A Motorcycle Rally in a Pandemic? 'We Kind of Knew What Was Going to Happen'

[douglas9]

STURGIS, S.D. — Albert Aguirre was amped as he and a buddy skimmed across the South Dakota plains, heading to join 460,000 bikers for a motorcycle rally shaping up to be a Woodstock of unmasked, uninhibited coronavirus defiance.

“Sit tight Sturgis,” Mr. Aguirre, 40, posted on Facebook on Aug. 7 as he snapped a photo of the sun sifting through the clouds. “We’re almost there!”

A month later, back home in the college town of Vermillion, S.D., Mr. Aguirre was so sick he could barely take a shower. He had not been tested but told friends that it had to be Covid-19.

Infectious-disease experts had warned about the dangers of cramming thousands of revelers into the Black Hills of South Dakota at the height of a pandemic. But it was the 80th anniversary of the annual Sturgis rally, and bikers were coming no matter what.

South Dakota’s Republican governor, a vocal opponent of lockdowns, gave her blessing, local leaders set aside their misgivings, and thousands of people from every state in the nation rolled down Sturgis’s Main Street.

In the aftermath, hundreds of people have gotten sick and Sturgis has become a rumbling symbol of America’s bitter divisions over the coronavirus, even now, as cases continue to surge, surpassing more than 121,000 daily infections on Thursday, and the nation’s death toll crosses 235,000.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/us/sturgis-coronavirus-cases.html

[Historic NY]

1. What happens when your governor is as dumb as a stump...

I love the part the testing is political.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. I don't think our Missouri governor is any better. nt

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed, Governor Do Nothing

Certainly is no better at all.

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. I wonder if these Trumpers will change now that Trump

Is out?

[Sherman A1]

6. Yes, they most certainly will change

However, it will be for the worse.

[The Genealogist]

4. He's useless

Utterly useless. And he cruised to victory.

[Sherman A1]

7. Yup,

Useless is one term that fits.

[Ponietz]

8. ICUs at 100 percent capacity in South Dakota and Montana

[link:https://covidactnow.org/?s=1295310|

[yaesu]

9. Last time I watched my local ABC station news (owned by one of the MAGA monopolies) they went

out of their way, spending time debunking the rally spreading the virus study that came out. These monopolies need to be broken up.

[czarjak]

10. "Vaccine, or no vaccine" Brilliant!

[Maeve]

11. My brother lives near Sturgis

And he tends to think the pandemic is overblown, BUT....he also thinks the rally was a really REALLY bad idea this year and stayed far far away from it. He may be a bit of a fool, but he's not an idiot.

[tanyev]

12. Just imagine the giant superspreader inauguration Donny would have held for himself.

[Pluvious]

13. Just imagine the giant Superspreader Inauguration The BLOTUS would have held for itself !!

omg - it would be a culling of the stupid !