Sturgis Yet Again

Posted on by Thor

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.

80th Sturgis Bike Rally

Posted on by Thor

On August 5,2020 South Dakota reported 89 new cases of COVID-19 and one death over the last two weeks. Kristi Noem the state governor never issued any state mandates to help curb the spread of the virus instead trusting in the citizens of her state to do the right thing to stay safe in the midst of a pandemic. Noem on July 28, 2020 said she will push for schools to stay open this fall, and disparaged any requirements for children to wear masks in classrooms.

The 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will be expecting 250,000 bikers to descend on the South Dakota city. The bikers will assemble from August 7 to 16, 2020. This could become the biggest mass gathering anywhere since pandemic began. Sturgis, a city of about 7,000 residents, was hesitant to again host the week long event during a pandemic. Many worry that the rally might cause an unmanageable outbreak of COVID-19. To date Meade County where Sturgis is located, has reported 82 COVID-19 infections and 1 death.

In a survey of residents conducted by the city, more than 60% said the rally should be postponed. But businesses pressured the City Council to proceed. An attorney wrote to the Sturgis City Council reminding them that a judge found the city does not solely own rights to the rally and threatened to sue if the city tried to postpone.

The city will provide ppe to businesses that will be working during the rally, and recommend sanitizing stations and 50% capacity at bars and restaurants. However these are just suggestions which are not legally enforceable.

Organizers were emboldened by the President’s July 3 fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore. Event organizers are counting on drunken attendees to politely social distance. Sturgis officials realized the rally would happen whether they wanted it or not. They decided to try to scale it back, canceling city-hosted events and slashing advertising for the rally. Others thing that this might be the biggest event in America since all others were canceled for public safety. This could be the bikers Woodstock of the pandemic.

After all the bikers leave the city of Sturgis will conduct a massive testing program hoping to catch and contain any virus that might be left behind. The bikers will ride back to their home states to share the experience and perhaps the virus with friends and family.

Rushmore

Posted on by Thor

Donald Trump has an infatuation with large sculptures. When visiting the Governor of South Dakota, he mentioned that he had a life long dream of having his head sculpted on Rushmore along side George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The Governor laughed, but Trump did not. He was serious.

On July 3, 2020 he flew to South Dakota set off fire works above the mountain. Weeks before a wild fire six miles from Rushmore burned 60 acres and required 117 firefighters from 3 states to get it extinguished. In preparation for the fireworks the US government spent $30,000 dollars to do a controlled burn in April around the site to mitigate the chance that the fireworks could start another wild fire.  About $600,000 was being spent on the display, including $350,000 for the actual fireworks and $3,500 on portable toilets. The governor of South Dakota purchased the fireworks with money that had been earmarked for economic development. The money that could have helped the states economy grow went up in smoke in a matter of minutes.

3700 people showed up for the fireworks. There was no social distancing at the event despite the record-high new COVID-19 cases in the United States. Chairs at the event were zip tied together making any social distancing impossible. You had to rub elbows and breath on your neighbor. Face masks were optional but very few people wore them. This was the perfect breading ground for the COVID-19 virus to spread.

The Black Hills are a deeply sacred place of spiritual and cultural significance to the native peoples of the area, nearly 60 tribes. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty established the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, according to the National Archives, but the lands were systematically taken by the US government after gold was discovered in the area in the 1870s. Almost 50 years later, the likenesses of the four American presidents were carved into the mountain. In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the Sioux Nation had not received just compensation for the land.

Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of the monument, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slave, and Abraham Lincoln approved the executions of 38 Lakota natives in Mankato, Minnesota, which was one of the largest mass hangings in the history of the country. A member of the Democratic National Committee, Tweeted, “Trump has disrespected Native communities time and again. He’s attempted to limit their voting rights and blocked critical pandemic relief. Now he’s holding a rally glorifying white supremacy at Mount Rushmore — a region once sacred to tribal communities.”

Members of the Lakota tribe blocked one of the roads leading to the monument by stalling three vans across the road and then lining up across the road to block oncoming traffic. They held the barricade for over two hours at which time National Guard in riot gear came and made arrests. A Lakota leader negotiated to make sure women and children had a chance to stand aside before the arrests began. More than a dozen protestors were arrested to make way for the presidents new photo op.

I found no reports of embers from the fireworks setting any fires, but the real wildfire sweeping the nation is COVID-19, which the president chooses to ignore. COVID-19 cases have been rising in 36 states with California, Arizona, Texas and Florida all posting record numbers of new infections this week. These are states that Trump convinced to open early. Florida reported 11,458 new COVID-19 cases Saturday July 4, 2020, shattering its record for daily reported cases coming just short of NYC’s highest case count.

Where’s the Bacon?

Posted on by Thor

Smithfield Foods the world’s largest pork production facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota is now the largest Covid-19 hot spot in the United States. Nine state governors have not issued stay at home orders, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The governors, all
Republican, have often defended their actions out of a belief in smaller
government, despite many calls from within their own states to do so.  

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, for instance, told reporters
earlier this week that “the people themselves are primarily responsible
for their safety” and that state and national constitutions “prevent us
from taking draconian measures much like the Chinese government has
done.” She also added, “South Dakota is not New York City.”

Eighty of South Dakota’s 180 new COVID-19 cases are employees of the
Smithfield Foods meat-processing company, bringing the total to 600 Smithfield Foods
employees who have tested positive. There are also now 135 total cases
of non-employees that became infected when they came into contact with a
Smithfield employee, according to the South Dakota Department of
Health. 

Augustín Rodriguez, 64, showed up for every one of his
shifts at Smithfield Foods, where he worked for nearly two decades.
Augustín kept going to work even after he began experiencing COVID-19
symptoms like fever and cough because he needed to work. He kept working until a sharp pain in his side kept him from going to work. Three days later he was hospitalized and tested positive for Covid-19. He was placed on a ventilator and died two weeks later. His death is presumed to be the first connected to a COVID-19 outbreak at Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls. His wife, Angelita, believes he was worked to death.

Smithfield announced Sunday April 12, 2020 that it would be closing its Sioux Falls
plant indefinitely Wednesday. The plant has 3,700 employees.  The company is closing its meat processing plants in other states as well. The number of South Dakota residents who have tested positive for Covid-19 has surpassed 1,100, and more than half of those cases have
some connection to the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls. 

Kristi Noem a staunch Trump supporter seems to think that her rural state is safe from the virus or she is choosing to ignore the reality. Despite the numbers, Noem said she would not issue a stay-at-home order
for Minnehaha and nearby Lincoln Counties, as Sioux Falls Mayor Paul
Ten Haken requested. Noem said a stay-at-home order wouldn’t have made a
difference in Sioux Falls because the plant would have remained open as
part of a critical infrastructure business.

Noem also said her state will begin trying Hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug pushed by President Donald Trump in treating COVID-19. On the same say she made that announcement scientists in Brazil said they stopped part of their study, after heart rhythm problems developed in one-quarter of people
who were given a higher dose of the drug. Tom Hanks wife, Rita Wilson, developed “Extreme side effects” when she was given the drug in Australia. Noem received 1.2 million doses of the drug from the Federal government. Her constituents will be the guinea pigs. Senator Elizabeth Warren, said: “The governor just lets this problem get bigger and bigger and bigger.”

The Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls used represents about 4% to 5% of
U.S. pork production, or about 18 million servings per day. The pork industry could see 5 billion dollars in losses due to the pandemic. Consumers are likely to be meat shortages due to the plant closings.