The nation's worst COVID governor? Trump superfan Kristi Noem is a rising GOP star --
— but she may have mismanaged the crisis worst of all
Written by Sophia Tesfaye / Salon September 14, 2020
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican who is the first woman to lead that rural and sparsely populated state, is taking her turn in the national hot seat as the Mount Rushmore State has become the nation’s latest coronavirus “hot spot.” In distinctly Trump-like fashion, the Trump-friendly Noem has turned to right-wing outlets like Fox News to lash out at critical media coverage and rail against an “elite class of so-called experts.” But as was the case with Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Georgia’s Brian Kemp and Arizona’s Doug Ducey, conservative media has rushed to circle the wagons around Noem just as the fuller picture of her failed handling of the coronavirus crisis becomes clearer.
South Dakota is now considered in the “red zone” for COVID-19 cases after ranking as the second-worst-hit state in the nation for new cases and test positivity per capita over the last two weeks, according to the latest document prepared for governors by the White House Coronavirus Task Force. But Noem is one of 14 Republican governors who have ignored the task force guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19, even as the White House says that increasing case counts in South Dakota and “remarkably high” test positivity are “deeply concerning” given insufficient testing levels in the state.
While the World Health Organization’s benchmark for business re-openings is a 5% rate of positive tests, South Dakota has seen a positivity rate above 10% since Aug. 16. Both daily active cases and hospitalizations have more than doubled in South Dakota since the start of August, and no other state has seen such a rapid expansion rate. Over the past week, there have been an average of 236 confirmed cases per day, an increase of 48% from the average only two weeks earlier. That’s out of a total state population of roughly 885,000, which ranks 46th in the nation.
Despite such troubling trends, Noem is among the few state governors who never imposed a shelter-in-place order. Her administration has refused to impose any restrictions on businesses or public activities, contrary to calls from South Dakota’s largest medical association. And Noem has resisted issuing a face-mask mandate — even though guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said for months that everyone should wear a facial covering while in public to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. She’s even encouraged parents to send their kids back to school “without masks.” As of the end of August, more than 550 people had been infected at the state’s universities, with another 200 cases recently reported in K-12 schools.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/the-nations-worst-governor-trump-superfan-kristi-noem-is-a-rising-gop-star-but-she-may-have-mismanaged-the-crisis-worst-of-all/
No matter what she does , she believes that nepotism and building fence to isolate her bunch makes her feel good and she is entitled to rip off the taxpayers dime..........she still has BLOOD ON HER HANDS.................she is psychopath..............