The state of South Dakota is working hard to count how many people are attending the Sturgis Rally: according to the Department of Transportation’s data from nine traffic count locations, Friday through Sunday saw 160,788 vehicles entering Sturgis, down 3.8% from last year’s opening weekend.
But counting who gets coronavirus at the Rally and where they spread it? Golly gee, that’ll be hard:
State epidemiologist Joshua Clayton said Monday that cases from out-of-state residents will have to be investigated by their home states that will only notify South Dakota in certain cases.
“When exposures occur that require additional follow-up by the state,” Clayton said the DOH “would be notified by those state agencies of individuals that have been exposed, or the presence of the potential for larger spread when individuals are not able to identify all of their close contacts” [Morgan Matzen, “Covid-19 Cases Among Out-of-Staters at Sturgis Rally Will Be Difficult to Track, DOH Says,” Rapid City Journal, 2020.08.10].
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. But when it comes to coronavirus, the Noem Administration will just will it away.
That 160,788 count is nonsense as these guys leave Sturgis and then come back several times a day. Unless ol’ Bubba identifies hisownself at each entry as a one time thing, the count is bogus.
Speaking of pandemic threats intrinsic to SD’s way of doing business, it looks like our hog farms are set to offer up the next pandemic: https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/08/industrial-hog-farms-are-breeding-the-next-pandemic/