Shawn Vestal: Our narratives often roar past the facts, but the Sturgis facts, again, are bad – By Shawn Vestal (The Spokane Review) / Aug 25 2021
If it’s a pandemic August in South Dakota, it must be Sturgis time – time again to count the rising cases, watch the divergent narratives spin out, and reflect on the unshakeable persistence of belief over fact.
Because as the cases in South Dakota soar, the delta version of the motorcycle rally is shaping up to look a lot like the alpha version, which sent COVID-19 home with a significant number of bikers.
Last year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was held in the middle of the summer surge of the pandemic, a big middle finger to caution and good sense nearly a half a million people strong. Epidemiologists warned that it was a terrible idea. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, insisted everything would be fine and refused to apply any precautions whatsoever, treating the matter with the kind of proud, reckless defiance that has come to characterize so much of the political response to the pandemic.
The rally proceeded as planned – with the sale of defiant “Screw COVID. I Went to Sturgis” T-shirts added to the usual mix of outdoor rallies and packed bars. As predicted, there was a surge of infections that followed rallygoers home all over the country
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