The 2022 campaign Minnesota has focused mostly on inflation, public safety and abortion. Those are the top three issues that voters cite in nearly every statewide poll.
So, of course, the final debate Friday between the leading candidates for governor spent an inordinate amount of time on … COVID-19? During a 60-minute debate that sounded more like an argument, Gov. Tim Walz defended the state’s response to the pandemic, and GOP challenger Scott Jensen criticized it. In turn, Walz attacked Jensen’s national prominence as a COVID skeptic, and Jensen defended it.
On a question about learning loss from MPR News host Mike Mulcahy, Jensen blamed Walz for extensive school closures and the use of on-line schooling.
“I’m a family doctor,” Jensen said. “I’m running for governor because I think Minnesota is fractured, and I think Tim Walz’s policies of locking kids out of schools was incredibly damaging, and his policies of locking nursing home patients into the facility without the contact and dignity provided by loved ones is a horrible thing he did.”
On the Feeding Our Future meals program scandal, Jensen said the Walz administration could inspect restaurants to make sure they followed business closure orders but couldn’t drive by a feeding program falsely reporting thousands of meals a day.
Walz came back later to say the work thrown at the state, schools and health care by the pandemic was made more difficult by Jensen’s public doubts about the dangers of the virus, his claims that death counts were inflated and that unproven treatments were valid.
“If you’re auditioning for this job, Scott had an opportunity in the one area that is supposed to be his area of expertise and he found himself being one of the most … dangerous people when it came to COVID,” Walz said. “The only person praising him was Vladimir Putin.”
Walz said Jensen’s public position as a COVID questioner is why the Minnesota Medical Association endorsed him and not Jensen. Jensen claimed the association is a liberal organization that never endorses Republicans.
![Gov. Tim Walz: “Scott’s answer on [the coronavirus pandemic] was to question how someone died, never helping. Telling people not to wear the mask. He can’t even practice in hospitals because he can’t follow their procedures.”](https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/TimWalzDebate740.png)
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Evan Frost[/image_credit][image_caption]Gov. Tim Walz: “Scott’s answer on [the coronavirus pandemic] was to question how someone died, never helping. Telling people not to wear the mask. He can’t even practice in hospitals because he can’t follow their procedures.”[/image_caption]
Walz said the state doesn’t have to follow that recommendation and that there is a process under the Department of Health to consider additions. But Jensen said that wasn’t enough and that Walz should say no, as Jensen said he has pledged to do.
Is Jensen outside the mainstream among health professionals? He was asked.
“I think I’ve definitely been a skeptic,” Jensen said. Questioning how frequently the virus is listed as the cause of death “is where I first became identified as a skeptic.” Jensen had said that some patients who had COVID-19 would have died from other conditions and shouldn’t have been included in the counts.
Jensen said he thinks his public statements led to investigations by the state’s medical practice board. In fact, the complaints filed with the board did raise questions about his public support for unproven treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
Said Walz: “‘Out of the mainstream’ is a kind, kind characterization.” Walz repeated one of the excuses he has given for agreeing to three debates when he did more four years ago.
“This is a platform going out to the public,” Walz said. “Many of those, including the Minnesota Medical Association, are deeply concerned whenever Scott has a platform.” After citing the state’s death count — 13,463 — Walz said “Scott’s answer on that was to question how someone died, never helping. Telling people not to wear the mask. He can’t even practice in hospitals because he can’t follow their procedures.”
Jensen said that early use of ventilators on sick patients turned out to be a mistake, that health care providers learned that it often led to death and that other therapies were more productive. Many states over-purchased ventilators early in the pandemic’s early months.
“That’s why people were so desperate to stay out of the hospital,” Jensen said. But wasn’t the problem caused by the virus, Jensen was asked. “COVID was a deadly problem,” Mulcahy said.
“No, the ventilator was the deadly problem,” Jensen said. “We actually reduced death rates once we stopped using the ventilators.”
