I Hope Everyone Had A Good Time At The Motorcycle Rally-- A Quarter Million More COVID-Cases And $12.2 Billion In Medical Costs

COVID-Kristi

Maybe more so than even governors Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Brian Kemp (R-GA), Doug Ducey (R-AZ) and Greg Abbott (R-TX), South Dakota Trumpist Governor Kristi Noem should face charges of manslaughter for the willful decision to shit-can public health requirements and infect her state-- and surrounding states-- with a deadly and preventable virus. If there ever is a prosecution-- keep dreamin'-- a document released yesterday by Dhaval Dave, Andrew Friedson, Drew McNichols and Joseph Sabia for the Institute of Labor Economics in Germany, will surely be part of the evidence against Noem. IZA DP No. 13670 is entitled The Contagion Externality of a Superspreading Event: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and COVID-19. They begin with a flat statement, much of which even a grade school student should know by now: "Large in-person gatherings without social distancing and with individuals who have traveled outside the local area are classified as the 'highest risk' for COVID-19 spread by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Between August 7 and August 16, 2020, nearly 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts converged on Sturgis, South Dakota for its annual motorcycle rally. Large crowds, coupled with minimal mask-wearing and social distancing by attendees, raised concerns that this event could serve as a COVID-19 'super-spreader.'... [F]ollowing the Sturgis event, counties that contributed the highest inflows of rally attendees experienced a 7.0 to 12.5 percent increase in COVID-19 cases relative to counties that did not contribute inflows. Descriptive evidence suggests these effects may be muted in states with stricter mitigation policies (i.e., restrictions on bar/restaurant openings, mask-wearing mandates). We conclude that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally generated public health costs of approximately $12.2 billion."

Why blame Noem? As the authors noted, "South Dakota’s public health response to the novel coronavirus outbreak has largely been a hands-off approach, centered around private personal responsibility. South Dakota was one of 8 states to never issue a statewide shelter-in-place order or a safer-at-home order. A recent assessment found South Dakota to have the least restrictive COVID-19 policy environment when assessing mask wearing mandates (none), travel restrictions (none), large gathering restrictions (none), statewide school restarts (district-level decisions), reopening of bars and restaurants (full indoor-dining permitted), work-from-home requirements (none) and temperature screenings (not required)."

They began with a quote by Steve Harwell, lead singer of Smash Mouth, a Sugar Ray rip off band which performed at the super-spreader event: "Now we’re all here together tonight. And we’re being human once again. Fuck that Covid shit." Hopefully someone will remember that if Smash Mouth is ever nominated for the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame.





In their intro, the authors wrote that "Restrictions on large gatherings were a near universal policy adopted by U.S. states following the initial U.S. coronavirus outbreak. As of August 29, 2020, when all states that had forced businesses closed had at least partially reopened, 29 states continued to ban gatherings of groups of over 50 individuals, a reflection, in part, of the resurgence of COVID-19 in the U.S. beginning in June 2020.Restrictions on large gatherings during a pandemic is a form of government regulation of quantity within a market to curb a negative externality. In that way, gathering restrictions are similar to public smoking bans, chemical emission standards, or vaccination mandates. In this case, the negative externality is due to infection risk, so the blanket nature of a gathering restriction is a key part of the containment strategy as a single mass gathering has the potential to generate a large number of cases, a phenomenon referred to as a 'superspreading event.' Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deems 'large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area' among the highest risk activities for the spread of COVID-19 (CDC 2020). The risk of contagion of COVID-19 is exacerbated at such events if (i) there are high frequency, prolonged interactions between individuals, and (ii) pre-event COVID-19 case growth in the county hosting the event is elevated."

