GO GET YOUR SHOTS! The South Dakota Department of Health announced this week that, starting Monday, April 5, every South Dakotan age 16 and up can get a coronavirus vaccine. That catches us up with Minnesota and 19 other states, not to mention the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, who have already opened coronavirus vaccination to the general public. So love your neighbors, serve your country, and GO GET YOUR SHOTS!
Rather than using the megaphone she has so diligently sought to encourage us all to GET OUR SHOTS!!!, Governor Kristi Noem offers this mealy-mouthed shrug:
“I want to take this opportunity and invite you to choose to get your free Covid-19 shot as soon as possible,” Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota said in announcing her state’s expansion of eligibility.
…The number of Americans, and especially Black Americans, who have been vaccinated or want to be vaccinated has risen significantly since January, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey also found that Republicans and white evangelical Christians continue to be skeptical of getting a virus vaccine.
Ms. Noem, a Republican who leads a Republican-majority state, acknowledged those concerns on Wednesday.
“There will never be the heavy hand of government mandating that you get the vaccine,” she said. “We will trust our people to do the right thing” [Eileen Sullican and Andrés R. Martinez, “Wyoming and Other States Are Racing to Broaden Eligibility for Vaccines,” New York Times, 2021.03.31].
Invite you to choose?! Good grief! We are getting enough vaccines to put coronavirus and the pandemic recession to bed, but the people who would listen to Governor Noem most are standing between us and victory, and the Governor can only invite us to choose and then pivot to another cry of Freedom™?! This is no time for political sloganeering; this is the time to tell everyone who will listen and especially the knuckleheads who are trying not to listen to GO GET YOUR SHOTS!!!
But hey, this is South Dakota, where our pandemic response ranks last in the nation, according to a new analysis from the UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute:
Vermont, Alaska, and Maine were the three most effective states in responding to the coronavirus pandemic last year, a new analysis by UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute has found.
The institute created an index to measure the performance of all 50 states and 172 countries primarily based on three factors: rates of infection, death, and testing.
…”The most effective states appeared to be those that carried out strong public health measures grounded in science,” said Elsadig Elsheikh, co-author of the 2020 Inclusiveness Index, an annual report published by the Othering & Belonging Institute.
On the other end of the spectrum, the state with the poorest response to the virus according to the institute’s measures was South Dakota, followed by Iowa and Mississippi.
South Dakota’s last place ranking is not surprising, as it famously defied health guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to mitigate the spread of the virus, including by refusing to issue a mask mandate. For a period in late 2020 the per capita death rate in South Dakota from the coronavirus was the worst in the nation.
A general trend revealed by the data shows that state governments which were more aggressive in issuing mask, shelter-in-place, and physical distancing rules fared better than the ones which did not [UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute, press release, 2021.03.31].
Right-wing stupidity produced poor results on the global scale as well, with the United States ranking 161st out of 172 countries surveyed for effective pandemic response.
Even as we reach the profoundly important moment when every South Dakotan can call the hospital or the pharmacy and make an appointment to do the easiest and most important patriotic, nation-saving, life-saving duty a regular citizen can do right now, our Governor soft-pedals it, exerting more Twitter energy to encourage kids to go kill skunks and possums than she does to encourage everyone to kill the pandemic. But responding more passionately to the loss of a few pheasant eggs than to the loss of 1,938 human lives is why South Dakota ranks dead last for pandemic response.
Governor Noem could save lives by tweeting one thing over and over for the next month: GO GET YOUR SHOTS!!! Instead, she continues to pander to selfish idiots who refuse to do science or practical patriotism.
To quote the followers of the Noem approach to the pandemic and politics in general, “No more bullshit“: Starting Monday, every adult in South Dakota can get a coronavirus vaccine. Every South Dakotan (except folks with extreme allergic reactions to shots in general) should get a coronavirus vaccine. Do your duty: GET YOUR SHOTS!!!
Noem trusts South Dakotans to do the right thing? I don’t. Went to a state basketball tournament in which most people weren’t wearing masks. No, I don’t trust South Dakotans to do the right thing
But, of course, she was probably one of the FIRST in our state to get the vaccine, because of course, having Covid might prevent her from all that flying off to fund-raisers and chasing her rainbow popularity dream in the GOP through her basement connection to Fox TV and Trump. She doesn’t want to appear to be encouraging people to help break this pandemic because she has wanted to be seen as ‘letting my people do the deciding’. She CAN’T govern as a governor should….
I emailed Ian Fury and he said that Noem has not been vaccinated.
Magats would pre-register if the covid shots came as jello-shots off noem’s bony runza buns.Magats understand them things.
The soft butt of South Dakota government speaks.
Kristi Noem, enabler of bad choices for South Dakotans.
No shots for Kristi yet, Owen? Thanks for checking! That means Noem is in a perfect position to do some good PR for vaccines. She should arrange for a mass vaccination clinic to take place in the Rotunda. Open the front doors, let people walk up the big steps to come do their patriotic duty. I will happily let her take shot #1, then mask up and stand by the steps handing out the “Got My Shot!” stickers. Ian could live-tweet that all week long.
Is this true? That she has been tested, travels the nation constantly, at taxpayer expense (unless otherwise proven), to hot spots like Mara Largo—and hasn’t been vaccinated? Is she daft? Virtually nothing she says publicly is true!
Why do we need a governor? If we are all just being “trusted to do the right thing,” there is no need for Pierre leadership. Every person for themselves. Heck, we won’t need police or courts. Just do the right thing. Sheesh, if she isn’t about the laziest exec I have ever encountered.
Mass vaccination in Governors mansion would be cool.
No Governor? Cool idea. How about an expanded Legislature for more representation, say 630 seats instead of the ho hum 105? Supreme Court, yes. Bills pass the Leg by majority vote. The Dominant Party could them choose a Purely ministerial person to be Prime Minister whose only function is to sign passed bills, no veto power. The Leg can run the National Guard and be in session 11 months a year.
Cory, while I can’t find the DENR/DOAg thread:
“to help fund state wildlife agencies and pay private landowners for livestock predation, damage caused by wildlife and projects like fence removal. Yellowstone visitor surveys show that tourists are willing to pay to offset the costs of wolves killing cattle outside of the park.”
This concept of reparations to ranchers is bunk, whether it is wolves, coyotes, eagles, aliens, whatever. Ag monopolization of western land and perhaps tribal EPA/DENR jurisdiction pushes out state EPA/DENR regulators, as Kristi has just done.
This is a fatal move by the state.
Our John Wayne-honor culture idiot of a governor and her staff could just:
“Stop the COVID shaming!
AIDS taught us that shame can be deadly. The coronavirus pandemic can’t repeat those same mistakes.”
motherjones.com
Noem spews “There will never be the heavy hand of government mandating that you get the vaccine,” she said. “We will trust our people to do the right thing”
Does this include a woman’s choice to decide her own medical choices? Or can’t you trust women’s choices, being an alleged woman herself?