WATCH: Pandemic in the Heartland

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A small dairy community in the northwest part of Wisconsin recorded zero cases of COVID-19. Despite that, the virus hit the city of Loyal hard.

As part of the Local Journalism Initiative for FRONTLINE, Milwaukee PBS and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel present Pandemic in the Heartland, a look at how small business owners and dairy farmers coped with a coronavirus shutdown, on the heels of years of depressed dairy and agriculture prices.

Read: Slammed By the Dairy Crisis, Shuttered By the Coronavirus, Small Towns Forge Ahead

It’s something this tight-knit community has never faced before. And now they wonder if they will ever fully recover.

This story is part of a collaboration with Milwaukee PBS through FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 


Maryann Lazarski, Milwaukee PBS

Scottie Lee Meyers, Milwaukee PBS

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