Walz responded: “Let’s be clear, when science changes its mind, they weren’t lying, they learned more. That’s the way the system works.”
Jensen said he now believes that the virus didn’t move from animals to humans in China but instead escaped from a lab in Wuhan.
When asked to respond, Walz said he “didn’t want to platform Scott any more on this.”
In a MinnPost/Embold Research statewide poll earlier this month, COVID-19 and the response to the pandemic was rarely cited by those polled as an issue that is a priority to them.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Evan Frost[/image_credit][image_caption]Scott Jensen on COVID deaths: “The ventilator was the deadly problem. We actually reduced death rates once we stopped using the ventilators.”[/image_caption]
But it also served as a chance for the candidates to make a closing argument to the relatively small segment of voters who say they are undecided.
“This election is about our future,” Walz said. “You’re gonna hear, and you’ve seen over this campaign, two very contrasting visions of Minnesota.” Jensen’s vision, Walz claimed, “is a dark and fearful Minnesota.”
Walz said the state came through tough times together and “we’ve come out stronger than ever. We offer up solutions to our toughest problems.”
Jensen said he became a doctor because he wanted to help people and is running for governor “because Tim Walz hurt people.
“Tim Walz failed. Minnesota is broken. We’re fractured. We’re (more) deeply divided than I can remember in my lifetime … there’s an opportunity for us to move forward but it’s going to new leadership.”
The previous two debates took place in Rochester last week and in August at Farmfest.
Early morning in the Twin Cities. Sun bathing homes across the street in a golden light. And I wonder how many adults in the senior living place in the next block are enjoying the morning, awake, still alive because they wore masks during the height of the pandemic. And I wonder how many children are waking to a new day, still alive because the Walz Administration mandated masking and social distancing and higher awareness of the Covid virus.
Masks don’t work for respiratory viruses, the jabs don’t prevent contracting covid or getting it, in fact emerging evidence suggest boosters have negative efficacy, and social distancing indoors as a preventative is entirely fictitious.
Walz record on COViD speaks for itself and it is bad. Kept children out of class with absolutely no evidence that they were at risk. Walz just fell in line with what the teachers union wanted, wonder why? Adding to his bad decision Walz now wants to spend more of our tax dollars for a “make up” session to let the children he kept out, catch up. Unlike DeSantis, who ran Florida beautifully, Walz put LTC patients with COViD back into the facility, leading to Minnesota having the highest percentage rate of LTC deaths. Walz showed no leadership at all. He fell in line with unions and talking heads during the COViD “pandemic”.
I guess if you characterize the CDC, MN Dept of Health and WHO as “talking heads”, you’re correct!
No BK I’m talking about leadership. When you are in charge of life changing policies, you had better be sure. CDC came out and said they were wrong, many people understood this long before the CDC came out with “we have to better” apology. States led by true leaders saw a few alarming numbers and pivoted early, Florida being the leader. Walz and Minnesota did the typical Blue state shuffle, follow other Blue states and not work for your constituents but follow the donkey right into the ditch.
Unfortunately you don’t understand anything about medical science, FL has a far different climate than MN, yet still did far worse in terms of mortality (as kelly barnhill demonstrates below), and FL students performed just as poorly as all students across the country did regardless of the covid regime adopted.
So your “DeSantis miracle” is a total rightwing myth.
Covid deaths per capita in Florida: 382 per 100k residents.
Covid deaths per capita in Minnesota: 227 per 100k residents.
South Dakota stands at 344/100k. North Dakota is 292/100k. Both Iowa and Wisconsin are higher than us as well.
If that kind of death count is “beautiful” to you, well then we have different definitions of that word. Walz did what was necessary to save lives. He couldn’t save everyone, but we were a hell of a lot better with him at the helm than some sociopath who puts a global pandemic emergency in quotation marks and who trusts magical thinking to win the day.
Thank you, Governor Walz, for prioritizing the lives and safety of Minnesotans.
