Once again this year, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attracted hundreds of thousands of bikers to the town of Sturgis in South Dakota’s Black Hills. Before it began on August 6 and as it continued through August 15, the rally was denounced by hundreds of liberal news outlets as a covid super spreading event. The Washington Post, for example, headlined “Sturgis Motorcycle Rally revs up, drawing thousands and heightening delta superspreader fears.” CBS News warned, “Sturgis motorcycle rally sparks fears of super spreader event.” South Dakota’s governor was derided for defending the rally, and even participating in it on a motorcycle.
The incubation period for covid is two to 14 days, so any “super spreader” impact of the Sturgis rally would show up by now. Has it?
This map shows new covid cases during the past seven days. You can see the interactive version here:
The U.S. as a whole averaged 276 new covid cases per 100,000 population over the last seven days, while South Dakota averaged only 156. South Dakota has fewer new cases than all surrounding states except Minnesota and Iowa, which have 5% and 4% fewer new cases per 100,000 than South Dakota, respectively.
As the map shows graphically, new cases these days are mostly in the South. Why? Because covid is an indoor disease. In the summer months, it is hot in the South and people tend to stay indoors. In the Northern states, conversely, people are largely outdoors (the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is predominantly an outdoor event) and covid spreads less. When winter comes, new covid cases will be concentrated in the North, where people will then be indoors.
Meanwhile, have any liberal press outlets acknowledged that they were wrong about Sturgis, and apologized to the people of South Dakota, to the hundreds of thousands who attended the rally, or to the state’s governor? Of course not. This is why Rush Limbaugh called our conventional press the drive-by media. They casually smear the people they don’t like, and move on. Never is there accountability.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.