I can not believe that I have to report about another 10 day Sturgis, South Dakota super spreader event. This is a clear indicator that I have had to document this pandemic for over a year.
This year over 700,000 bikers are expected to arrive in this small South Dakota town to infect one another and then return too their friends and family all over the country to spread the virus.
In Meade County South Dakota, where Sturgis is, only 37% of the population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, leaving plenty of unvaccinated fuel for the Delta variant to burn through. A report by infectious disease experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and South Dakota health officials traced 649 Covid-19 cases around the country and at least one death to the 2020 rally. The report said the “true national impact” of the rally on the pandemic is likely underestimated.
Another CDC report linked the rally to a Covid-19 outbreak in Minnesota, where at least 51 residents who attended the event became sick, and another 35 people were infected after coming into contact with a person who went to the rally. Those 35 people were household, social and workplace contacts, it said.
Of those 86 cases, four people were hospitalized, and one died, according to the report. The virus back then could infect 2 to 3 other people. The Delta variant has the advantage that it can spread from one infected person to 5 to 8 other people causing a far greater exponential spread.
Sheriffs are reporting that this year’s rally is more crowded than ever. Sheriff Ron Merwin said August 7, 2021, “There are more people [at the rally] than in the 31 years I’ve been doing this,” the Rapid City Journal , and Sturgis Police Chief Geody VanDewater said calls for law enforcement are “up dramatically” versus prior years. Masks are not mandated at the rally. The Sturgis rally generates 800 million in sales revenue for the local economy and that is more important than any life. So begins another COVID surge in the midwest.