Let’s see, best I understand it:
Covid was/is a world wide epidemic, global Inflation, is an after effect of Covid, (not just MN).
Most people on ventilators with Covid died? OK, if you are on a ventilator you are in pretty bad shape to begin with, the real measurement should be, relative to the death rate of those just as sick that never went on a ventilator.
So who didn’t expect students to fall behind because of a year of remote learning over Covid? Now ask the question would they have been better off sick and or dead from the infection rather than trying to learn via Zoom?
The Governor does not hire city police, MN is ~ the #8 safest state in the union, the bottom 13 are all red? Do we want to enter that distinguished group? The crime wave is nation wide, MN is not special one way or the other. Are ultra lefties part of the problem, yep, just like ultra righties and their gun worship.
Relative to the “Feeding our children” Fraud, Why has it taken the AG in NY ~ 18 years to file charges against the T**** organization, why aren’t the “R” folks complaining about the delay in justice? Why after over 2 years we are still going through the investigation of T**** and 1/6? why aren’t the “R” folks complaining about the delay in justice? Or the Georgia election interference?
Global markets are all down because of Covid, Ukraine war, supply chain issues, and inflation, all global problems, not because of local politicians of 1 party.
Funny how those doors swing when one is willing to look at a real not pretend or conspiracy riddled world.
And on and on and on. Better to deal with honesty, reality etc. than created fears and conspiracies, that’s how I vote, that’s how I live, reality over fantasy.
Jensen and Trump share the same delusions. With Trump you never know if he believes the nonsense he is saying. The concerning thing about Jensen is despite being trained as a physician he believes so much is untrue. More than a million Americans died from Covid-19, 4 times the global average. This is despite great medical care, enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone, clear behavioral guidelines and using isolation to prevent the spread. However when at least a third of the population doesn’t do what is expected and demands others don’t either, encouraged by quack doctors like Jensen, bad things happened. Jensen badly failed in Minnesota in a time of crisis. Walz is being charitable sharing a stage with him.
Jabs and Covid policy are proving to be far more damaging than Covid.
“Jensen had said that some patients who had COVID-19 would have died from other conditions and shouldn’t have been included in the counts.”
Does Jensen also believe that if a person with terminal cancer dies in a car crash, that person shouldn’t count as a traffic death?
other issues aside, the things Jensen says (and presumably believes) about COVID are downright scary. we need a level-headed chief with a strong track record to take us forward in 2023 and beyond.
“No, the ventilator was the deadly problem,” Jensen said. “We actually reduced death rates once we stopped using the ventilators.”
I don’t recall seeing this in the MSM. Why not? “In a MinnPost/Embold Research statewide poll earlier this month, COVID-19 and the response to the pandemic was rarely cited by those polled as an issue that is a priority to them.” Maybe that’s why.
The press was covering up for the poor decisions being made by the politicians.
This was well publicized as the pandemic progressed. At least I remember it.
But reducing the use of ventilators relatively early in the pandemic hardly materially slowed down deaths (and obviously not hospitalizations) from Covid. And as though anyone was claiming in April 2020 that doctors shouldn’t be using ventilators as hospitals desperately tried to figure out how to treat people with a disease killing thousands.
To act as though this was some great medical error at the time is appalling.
“I don’t recall seeing this in the MSM. Why not?” Because you chose not to look, only about 286,000 results!
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=ventilators+killing+covid+patients+
Just a thought here, you know ~ 75% of people with gunshot wounds die in the hospital, don’t you think the appropriate conclusion here is that people with gunshot wounds should not go to hospitals?
Sorry, should have said severe life threatening gun shot wounds.
Sounds like the two had an actual debate on the subject of the proper response to the pandemic and (as one would expect) a Covid crackpot and anti-vax “MD” came off looking worse. “The ventilator was the deadly problem”. Good lord, as if Covid deaths ceased when ventilator began to be used less frequently.