They noted that the Sturgis rally was a 10-day event with dozens of concerts-- like the Smash Mouth one-- live performances, races, poker tournaments, boxing matches, exhibitions, contests, tattoo artists, and bike shows that drew over 460,000 individuals to a city with a population of approximately 7,000 located in a county with a population of approximately 26,000. COVID-19 mitigation efforts at the Sturgis Rally were largely left to the "personal responsibility" of attendees, and post-opening day media reports suggest that social distancing and mask-wearing were quite rare in Sturgis. They refer to it as a "worst case scenario" for super-spreading. Their research found that foot traffic at restaurants and bars, hotels, entertainment venues, and retail establishments rose by as much as 90% during the event; that stay-at-home behavior declined among residents of Meade County; and that the Sturgis Rally caused spread of COVID-19 cases both locally and in the home counties of those who traveled to the Sturgis Rally and returned home. "[T]he Sturgis event increased COVID-19 cases in Meade County by 6.3 to 6.9 cases per 1,000 population as of September 2nd 2020, a month following the onset of events at the Sturgis Rally. For the state of South Dakota as a whole we find that the Sturgis event increase COVID-19 cases by 3.6 to 3.9 cases per 1,000 population as of September 2nd 2020. This represents an increase of over 35 percent relative to the 9.7 cases per 1,000 population in South Dakota on July 31, 2020."

They also found that "counties that contributed the highest inflows of Sturgis attendees saw COVID-19 cases rise by 10.7 percent following the Sturgis event relative to counties without any detected attendees. Descriptive evidence suggests some evidence of variation in local COVID-19 spread depending on the stringency of local contagion mitigation policies. We conclude that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally generated substantial public health costs, which we calculate to reach at least $12.2 billion."

The counties outside of South Dakota that sent the most attendees to the rally were Adams County, Colorado, Jefferson County, Colorado, Weld County, Colorado, Maricopa County, Arizona, Clark County, Nevada, Anoka County, Minnesota, and Campbell County, Wisconsin and they found that the rally is associated with a 13.5 percent increase in COVID-19 cases" in those counties. They found "strong evidence that the Sturgis Rally appears to have been a superspreader event for COVID-19; we find significant case increases within the state of South Dakota as well as increases extending to counties from which relatively more residents attended the event."

The spread of the virus due to the event was large: we document large increases in cumulative cases relative to the synthetic counterfactual in the county of the event, and the cluster of CBGs in the county and adjoining the county over the entire post-event time period, with larger increases detected towards the end of the time period. Similarly, we find large increases statewide-- with increases in the South Dakota cumulative COVID-19 caseload relative to the synthetic counterfactual that were between 3.6 and 3.9 cases per 1,000 population.

We are further able to document national spread due to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, although that spread also appears to have been successfully mitigated by states with strict infection mitigation policies. In counties with the largest relative inflow to the event, the per 1,000 case rate increased by 10.7 percent after 24 days following the onset of Sturgis Pre-Rally Events. Multiplying the percent case increases for the high, moderate-high and moderate inflow counties by each county’s respective pre-rally cumulative COVID-19 cases and aggregating, yields a total of 263,708 additional cases in these locations due to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Adding the number of new cases due to the Rally in South Dakota estimated by synthetic control (3.6 per 1,000 population, scaled by the South Dakota population of approximately 858,000) brings the total number of cases to 266,796 or 19 percent of 1.4 million new cases of COVID-19 in the United States between August 2nd 2020 and September 2nd 2020.

If we conservatively assume that all of these cases were non-fatal, then these cases represent a cost of over $12.2 billion, based on the statistical cost of a COVID-19 case of $46,000 estimated by Kniesner and Sullivan (2020). This is enough to have paid each of the estimated 462,182 rally attendees $26,553.64 not to attend. This is by no means an accurate accounting of the true externality cost of the event, as it counts those who attended and were infected as part of the externality when their costs are likely internalized. However this calculation is nonetheless useful as it provides a ballpark estimate as to how large of an externality a single superspreading event can impose, and a sense of how valuable restrictions on mass gatherings can be in this context. Even if half of the new cases were attendees, the implied externality is still quite large. Finally, our descriptive evidence suggests that stricter mitigation policies in other locations may contribute to limiting externality exposure due to the behavior of non-compliant events and those who travel to them.

Yesterday, COVID-Kristi and her ideologically-inspired toxic policies infected 191 more South Dakotans with the virus, bringing the state's reported total to 15,300, or 17,295 cases per million South Dakotans. But because Noem's insane response to the pandemic has been a super-spreader on a national basis, she has been responsible for, literally, hundreds of thousands of cases across America. She's dangerous-- a true arch-villain of the pandemic-- and should be removed from office as soon as constitutionally possible.

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.

