How To Make A Profit Infecting People With COVID-19

Ann Retzlaff and one of her customers, white nationalist Scott Edges of Green Bay, who came for a party 

Ann Retzlaff isn't a big Republican donor. The only federal campaign contribution I could find was a modest $250 check she wrote on March 31 of this year to GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA). She caused a little stir in late April when the Green Bay Press Gazette wrote her up as an early anti-social distancing crackpot, happily putting everyone else's life at risk so she could celebrate her status as a pure idiot. At the time, Paul Srubas wrote that "It might be arguable whether Ann Retzlaff of Annie’s Campground is in fact defying Gov. Tony Evers’ safer-at-home order. But just to make the picture a little clearer: If she is, she doesn’t really care. 'To the best of my knowledge, campgrounds are essential, but even if (Evers) said we had to be closed, I’d be open,' Retzlaff said. 'I can’t stand that he’s wrecking the state. 'We need to get people back to work,” she said. 'It’s not careless, heartless. It’s realistic. There is no reason to be closed. If you’re high risk, or afraid of your own shadow, stay home. I don’t want to be forced to stay inside.'"

Retzlaff is part of a growing opposition-- growing in noise if not number-- to a one-size-fits-all, statewide order that aims to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but which opponents say is unnecessary, unauthorized and un-American.

“He is not my governor,” Retzlaff says of Evers on her Facebook page. “He is a Communist and needs to be removed from office.

“The governor cannot tell me I cannot make a living, cannot tell me I have to stay in the house. It is completely my constitutional right.”

Technically, a campground is an “essential business” under state definition and therefore legally allowed to be open. But Retzlaff’s operation has been hosting weekend shindigs featuring live music, apparently to attract campers into the onsite brew-pub and restaurant, where Retzlaff has been doling out prepared food and the brew-pub’s own hemp-infused beer.

The rules specifically allow campgrounds, but they also spell out that campers must not be permitted-- much less encouraged-- to gather in a common area, where social distancing becomes impossible.

In speaking with the media, Retzlaff coyly skirts around the question: Sure, there’s food and drink available for carryout; she’s busy in the kitchen preparing food, so how is she supposed to know if people are consuming it before they get it outdoors? Yes, the live music is indoors, to give people something to listen to while they’re picking up their order. Certainly, if anyone’s lingering to enjoy the music, that’s kind of up to them, but the bar has plenty of room for social distancing, and plenty of ventilation, so people aren’t breathing each other’s air.

“I have a really big bar. People are safe,” Retzlaff said impatiently.

She said she’s not sure how many people attended the party or how many wound up being inside at the same time.

“Not everybody came in at the same time,” she said. “A lot of times, they’d come in, grab a drink, go out, come back in... I had three cabins rented, maybe four overnight sites. I don’t know how many seasonals came. Quite a few came to open their campers.

“The only person who showed up with a mask was a reporter from the Shawano Leader. Everybody thinks it’s ridiculous.” A former medic in the Army, Retzlaff is not insensitive to the idea the coronavirus is dangerous, even deadly, or that it spreads rapidly. But she comes from a political persuasion that fills her with disdain for government decrees and for the mainstream media, and she thinks the numbers of infections and deaths being reported are hugely exaggerated. The Madison-Milwaukee areas may be inundated, but Shawano County has plenty of empty hospital beds and hardly any coronavirus patients, she said.

Shawano County health authorities reported eight confirmed cases of the virus in the county as of Monday, and their message for residents has not changed:

"It is now more important than ever to STAY HOME as much as possible," the county's Public Health Department posted on its website. "Please do your part to support the community and the health care system. Thank you to all those that are taking this seriously, complying with recommendations and orders, and staying home."

Retzlaff, however, believes "there’s no reason for anybody north of a line between Madison and Milwaukee to have been shut down at all.” In fairness, she made her comments before the Green Bay meatpacking industry experienced a spike in cases and before Brown County-- which borders Shawano County-- grew to have Wisconsin's highest infection rate per capita.

Her camp is in Gresham, a tiny hamlet (pop.- 575) in Shawano County northwest of Green Bay. Other than around 120 Native Americans, it's an all-white town. Shawano County voted for Trump in 2016-- 12,742 (64.7%) to 6,056 (30.7%). In 2018, while many of the counties around it, flipped blue, Shawano stayed red in the Senate race, the gubernatorial race and the congressional race (R+43).

Retzlaff,a kind of Typhoid Mary for COVID-19, is likely steadily spreading the coronavirus to 7 counties besides her own. These are the case rates per hundred thousand:

Brown- 796.8 cases per 100,000
Oconto- 79.9 cases per 100,000
Shawano- 75.6 cases per 100,000
Outagamie- 73.1 cases per 100,000
Menominee- 43.7 cases per 100,000
Waupaca- 33.0 cases per 100,000
Marathon- 23.7 cases per 100,000
Portage- 9.9 cases per 100,000

Affectionately known as "Ms Piggy," Retzlaff is very... hospitable to anyone who falls through the doors of the dump she runs and is famous for her hummers. A classic idiot, this past week she banned masks, posting a new rule on her Facebook page:

Masks are NOT allowed in the buildings for safety sake. They are viewed as a robbery in progress and will be handled that way.

Eddy Rodriguez, reporting for Newsweek yesterday, wrote that "she posted this provision on her regular weekend line-up to dissuade anyone who enters her campground with the intent to do harm. 'I added no masks when entering my main building because this is the perfect time for the bad guys to take advantage of any small business and rob them because it is now normal to wear a mask. A couple days ago, several small businesses in Shawano were robbed, or the attempt was made to rob them. Now, I do understand that there are people who wear a mask because of their delicate health situation, like cancer or a recent surgery. I know these people and their stature is much different that a 6'2" male entering an establishment aggressively with intent to do harm. This is a very critical time for all citizens to wake up and understand the threats out there and take measures to protect and defend. It is as simple as that. All of my customers here understood exactly what I meant and why I posted that information,' she added... When asked if she saw a decline in her patronage, Retzlaff saw 'the exact opposite. This year, because of all the haters, my business has actually increased substantially,' Retzlaff said, following local articles that came out against her decision to stay open." Yes, Ms Piggy is making money by spreading COVID-19.