How the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have spread coronavirus across the Upper Midwest

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Predicted this would happen...along with needless deaths.  South Dakota's Republican governor in denial of need for COVID restrictions in her state (focus on personal responsibility) and despite 60% of Sturgis townfolks wanting event cancelled., it went on.

 

Washington Post.  Oct. 17, 2020

How the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have spread coronavirus across the Upper Midwest

Quote

Within weeks of the gathering, the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita. The surge was especially pronounced in North and South Dakota, where cases and hospitalization rates continued their juggernaut rise into October. Experts say they will never be able to determine how many of those cases originated at the 10-day rally, given the failure of state and local health officials to identify and monitor attendees returning home, or to trace chains of transmission after people got sick.

More than 330 coronavirus cases and one death were directly linked to the rally as of mid-September, according to a Washington Post survey of health departments in 23 states that provided information. But experts say that tally represents just the tip of the iceberg, since contact tracing often doesn’t capture the source of an infection, and asymptomatic spread goes unnoticed....

Many went unmasked to an event public health officials pleaded with them to skip, putting themselves and others at risk, because they were skeptical about the risks, or felt the entreaties infringed on their personal liberties. Rallygoers jammed bars, restaurants, tattoo parlors and concert venues; South Dakota officials later identified four such businesses as sites of potential exposure after learning that infected people had visited them....

...The Aug. 7-16 gathering has drawn intense interest from scientists and health officials, and will likely be studied for years to come because of its singularity. It’s not just that Sturgis went on after the pandemic sidelined most everything else. It also drew people from across the country, all of them converging on one region, packing the small city’s Main Street and the bars and restaurants along it. And in contrast with participants in the Black Lives Matter protests this Summer, many Sturgis attendees spent time clustered indoors at bars, restaurants and tattoo parlors, where experts say the virus is most likely to spread, especially among those without masks....

When one's "personal liberties" affect other persons unknowingly especially in light of a highly contagious disease pandemic, that's not OK. 

Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play.   The average U.S. resident no longer has polio, cholera, typhoid, rare measles in their communities  due to Public Health regulations and activities.  The disdain for today;s Public Health officials recommendations is alarming,.

The fact that masks help decrease respiratory  virus transmission has been known for 102  years since 1918  Spanish Flu pandemic,    With President Trump telling Miami Town Hall participants and viewers that 85% people wearing masks get the Coronavirus due to misinterpreting a study, its no wonder why the U.S. is  today  + consistently #1 in the  number of COVID-19 + cases ( 8.1 million )  and # Covid-19 related  deaths  ( 220,000)   --- 22% of worldwide stats with just 4% of worlds population.

 

Bloomberg.com  10/12/2020

U.S. Virus-Death Rate Is World’s Worst Among Developed Nations

ABC News 10/16/2020

Trump falsely cites CDC data on mask-wearing, catching COVID-19

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/video/embed/73626636

 

 

Mask Up America

 

Dublin has launched the world’s first ‘Smiling Face Mask Emoji’ and submitted a proposal to Unicode – the world standard for text and emoji – for the new creation to be added to emoji keyboards around the world. 

https://www.lbbonline.com/news/tbwadublin-creates-worlds-first-smiling-face-mask-emoji-to-challenge-negative-sentiments