MN Senate debates COVID (Feb 2021)

Following download link delivers full 1.8GB 4.5-hour video stream of full Mn Senate session from 25 February 2021, early in COVID pandemic, direct from MN Senate archives.

Full Senate session 25 Feb 2021

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Some Senators in 2021 thought COVID-19 posed no unusual threat. A majority of Senators were confident COVID mortality rates and other health consequence metrics were very comparable to what any other typical virus would normally be expected to have, so therefore infectious COVID contagion would not pose any serious threat at schools, homes, the workplace or in trade, business and commerce in a way that required doing anything substantially different, or more economically impacting, than continuing normal, everyday activities and practices exactly as before the pandemic. 

SF1 proposed, among other things, all statutory Governor powers in effect for declaring or extending statewide emergency policies or shutdown orders in response to situations such as pandemics should be either severely reduced or totally abolished and nullified.

In the year after the full MN Senate considered SF1, there were over 4,000 additional Minnesota COVID-19 casualties.