PebHmong Discussion Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: theking on August 12, 2021, 06:22:04 PM
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..as she joins the Sturgis crowd with the no mask:
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Hope no one gets sick.
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Here's what South Dakota Governor said about the event, and COVID...You can tell she doesn't like Dr. Fauci.. ;D:
Governor Kristi Noem discussed COVID and the rally after Buffalo Chip Legends Ride
Governor Kristi Noem made her first appearance at the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Monday, taking part in the Sturgis Buffalo Chip Legends Ride.
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Governor Kristi Noem made her first appearance at the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Monday, taking part in the Sturgis Buffalo Chip Legends Ride.
The ride kicked off this morning from Deadwood, with bikers from around the country taking in the Black Hills alongside Noem, Superbowl champion Earl Dotson, musician Sean McNabb and other legends.
The ride ended at the Buffalo Chip, where Noem held a press conference for media outlets.
The rally has received backlash again this year as the Delta variant spreads and concerns arise about this annual event being a superspreader for COVID-19. And Noem says she isn’t surprised.
“I was not surprised to see Dr. Fauci pick on Sturgis,” said Noem. “He picked on it last year, this rally as well, and honestly, I wish he cared more about the Southern Border and what we have going on there with a lot of COVID virus cases coming across the border that are not being isolated and taken care of.”
Noem’s policy regarding COVID has been hands-off, saying she prefers giving her constituents the information to make decisions for themselves.
But how does she keep South Dakotans healthy while also keeping the economy healthy?
”I don’t believe that governors have the authority to tell people that they have to shut down their businesses and they have to shelter in place and to pass mandates on,” said Noem. “That should be used for personal responsibility and I’ve told the folks in South Dakota all the time that I will give them all the information that I have to protect their health.”
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Warnings About the Sturgis Rally Have Come Tragically True
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In western South Dakota’s Meade County, more than one in three COVID-19 tests are currently returning positive, and over the last three weeks, seven-day average case counts have increased by 3,400 percent. This exponential growth in cases is likely attributable to the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew an estimated half a million visitors to Meade County and its environs from Aug. 6 through 15, potentially acting as a superspreader event.
The pandemic is surging nationally, not just proximal to biker chaos in South Dakota. Defined in large part by the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the United States is experiencing its fourth surge of COVID-19 right now, and our nationwide case counts have increased by 64.4 percent over the last 21 days. (For more on our methodology, see our note at the bottom of this column.)
But while Southern states have been the main drivers of this surge thus far, the recent spike in cases in South Dakota warrants special concern.
The state more broadly has witnessed a 686.8 percent increase in daily case counts over the past three weeks, currently more than 10 times the nationwide rate. Meade County’s post-Sturgis uptick is certainly a contributor to this state-level increase, but neighboring counties have experienced a sharp incline in cases, too—ranging from a 1,900 percent increase in the past three weeks in Butte to a 1,050 percent increase in Lawrence.
Those two counties are also key focal points for the rally, which is not, in reality, confined to Sturgis. And because the rally is widely attended by residents all across South Dakota, it’s not surprising that counties further away—like Charles Mix County, which saw a 1,500 percent increase—are experiencing an incline in cases, too. Indeed, the event could have a regional impact: As the Washington Post reported Thursday, early numbers from local health officials have already connected at least 121 cases in five different states to this year’s rally. It’s possible that these cases might prompt outbreaks of their own and thus should be monitored carefully.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally represents the perfect storm for a superspreader event across this region: a large gathering with no testing, no masks, and no vaccination requirements. Though many (but not all) of the goings-on occurred outdoors and thus offered more protection against SARS-CoV-2 transmission than if they hadn’t been, the South Dakota Department of Transportation reported that 525,768 vehicles entered Sturgis over the 10 days of the rally. The sheer number of people in attendance paired with a lack of additional precautions presented prime conditions for viral transmission.
Dr. Shankar Kurra, vice president of medical affairs at Monument Health in Rapid City, told The Daily Beast he was living through a nightmare on repeat.
“We knew this was going to happen,” Dr. Kurra said. “It happened last year. It was just playing a reboot of last year pretty much.”
‘No One I Know Is Vaccinated’: Sturgis Rally Bikers Are Coming for America
Kurra added that hospitals in the area had 58 patients battling COVID-19 as of early this week. Before the rally, they had “a handful, five to 10,” he said.
The vast majority of new infections in the United States are now occurring in individuals who are not fully vaccinated, including those that have been reported post-Sturgis; however, the uptake of vaccines varies widely across the country. In South Dakota, low trust in the government has been linked to vaccine hesitancy. As elsewhere in the U.S., vaccine hesitancy is higher among Republicans than Democrats in South Dakota, where nearly two-thirds of voters went for Trump in 2020.
Sub-optimal vaccination rates across South Dakota are a fundamental factor in understanding the recent spike in cases. In the United States, 51.6 percent of the total population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. But in Meade, only 38.3 percent of the total population is vaccinated. In nearby Lawrence County, the proportion of fully vaccinated residents is 37.4 percent and. at 26 percent, rates are lower yet in Butte.
Dr. Kevin Weiland, who works at the Rapid City Medical Center, which is not affiliated with Monument Health, said the Sturgis surge was not a surprise. But he bemoaned the extent to which unvaccinated people could put even those who had shots in greater danger, citing one senior care facility in the region he said had 17 residents who were infected with COVID, 15 of them vaccinated.
“These guys were vaccinated early on in the pandemic,” he said, alluding to the emerging guidance from the CDC that vaccine protection may wane over time, particularly in vulnerable groups. “They were of the greatest risk. It’s just so sad.”
Weiland went on to explain that he was extremely frustrated to see this occurring at a time when vaccines are available, but millions of people were refusing to take them. During the Sturgis rally, several attendees told The Daily Beast they were unvaccinated and would not take a shot.