The Pandemic Doesn't Go Away Because People Are Tired Of It-- Europe's Wave II Has Begun

The results of the big motorcycle rally in Sturgis are starting to come in, not just in South Dakota, but in all the states around South Dakota where bikers came from, caught the disease and then went home to spread it. These are the new case reports from Thursday ---> Friday and today --->:

• Missouri +1,614---> +1,474 ---> +231
• Iowa +1,566 ---> +2,571 ---> +1,081
• Minnesota +1,154 ---> +850 ---> +1,017
• South Dakota +623 ---> +323 ---> +425
• Nebraska +374 ---> +335 ---> +317
• Colorado +349 ---> +430 ---> +268
• North Dakota +333 ---> +310 ---> +374
• Montana +144 ---> +134 ---> +188
• Wyoming +38 ---> +41 ---> +21

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, says the South Dakota rally will continue to contribute to higher COVID-19 case counts nationwide. He expects the real impact to show up in 3 or 4 weeks. "At Sturgis," he said, "there are many bar-related outbreaks and tattoo parlor-related outbreaks. A number of different indoor locations were visited. We’re now seeing these cases pour back out across the United States... We’ve already seen outbreaks here, in Minnesota. Small clusters of cases, that actually started in its first instance with an individual from Sturgis who came back infected, who then transmitted the virus on to others. I think you’re going to see that number grow substantially. That by itself will not drive a big, new national outbreak but it’ll sure contribute to that issue."

AP reported that new polling shows major dissatisfaction with how the federal government is handling the pandemic.

Yesterday, a friend of mine, an American whose wife and children are French and spends most of his time there, told me he's been "stranded" in L.A. and is going back to his family next week. I'm sure he is aware that the pandemic is getting worse all over Europe again-- especially in France, which is now reporting more new cases than California and Texas. Yesterday, Washington Post Europe-based reporters Michael Birnbaum, Chico Harlan and James McCauley, wrote that cases are surging again "after months of relative calm, but the second wave looks different from the first: Fewer people are dying, and the newest and mostly younger victims of the pandemic need less medical treatment." So far.

But the increase is widespread, and it is unsettling societies that had hoped the worst was behind them. Paris on Friday joined some other French jurisdictions in imposing a citywide mask requirement, with cases spiking. France, Germany, Spain and others posted caseloads in recent days that had not been seen since April and early May. Spain has been hit particularly hard, with per capita cases now worse than in the United States-- a notable marker in Europe, which after the initial springtime spike had generally controlled the virus more successfully than America.

And with almost every European country planning a return to in-person schooling, many starting next week, public health officials are holding their breath for the impact.

The surge is a first test of the efforts Europe has made to improve its resilience in the half-year since the pandemic unleashed a wave of suffering across the world. Most European countries have improved their testing capacity. They have hired contact tracers to combat big outbreaks. They have masks and gloves for their doctors and nurses. And as summer travelers return home and classes resume, experts and leaders say they hope to be able to avoid bigger lockdowns in the coming months.

Many countries, including Italy, endured grinding lockdowns this spring. Now citizens are exhausted, and economies are still flagging.

“I don’t think the country can survive another lockdown. And to be frank, there is no reason to,” said Ranieri Guerra, a World Health Organization assistant director general who is advising the Italian Health Ministry. “It’s very unlikely we’ll see anything like it was in the past. The likely scenario is that we’ll have some clusters here and there, even heavier than now, but very localized.”

Italy was ravaged by the virus in the spring. And now it is seeing something of a resurgence. On Friday, it reported 1,469 new cases, the biggest increase in a 24-hour period since it was emerging from lockdown in early May. In Italy, many of the new cases have been tied to travels abroad. Over the past month, the average age of a person who tested positive was 31. Throughout March, it was above 60.

Italian officials say that hospitals and nursing homes are better prepared and treatments more advanced. Though some Italians have dropped their guard, older people in particular remain cautious, wearing masks outdoors and staying away from crowds.

But Guerra said that containment depends on contact tracing and testing.

“If you don’t have a system to track, trace and quarantine localized clusters, it’s really difficult. This virus is very contagious,” he said. “Moving from 100 cases to 200 may take a few days, but moving from 2,000 to 4,000 may take hours.”

