Two weeks ago, South Dakota Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said South Dakota wasn’t seeing the racial disparity in coronavirus cases that most of the country was seeing:
“Speaking to the racial disparity (question), we do not have that data available,” Department of Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said during a Monday news conference. But “we are not seeing a large racial disparity though, I can tell you that.”
It’s unclear if Malsam-Rysdon means that the state is not collecting race-based data or that it has just not analyzed it yet.
But Malsam-Rysdon said it may share race-based data in the future: “As we get more cases, and we’re able to break out that data in finer detail, we will do that” [Arielle Zionts, “State Health Official: No Large Racial Disparities in SD COVID-19 Cases,” Rapid City Journal, 2020.04.14].
Yesterday, Secretary Malsam-Rysdon said South Dakota is seeing that large racial disparity:
Black, Hispanic and people of Asian descent have disproportionately contracted the coronavirus in South Dakota.
People of color comprise 20% of South Dakota’s population but account for at least 54% of the state’s coronavirus cases, according to state and July 2019 Census data.
The statistics are “indicative of where we’ve seen the most cases,” Kim Malsam-Rysdon, Secretary of the Department of Health, said during a Tuesday news conference [Arielle Zionts, “Minority Groups Hit Hardest by COVID-19 in South Dakota,” Rapid City Journal, 2020.04.29].
Non-Hispanic white folks still have more confirmed covid-19 cases than any other single racial/ethnic group, with 31.5% of South Dakota’s 2,315 coronavirus instances.
One minority group punching below its statistical weight for coronavirus is our Lakota neighbors:
Despite the trouble facing blacks and Hispanics, the percentage of South Dakota COVID-19 patients classified as Native American (4%) is lower than their percentage of the state’s population (9%).
“On a rare bit of good news, the American Indian rate is 4%, so that’s actually less than their population density would indicate,” Malsam-Rysdon added [Casey Junkins, “39% of S.D. COVID Patients are ‘Black’ or ‘Hispanic’,” Pierre Capital Journal, 2020.04.27].
Keep those highways closed, Chairman Frazier.
The lower-than-population-expected instances of coronavirus among our Native population is the exception to the unfortunate rule: when white folks catch cold, minorities catch pneumonia. Social distancing and economic shutdowns are good medicine for everyone, but our Governor needs to spend less time talking to the old white folks on Fox News and more time talking with her experts here about how to expand Medicaid and promote better housing and working conditions that will help hard-hit minority South Dakotans weather coronavirus and future public health threats as well as their comfier white compatriots.
I wonder what state’s covid 19 fatalities will this Lakota woman’s death be on.
“A pregnant woman transferred from South Dakota to Texas during the coronavirus pandemic is the first female federal inmate to die of the virus.
Andrea Circle Bear, a 30-year-old from Eagle Butte, died Tuesday, according to a news release from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Her baby survived after being delivered by cesarean section.
Circle Bear was transferred March 20 by the U.S. Marshals Service from the jail in Winner to FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, a facility for female inmates with health needs.” Rapid City Journal 4.28.2020
They say she had medical needs, so they transferred her in the midst of a pandemic to her death. They did save the baby though, so the child will grow up without a mom. What nefarious crime was committed by this young woman, possession of 8 grams of meth found in the home she did not live in, kinda harsh, but we’re on it.
Show of hands to know how much weight is 8 grams of anything. Take two nickels from your pocket and you be still over that weight. That is how much this young woman’s life was worth in the justice system.
The tribes are doing the right thing and are clearly smarter and more concerned for their members than Kruel Kristi is for South Dakotans.
Last updated: April 29, 2020, 21:42 GMT
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,055,455
Deaths:
61,112
Native people have never been able to depend on the treaties that the white man has lied about since they came here. So, it’s pretty much an on your own kinda thingy.
“Tribal governments were supposed to get $8 billion in direct emergency relief from the CARES Act, the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill that became law on March 27.
More than a month later, they haven’t gotten any of it.
Part of the reason is that the Treasury Department, which is charged with distributing that money, has been flailing in its dealings with tribes.
Another reason stems from a lawsuit over whether Alaska Native Corporations are entitled to the money. A federal court on Monday agreed to stop funds from going to those corporations for now, which means Treasury has no reason to not funnel money immediately to the 574 federally recognized tribal governments struggling with the public health and economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
In a Wednesday letter, House Democrats pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to distribute the money now because lives are at stake.”
Pretty disgraceful, but disgraceful treatment from Washington and Pierre has almost always been the way. Maybe China could help with that Health Silk Road Bridge. Wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Awful, Jerry, that the feds sent that woman to her death. Any chance we can give Kristi Noem some prison time for oushong hydroxychloroquine?
drumpf body count for the last day of April starts out with a nice round figure…..
Last updated: April 30, 2020, 12:36 GMT
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,064,819
Deaths:
61,680
Noon body count update….
Last updated: April 30, 2020, 17:12 GMT
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,075,276
Deaths:
62,299
mfi, we now know that Pierre, South Dakota will become a hot spot as the person from Eagle Butte came into contact with the covid while in Pierre. NOem better bunker down in her tee vee studio and send some smoke signals to the old tom cat to get her the hell out of town and put her on the Spiro ticket. Twofer losers on the ticket, doesn’t get much better than that.
The next guv of the wingnut persuasion will be every bit as bad as the present one. It is just like the wingnut candidates for the kremlin annex, each succeeding one is light years worse than the last one.
drumpf’s body count apparently did not pay attention when drumpf said this virus would magically disappear. I don’t blame the body count from tuning drumpf out. Everybody who is some body does.
Last updated: April 30, 2020, 20:55 GMT
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,089,726
Deaths:
63,592
Last call for April body count…..
Last updated: April 30, 2020, 23:48 GMT
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,094,730
Deaths:
63,841