Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Is Now Linked to More Than 250,000 Coronavirus Cases

All reporters know that COVID never strikes BLM rallies.

(yeah.... it's sarcasm).

They do wear fucking masks, stands apart and sanatise so a fair bit less than Sturgis..

Here is one I'm looking at next to the Buenos Aires Obelisco. Very nice spacing. Live webcam... Checking out the area for a trip to climb a mountain.

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Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Is Now Linked to More Than 250,000 Coronavirus Cases
One study estimates the public health cost of the super-spreading event is near $12 billion.

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Grace Pritchett/AP

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The inevitable fallout from last month’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an annual event that packed nearly 500,000 people into a small town in South Dakota, is becoming clear, and the emerging picture is grim.

According to a new study, which tracked anonymized cellphone data from the rally, over 250,000 coronavirus cases have now been tied to the 10-day event, one of the largest to be held since the start of the pandemic. It drew motorcycle enthusiasts from around the country, many of whom were seen without face coverings inside crowded bars, restaurants, and other indoor establishments.

The explosion in cases, the study from the Germany-based IZA Institute of Labor Economics finds, is expected to reach $12 billion in public health costs.

“The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally represents a situation where many of the ‘worst-case scenarios’ for super-spreading occurred simultaneously,” the researchers wrote, “the event was prolonged, included individuals packed closely together, involved a large out-of-town population, and had low compliance with recommended infection countermeasures such as the use of masks.”

The conclusion, while staggering, is unlikely to surprise to public health officials who warned that proceeding with the rally could be disastrous, particularly given the region’s relaxed attitude towards social distancing guidelines and some of the attendees’ mockery of the pandemic. “Screw COVID. I went to Sturgis,” read one t-shirt from the rally, where overwhelming support for President Trump was the norm.

The study comes on the heels of the first reported death from the event, a Minnesota man in his 60’s who attended the rally who died last week. South Dakota now has one of the country’s highest rates of coronavirus cases.

https://www.motherjones.com/coronav...twitter&utm_campaign=naytev&utm_medium=social

They were warned but decided to hold it anyway.

Hopefully, those that attended the Motorcycle rally didn't do any pit stop on any Indigenous reservations. :(

They were not allowed into any of the Indigenous stores if they didn't have on face masks or weren't social distancing. In fact, some reservations put up road blocks to prevent tourism by those that attended the Motorcycle rally.

wrbtrader
 
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-sturgis-statistical-misfire-11599694411

Opinion | The Sturgis Statistical Misfire

Sept. 9, 2020 7:33 pm ET
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Motorcycles and people crowd Main Street during the 80th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, Aug. 7. PHOTO: MICHAEL CIAGLO/GETTY IMAGES

Holy Hell’s Angels. Last month’s motorcycle rally among the deplorables in Sturgis, South Dakota, contributed to 266,796 Covid-19 cases and $12.2 billion in public-health costs—or so claims a new study widely flogged by the media. Here is another example of how flawed statistical models can generate grossly exaggerated projections.

The annual 10-day rally with live performances, races and bike shows drew 460,000 Americans from around the country to the small town of Sturgis (population: 7,000). South Dakota is among the few states that never imposed a shelter-in-place order or face-mask mandate. It has also let restaurants and bars operate without restrictions.

Many in the media and various health sages warned that the motorcycle rally represented a “worst case scenario” for a “super-spreading” event. It would be surprising if the rally didn’t lead to at least some new Covid cases. But it’s impossible to know how many because there’s no data on how many attendees or their close contacts later tested positive.

Never fear, the modelers as always are here. San Diego State University’s Center for Health Economics & Policy Studies sought to quantify the rally’s Covid impact in South Dakota and nationwide by analyzing the (anonymous) cell-phone data of attendees. They then compared case trends in counties with high, moderate and low numbers of attendees.

They found that cases increased by 3.6 to 3.9 per 1,000 in South Dakota in the three weeks after the rally, translating to between 3,185 and 3,441 more cases statewide. To put this number in perspective, New York state has recorded as many cases in the last week even with its stringent public-health rules.

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South Dakota still has among the lowest per capita death rates in the country (19 per 100,000) and fewer deaths and cases per capita than its neighbors Nebraska and North Dakota. Covid patients currently occupy 3% of state hospital beds and 6% of intensive-care units. So it seems that attendees at least didn’t expose the society’s vulnerable to the virus even if they were putting themselves at risk.

Where the study jumps off the rails is linking all of the relative increase in virus cases in counties with attendees compared to those without rally participants. The modelers multiplied the percent increase in cases for counties with attendees by their pre-rally cumulative cases to get a total of 263,708 additional cases—266,796 including South Dakota’s increase.

But many “high inflow” counties like Los Angeles, Maricopa (Arizona), Clark (Nevada) and El Paso were experiencing flare-ups before the rally. These counties may have shared other characteristics like higher population density that contributed to their increases. There could be other “endogenous” variables—for instance, counties with more people who attended the motorcycle rally may also have had populations less observant of social distancing.

The study’s authors nonetheless assign each of these 266,796 Covid cases a public-health cost of $46,000—ergo $12.2 billion—though the vast majority of all virus cases are mild or moderate. Talk about a case study in statistical overreach—and double standards.

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Another study by the same authors concluded that President Trump’s rally in Tulsa in June didn’t lead to an increase in cases. It was ignored by the media, which has dismissed the mere suggestion that this summer’s nationwide Black Lives Matter protests may have contributed to outbreaks. Who knew the deplorables of Sturgis were more vulnerable to the virus than progressives?

Wonder Land: How the pandemic and protests are floating the U.S. into a political crisis. Images: AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly
 
And yet, BLM and Antifa riots where there are hundreds congregating over a very tiny area without Social distancing, in very close contact, sharing drugs and food with their dirty hands, looting, burning and trashing businesses, again in very close contact and not a single Antifa and BLM reported as having contracted Corona Virus? Not all of them wearing masks mind you like those thugs that drank the beer and ate the food of seniors dining out in Philadelphia? You can smell BS a mile away. At a minimum, you would have hundreds already infected and seriously, ill? Where are they? Did the martians spirit them away in their spaceships? Or is the extreme liberal Democrat Mayors and Governors hiding them away in some hospitals? Maybe, they can market their spit and urine and sell it as Anti-Corona Virus vaccine since, it apparently, gives them immunity? In the meantime, extreme liberal media continues with their BS coverage of the riots. All rioters are peaceful always. Nothing to see here.
 
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