COVID-Kristi Wants To Party Like It's 1999... As Case Loads Spike All Over The Midwest

On Thursday Kristi Noem infected 334 more South Dakotans with COVID-19 and then yesterday she gave her states 259 more cases, bringing the state total to 14,596 or 16,499 cases per million residents. By way of comparison, the worst hit European country, Spain which is already in Wave II, has significantly fewer cases per million that South Dakota-- 11,060. And after Spain, the numbers drop dramatically: Sweden (8,406 cases per million), U.K. (5,038 cases per million), France, also in the midst of Wave II (4,734 cases per million) and Italy (4,544 cases per million).

Yesterday the U.S., thanks primarily to brainless Republican governors like Noem, the U.S. was back over 50,000 new daily cases. Tragically, Noem has acted as COVID's Typhoid Mary not just in the state that elected her but in state's that are more serious about not spreading the contagion: Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. Iowa too-- but that state's governor, Kim Reynolds, is as murderous as Noem. These state's all saw precipitous rises in COVID-cases because of the Sturgis motorcycle rally. They also border on South Dakota. In the wake of Sturgis, other states filling up with higher daily case loads stretch all across the Midwest. Daily new cases yesterday, all compliments of Kristi Noem:

• Illinois +5,594 (19,516 cases per million residents)
• Missouri +1,570 (14,987 cases per million residents)
• Wisconsin +1,498 (13,629 cases per million residents)
• Ohio +1,327 (10,998 cases per million residents)
• Kansas +1,184 (15,762 cases per million residents)
• Michigan +1,053 (11,645 cases per million residents)
• Tennessee +1,051 (23,516 cases per million residents)
• Iowa +1,032 (21,652 cases per million residents)
• Indiana +1,030 (14,540 cases per million residents)
• Oklahoma +1,013 (15,679 cases per million residents)
• Minnesota +843 (14,002 cases per million residents)
• North Dakota +344 (17,024 cases per million residents)
• South Dakota +259 (16,499 cases per million residents)
• Nebraska +192 (18,435 cases per million residents)

And Noem's reaction to causing smooch suffering in the region? Another big super-spreader event that kicked off on Thursday-- the state fair, which runs through Labor Day. There is no mask requirement. Last year over 200,000 people showed up.

USA Today reported that in the weeks following Noem's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the the Sioux Empire Fair "South Dakota has emerged as a virus hotbed, according to data analysis. State and national health experts say the rise in cases is likely fueled by a combination of factors, including school reopenings, small gatherings and major events."

Those larger events have been made possible by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's steadfast resistance to restrictive measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. She has discouraged schools from requiring masks, instead promoting hand-washing as the best way to prevent infections, and railed against an "elite class of so-called experts" whose opinions impact individuals' liberties.

But as cases surge in the state, public health officials are grappling with the impact of the Sturgis rally, which gained national attention as one of the largest events to be held since the onset of the pandemic.

The event has so far been linked to one death. In South Dakota, 118 residents who attended the rally subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. Nationally, about 300 cases have been linked to the rally.

While that's less than 1% of the more than 460,000 people who converged on Sturgis, Dr. Robert J. Kim-Farley said it's likely "the tip of the iceberg."

Kim-Farley, a professor of epidemiology and community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told USA Today on Thursday that COVID-19 is a particularly difficult virus to trace to its infection point. Symptoms might not show up for weeks, if at all, in an infected person. Meanwhile, that person could be spreading the virus.

Cellphone location data analyzed by the nonprofit COVID Alliance has found evidence that rally participants came from each of the 48 continental United States and more than half of the nation's counties.

The data also suggests participants were less likely to practice social distancing-- they stayed at home less and traveled more compared to their neighbors. This behavior continued before and after the August rally, COVID Alliance data shows.

While the rally's impact ripples across the nation, a spike in cases in South Dakota is also gaining national attention.

The Mount Rushmore State has recorded the nation's third-highest rate of coronavirus cases per capita over the last two weeks, according to The Associated Press, and the highest per-capita rate in the nation for the past seven days, according to New York Times data.

A statement from Noem's office emailed to USA Today on Thursday says the Republican governor "remains focused on our hospitalization rate, and we are encouraged by the fact that only 6% of our ICU beds are currently occupied by COVID patients."

While the rally's impact ripples across the nation, a spike in cases in South Dakota is also gaining national attention.

While hospitalizations are a more accurate metric for studying COVID-19 spread than cases, there's a lag time from days to weeks, Kim-Farley said.

It's "a little bit early to say that hospitalizations haven’t been affected," Kim-Farley said.

State epidemiologist Josh Clayton acknowledged there is typically a two-week lag between increases in cases and hospitalizations. Currently, less than 100 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, well within the state's capacity.