At least part of the surge in cases may stem from testing that is far more widely available than it was in the spring. Younger people who have moderate symptoms are being encouraged to get tested, unlike in March, when only those who were sick enough to be hospitalized qualified for a test in most countries.

“In February, in March, we had no clue what was circulating. We were only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Steven van Gucht, the head of viral diseases at Sciensano, Belgium’s national public health institute. “Now we are trying to see the iceberg and to adapt our behavior accordingly.”

But with summer fading into fall, questions remain about how long the virus can spread among younger people before it spreads to more vulnerable older generations.

Belgium had one of the world’s worst per capita death rates this spring, with most of the mortality occurring in nursing homes. Now, even though cases have nearly quintupled compared to their lowest point in late June, Belgian hospitals remain calm. Very few cases are appearing in nursing homes, and 40 percent of new cases have been diagnosed among people between the age of 20 and 40.

During the first wave, anti-pandemic measures in most European countries were far more stringent than in the United States. In some countries, police officers fined people for venturing past their front doors. The measures lasted for months. The payoff was that by early June, the virus had been brought under control in most countries across the continent.

This time, the European approach seems more American: decentralized, localized, a hodgepodge of individual measures that policymakers hope will add up to a pandemic that is kept in check. In Belgium and France, for example, mask-wearing is now required in many cities facing a second wave. Belgian authorities earlier this month asked citizens to drastically curtail their social interactions, limiting their close household contacts to a “bubble” of just five other people.

Whether that will be enough remains an open question.

“It’s a bit too early to be too complacent about ourselves, whether we have found the magic formula,” van Gucht said. “Maybe I can tell you after next winter whether this still will work.”

Among European countries, Spain presents the most ominous picture. It is reporting nearly as many daily cases as it did in March, when it suffered as acutely as any country on the continent.

Experts say the country has squandered many of the gains from its springtime lockdown by reopening too quickly — without building up the deep network of contact tracers used in other Western European countries. Its latest cases largely stem from the kind of activities that the Spanish government had banned early in the pandemic: family gatherings, celebrations, dancing at nightclubs, according to epidemiologists.

“We moved very fast to reopen, and the virus was still circulating too [widely] in order to achieve a sustained reduction of cases,” said Antoni Trilla, dean of the University of Barcelona Medical and Health Sciences School.

But the country is hoping that this increase won’t hit with the same tragic force as the first wave. The new cases have been detected largely among the young. Coronavirus hospitalizations, despite having quadrupled over the past month, remain manageable for the health system. In Madrid, 13.6 percent of hospital beds are occupied by coronavirus patients; in March the city’s hospitals were full.

The country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has rejected the idea of a new national lockdown and said that conditions and knowledge of the virus have improved since the spring. Short of a lockdown, smaller measures have been taken, including the closure of nightclubs. The region of Madrid has delayed the return to school for some students and further reduced its planned class sizes.

But it is unclear whether those measures can prevent the virus from leaping to older generations when young, infected people return to their homes. Trilla said it would be “difficult” but necessary to use targeted measures to keep the virus at bay.

“We have to look at the local situation and move with surgical precision to close some schools, to isolate certain areas for a while,” Trilla said.

In France, meanwhile, the government on Friday recorded a spike of 7,379 new cases in the past 24 hours-- the second-largest single-day caseload since the pandemic began and the latest data point in an upward swing that began last month. Friday’s number was up more than a third from the already high figure posted just two days earlier.

France imposed one of Europe’s strictest nationwide lockdowns between mid-March and mid-May, and authorities have since said that a second period of closures would be devastating for the economy.

“We’re doing everything to avoid another lockdown and in particular a nationwide lockdown,” President Emmanuel Macron told journalists Friday. But he added: “Nothing can be ruled out.”

In light of the recent case uptick, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday that the government had prepared a set of new lockdown plans to be deployed if necessary.

Leaders implored citizens to remain vigilant, especially as students return to class on Tuesday, masks in hand.

“Washing your hands, keeping your distance and wearing masks will be our daily life for several months,” said French Health Minister Olivier Véran. “I’m not saying it’s easy-- I’m saying we have no choice.”