Jensen has thought this a great issue for him since day one, and all he has done in the eyes of any informed person is shown that he a far-right egotist whose judgment is absolutely terrible because he (quite erroneously) thinks he is the smartest guy in the room. Had he been governor during this unprecedented public health crisis, his “prescriptions” would have killed and sickened many more Minnesotans, just as happened in the upper Midwest “conservative” paradises of SD, ND and IA.
So Covid is just another issue about which Jensen is egregiously wrong. And proud of it, since it did gain him his minor celebrity status on the Rightwing Noise Machine.
What killed most covid patients was sending them home until they turn blue and then putting them on ventilators and remdesivir. A lack of pre-treatment of any kind, so as not to interfere with the jab EUA status and liability protections, and then a drug that causes renal failure but cost $2000 a course,and ventilators which made it worse.
I have severe doubts that you, as an un-degreed layman diligently searching the internet for confirmation bias, have a sound idea what “killed most covid patients”. And the idea that the Covid vaccines did not save countless lives and keep untold thousands out of hospitals in America is simply crackpot, whatever some “substack” sites may blather to the contrary.
Remdesivir is a failed ebola drug that failed in part because it is so toxic, causing renal failure. Ivermectin and Hydroxycholoriquine, along with Vitamin D & C plus zinc, is not toxic when used properly and quite effective, but all of it was cast as misinformation and even demonized, because it put the mRNA jab Emergency Use Authorization and liability protections at risk. Exactly like what Fauci did with AZT and AIDS. Remdesivir also is very expensive, as was AZT, which was even more toxic than remdesivir.
Why would you send people home with zero guidance, tell them to come back if they can barely breathe, and then give them a drug that causes renal failure?
Substack is a last bastion of free speech, where many people have gone to discuss actual research and actual numbers, that are otherwise forbidden.
Sort of like this study on censorship around covid: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11024-022-09479-4
Or this discussion about collapsing birth rates since the jabs in the EU: https://vigilantfox.substack.com/p/infertility-concerns-dropping-birth
or this, on the mechanics of “nudging”: https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/vaccine-like-inoculation-of-minds
Or these videos and articles from many doctors who were supporters of the jabs until they looked at the actual evidence: https://thefreethinker.substack.com/p/what-to-show-a-reasonable-person
Ultimately, the question boils down to: did you get vaccinated against Covid or not, WHD? If yes, then all you are doing is engaging in bad faith misdirection of credulous people.
And if not, you are exactly the reason why excess deaths have greatly increased in the past 2 years, because that is very largely a problem of large numbers of irrational unvaccinated people still running around in public.
MN republicans. Man. I truly never thought they could manage to nominate a more weeny, impotent candidate than the two time loser Jeff Johnson, but, BY GOD, they have recreated a losing scenario with mastery. Sometimes I have nightmares of how the State would have turned out had Emmer eked out a win over Dayton in ’10.
I also wonder about Mr. Callaghan’s earlier article detailing why the MN republican’s nomination process spews out more extreme candidates (and thus less electable). But, hey, I am not complaining; just enjoying the outcomes of statewide conservative desertification. My only complaint: wish there was a little more Farmer-Labor in the DFL…. and less that other part, ya know…
ON Covid: Look at the stats, are MN death numbers drastically better than the surrounding states who had very different shutdowns/lockdowns/mask mandates? Hmm.. No. So who’s response was better? This 30-40x more deaths if we didn’t lockdown, VAX, or Mask mandates is a flat out lie. There was a cost to all of us for the shutdowns/lockdowns, businesses and the school children. Was it all worth it, that is what we should be asking ourselves.
Actually, the mortality rates were substantially better in jurisdictions that had more stringent Covid regimes in place, even if they didn’t equal your strawman “30-40x” better.
And the schools of all states just recorded uniformly bad performances by their students, regardless of the Covid regime adopted.
So erring on the side of prevention saved lives and “cost” the same.