Coronavirus in rural America (Part XCIII): The aftermath of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

The rally is a major annual event in the western South Dakota town of Sturgis, population 6,627, each August. When the announcement was made that it was going ahead this year in spite of the pandemic, I also heard lots of folks express concern that it  could spread the virus.  A few months later, evidence emerged that it had, in fact, done just that.  

Here's a Washington Post story from October 17, "How the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have spread coronavirus across the Upper Midwest."  The subhead is, "Within weeks of the gathering that drew nearly half a million bikers, the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita."

Here's a New York Times story from just this week, "A Motorcycle Rally in a Pandemic? ‘We Kind of Knew What Was Going to Happen.’"  Mark Walker and Jack Healy report, with the subhead "Infectious-disease experts warned about the risk of cramming revelers into the Black Hills of South Dakota. But it was the annual Sturgis rally, and bikers were coming no matter what."