These are the new case reports for western European countries on Wednesday ---> Thursday and ---> Friday ---> today:

• France +5,429 ---> +6,111 ---> +7,379 ---> +5,453
• Spain +3,594 ---> +3,781 ---> +3,829 ---> [no report]
• Germany +1,428 ---> +1,565 ---> +1,549 ---> +711
• Italy +1,365 ---> +1,409 ---> +1,462 ---> +1,444
• U.K. +1,048 ---> +1,522 ---> +1,276 ---> +1,108
• Netherlands +571 ---> +510 ---> +507 ---> +501
• Switzerland +383 ---> +361 ---> +340 ---> +376
• Portugal +362 ---> +399 ---> +401 ---> +374
• Belgium +355 ---> +583 ---> +470 ---> +452
• Austria +327 ---> +328 ---> +229 ---> +395
• Greece +293 ---> +251 ---> +269 ---> +177
• Sweden +246 ---> +134 ---> [no report] ---> [no report]
• Ireland +162 ---> +90 ---> +125 ---> +142
• Denmark +57 ---> +90 ---> +73 ---> +79
• Norway +40 ---> +38 ---> +23 ---> +29

Should Businesses That Allow Non-Mask Wearers On The Premises Be Sued When People Contract COVID-19?

The Starbucks in this story was in Paju, Korea but it could just as easily have been at a Starbucks in Spring Branch (Houston), Annandale (Virginia) or Palisades Park in Bergen County-- or in a Stabucks that has nothing to do with anyone with any Korean heritage at all. It's another tragic story from the Age of the Trump Virus. The basics should be all too familiar by now: After a woman with the coronavirus visited a Starbucks this month, more than two dozen patrons tested positive days later. But the four mask-wearing employees escaped infection. "With health authorities around the world still debating the evidence around face masks, the 27-person cluster linked to the air-conditioned coffee outlet adds more support for their mandatory use to help limit the spread of the Covid-19-causing virus."

Mississippi became the 34th state with a mandatory mask policy earlier this month. It's not enforced and means nothing at all. States without mandatory mask policies-- along with how many cases per million residents:

• Florida- 28,192 cases per million Floridians, 2nd worst in America
• Arizona- 27,377 cases per million Arizonans, 3rd worst in America
• Georgia- 24,135 cases per million Georgians, 5th worst in America
• South Carolina- 21,860 cases per million residents
• Tennessee- 21,174 cases per million residents
• Iowa- 18,152 cases per million residents
• Idaho- 16,826 cases per million residents
• Nebraska- 16,567 cases per million residents
• Utah- 15,398 cases per million residents
• Oklahoma- 13,690 cases per million residents
• North Dakota- 13,423 cases per million residents
• South Dakota- 13,005 cases per million residents
• Missouri- 12,520 cases per million residents
• Alaska- 6,575 cases per million residents
• Wyoming- 6,225 cases per million residents
• New Hampshire- 5,247 cases per million residents

Each of these states has a Republican governor who would rather listen to trump than public health experts. And just for comparison's sake, Spain, the European country hit worst by the pandemic, has less than 9,051 cases per million. And in South Korea, where the first cases was reported at around the same time as the U.S.'s first case and where new Starbucks outbreak is causing a national freakout, there are just 350 cases per million residents. 350-- no commas. Compare that number to these U.S. counties' new cases just yesterday:

• Los Angeles- 1,198
• Harris (TX)- 784
• Sacramento- 815
• Riverside (CA)- 800
• Miami-Dade- 773
• Hidalgo (TX)- 675
• Ft Bend (TX)- 606

Meanwhile, the 10 largest retailers in the U.S. all require masks on their premises regardless of state mandates:

• Walmart- 5,355 stores
• Amazon/Whole Foods- 564 stores
• Kroger- 3,003 stores
• Costco- 542 stores
• Walgreens- 9,168 stores
• Home Depot- 1,973 stores
• CVS- 9,909 stores
• Target- 1,868 stores
• Lowe's- 1,727 stores
• Albertson's (including Safeway and Vons)- 2,258 stores

Let me go back to the unwritten GOP platform on the pandemic: "Coronavirus is a much-overhyped problem. It’s not that dangerous and will soon burn itself out. States should reopen their economies as rapidly as possible, and accept the ensuing casualties as a cost worth paying-- and certainly a better trade-off than saving every last life by shutting down state economies. Masking is useless and theatrical, if not outright counterproductive."

