MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin’s presidential primary election held last month in the face of the coronavirus pandemic drew concern from doctors, voters, poll workers and politicians who warned that having thousands of people leave their homes to cast ballots would further spread the highly contagious virus.
Now well beyond the 14-day incubation period for COVID-19, and with a Tuesday special congressional election in northern Wisconsin looming, it remains largely unknown just how many people contracted the virus at the polls on April 7. “We lack the scientific tools and infrastructure to really measure the impact reliably,” said Kristen Malecki, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “If we were