https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/17/sen-andre-jacque-hospitalized-after-testing-positive-covid-19/8156902002/One of the Legislature's most active lawmakers who has opposed mask and vaccine mandates has received hospital care after testing positive for COVID-19.
Sen. Andre Jacque, a Republican from De Pere, said Monday evening he and some family members tested positive late last week and that he was at the hospital with pneumonia. He did not say whether he had been admitted.
"I do not know when I contracted Covid, but some of my family and I did test positive for it at the end of last week after I came home from Madison," Jacque, 40, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a text message.
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Jacque testified on Wednesday before two committee hearings in the Wisconsin State Capitol. He testified without a mask during at least one of the hearings, which was packed and where not everyone was wearing face coverings.
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Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt, Republican leaders of two education committees that held a joint hearing during which Jacque testified, did not respond to questions about whether they were made aware of the possible exposure at the Wednesday hearing and whether attendees were subsequently notified.
Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Democratic member of the Senate education committee, said Monday she was not notified through official channels of the possible exposure. Fellow committee member Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said he learned through the grapevine on Friday that Jacque had tested positive but had not been notified by committee leaders, either.
"It's incredibly frustrating somebody had a sense he had tested positive on Friday and we haven’t heard anything until Tuesday," Larson said, referring to a Journal Sentinel story first reporting the diagnosis.
Assembly Education Committee member Rep. Sondy Pope, D-Cross Plains, said Thiesfeldt said he did not plan to notify attendees because Jacque had not known he was infected at the time of the hearing.
"This is infuriating. This is irresponsible," she said.
Larson, in a separate statement, said Darling and Thiesfeldt "should not sit on this information any longer."
"They owe it to our neighbors, the staff, and Capitol police who were in the room over those 7 hours to immediately contact every person who was in the committee room on Wednesday so they can schedule a COVID test and follow necessary precautions," he said.
