History

In the early 1980s, a new mysterious malady captured the attention of public health professionals. Initially labeled GRID, these clusters of illnesses seemed to largely be an issue only on the East and West coasts. But Wisconsin's government was taking action.
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Many discussions on a true return to "normal" — not just the phased, socially-distanced reopening of bars, restaurants and summer camps that's started in Wisconsin and around the world, but an actual rooting out of the virus — revolve around a vaccine that could be several years away.
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Police reform is an immediate action item for community organizers protesting the killing of George Floyd. Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities, discusses policing, the structure of white supremacy and changes demonstrators in Milwaukee are seeking.
Many people have heard of Typhoid Mary, but far fewer know the name Mary Mallon.
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Wisconsin has been an on-again, off-again swing state for a very long time. For more than a century, its voters have ridden waves of close elections or flip-flopping party allegiances.
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The combination of letters "w-a-u" appears pretty frequently in the names of places around Wisconsin. Think of the cities of Wauwatosa or Milwaukee. Is that just coincidence? Or something more?
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The protests to reopen Wisconsin aren't the first time the state has seen a backlash to aggressive public health measures. UW-Madison professor emerita Judith Walzer Leavitt discusses the1894 smallpox riots in Milwaukee and the lessons that were learned from them.
A highly contagious disease put the population in a panic. The government's response became politicized. Less affluent neighborhoods bore the brunt of the outbreak. The best medical science of the day was doubted. An aggressive protest against public health enforcement broke out.
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A report from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee shows how coronavirus is spreading along lines of segregation in north Milwaukee, and African Americans are being disproportionately impacted.
"Spanish flu" ultimately killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 across the U.S., including 8,459 people in Wisconsin. History is resonating more than a century later as the state fights a new viral villain that has upended life across the world.