are long-haulers who cannot return to work due to continued complications from the virus; others have diminished lung capacity or need to quarantine after potential exposure. Biggart is a lieutenant and paramedic with the City of Oak Creek (south of Milwaukee), as well as an EMS instructor for the Milwaukee Fire Department.

“The problem for us is that we’re in these firehouses, which are pretty close, small spaces to begin with. Then we get into an ambulance or a fire truck, which are very small spaces, it’s impossible to physically distance,” he said.

While firefighters and EMS workers do have high-grade masks, their jobs take them into highly contagious situations. The Centers for Disease Control has issued guidance specifically for first responders based on the dangers inherent in their line of work.

In a study conducted by health care and EMS experts in Sept. 2020 for the Department of Defense, researchers explained the additional risk posed when such workers treat patients.

“Throughout the pandemic, EMS clinicians with limited personal protective equipment (PPE) have been treating patients in their homes and at trauma sites where they have had little to no opportunity to maintain safe distances from patients,” the doctors wrote. “They have to lift, move and carry their patients, increasing the possibility of mask leaks from movement and increasing respiratory demand from the effort. Sustained shortages of PPE have meant that EMS clinicians, their patients, their coworkers and their families have been at increased risk of contracting the virus.”

That is precisely what Biggart and his colleagues have experienced.

“We’re going into the houses where oftentimes nobody has masks on,” said Biggart, adding that it’s common to find a patient with COVID symptoms — low on oxygen and slowly suffocating — and no one in the home is wearing a mask.

“We’re putting masks on everybody else in the house. We know this person has COVID, because they’re displaying the signs and symptoms of it. Everybody in the house has now been around this person with no masks on.”

He says most first responders are receiving vaccines now, and that many have gotten a second shot, but he joined Democratic legislators at the press conference who are opposed to eliminating the mandate because he said he believes the message from leaders overturning the public health order is destructive.

The EMS1 Network keeps a list tracking people in the profession who die due to COVID-19. While not comprehensive, it lists Kelly L. Raether, age 42, an EMS captain from Ixonia who died from COVID-19 complications on Nov. 26, 2020. Her department posted the following tribute:

“The Town of Ixonia Fire Dept. & Emergency Medical Services regrets to inform you of a Line of Duty Death in the passing of active member, Kelly L. Raether. Kelly was taken from us peacefully, after a courageous fight with complications related to COVID-19. Kelly was a 15-year member, joining the department in November of 2005, and served the department as an Advanced EMT, EMS Lieutenant and most recently as EMS Captain. Kelly was also a Registered Nurse, working at Aurora Hospital in Hartford, as well as a Nursing Instructor at Carroll University in Waukesha. As a department, we mourn Kelly’s loss deeply, and extend our thoughts and prayers to the Raether family in their time of need.”

The Legislature’s resolution, which passed the Senate and is up for an Assembly vote Thursday, eliminates Gov. Tony Evers’ most recent public health order. Republicans argue that the governor only has the authority to declare one 60-day order and may not extend it without lawmakers taking action. Evers’ legal counsel views each order separately, and due to new pandemic circumstances he has issued three additional health orders. A case on the legality of these measures is currently before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Firefighters and EMS workers will continue to wear masks, despite having received the vaccine because so many questions remain on the degree of its effectiveness, new variants of the coronavirus and other unknown factors due to a lack of long-term data, he said.

“The whole thing is really just a disaster,” added Biggart. “And my biggest concern, taking all politics aside, is that any time somebody of authority, especially people that have been elected by them to sit at the Capitol, tells them or gives the impression that we can take our foot off the gas right now … that is very weak leadership. In my opinion, we, as leaders, set examples by doing the right thing.”

This story was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner. For more stories from the Wisconsin Examiner, visit WisconsinExaminer.com.