On Tuesday, NPR's James Dawson reported that "In Boise, the first day of Idaho's special legislative session erupted into chaos before it began. Dozens of unmasked protesters, some of them armed, shoved their way past state troopers to pack the gallery overlooking the state's House of Representatives. The clash was a manifestation of the anger and frustration from a vocal minority of far-right Idahoans that has been compounding over the last several months as the state has navigated its reopening amid the pandemic. To enforce social distancing, the gallery area above the House chamber was restricted with limited seating. But after the confrontation with state troopers, which resulted in the shattering of a glass door, Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke relented and allowed protesters to fill every seat."

Idaho is in the midst of a COVID-explosion, centered on Boise, the state capital. There were 217 new cases yesterday, bringing the state's total to 30,070, which doesn't sound like a lot-- until you realize that's 16,826 cases per million Idahoans, a gigantic number, more than double the rate in Italy and France combined!

The group of protesters included supporters of a far-right militia and anti-vaccine advocates who were at the Idaho Capitol to demand an end to the current state of emergency and blast a proposal that would limit civil liability for businesses, schools and governments.

The bill would also open up those entities to litigation if they don't follow laws and ordinances, including mask mandates issued by public health districts.

"The insanity of this bill is beyond me," said Boise resident Pam Hemphill, during a committee hearing Monday afternoon. "We don't stop our lives, suspend our civil rights and panic each year for the flu."

These people are like rapid dogs threatening to infect the rest of society because they are mentally intellectually incapable of understanding the most basic tenets of epidemiology and consider themselves experts because they read Q-Anon on the internet. What do you do to a rabid dog? Sorry.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, called the legislature into special session last week to take up civil liability issues as well as election concerns from county clerks. They want to be able to count the massive influx of absentee ballots earlier than they can now under state law and have the option to consolidate polling locations to deal with an extreme shortage of poll workers.

The special session is also the result of months of intense pressure and blowback from Little's own party.

One state lawmaker referred to the governor as "Little Hitler" after he ordered the shutdown of nonessential businesses in late March. His lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin, who is elected separately and has ties to militia groups, has openly challenged Little's reopening push by visiting businesses that flouted those timelines and welcomed customers back earlier than allowed.

And legislators pressured Little to relinquish control over the state's coronavirus response to regional public health districts, even threatening to come after his executive authority in the future if he didn't comply.

Still, most Idahoans appear to stand by Little. An effort to recall the governor over the summer failed, and three-quarters of registered Idaho voters polled in May supported his handling of the pandemic.

Idaho's rabid dogs have a leader: Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin (R), who is badly in need of psychiatric intervention. When she began her anti-mask crusade last spring, Idaho only had 1,374 cases per million residents. McGeachin, a militia lunatic, should be held responsible for her part in mass murder. But... hey, it's Idaho and if she's on the ballot in 2022, she'll probably be elected. She owns a bar in Idaho Falls, the Celt Pub and Grill which doesn't require masks. I asked one of the employees to describe it to me in terms of the pandemic and he told me the employees where masks but most of the customers don't and acknowledged that most of them are "conspiracy folks" who are hostile towards mask wears who wander in. He said it wasn't specifically McGeachin's fault as much as it is about the people who live in Idaho Falls, which is Idaho's second largest city the county seat for Bonneville County. Hillary only took 20.2% of the vote there in 2016 and the "blue wave" of 2018 didn't reach the county at all. The Little/McGeachin ticket won with 66.6% and the county performed at an R+46 level for Rep. Mike Simpson.

And speaking of idiots, remember the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota a couple of weeks ago? Forbes reported that "More than 70 coronavirus cases diagnosed in seven states across the West and Midwest have been linked to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which attracted more than 460,000 vehicles over a 10-day period earlier this month, and at least one state health official expects this is just the start of cases linked to the event." Over two dozen were in neighboring Minnesota and the state's director of infectious diseases, Kris Ehresmann said that "Unfortunately, I think this is just the beginning of the cases we will see from Sturgis." I thought it was interesting that the Republican-controlled city council approved the event, even though 60% of the residents of Sturgis opposed it. So far this week (Monday and Tuesday) South Dakota has reported 229 new cases, brining the state's total to 11,505 or 13,005 cases per million South Dakotans.

Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, classic idiot