Dakotas lead US in virus growth as both reject mask rules

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

STEPHEN GROVES and DAVE KOLPACK
, Associated Press
Sep. 12, 2020
Updated: Sep. 12, 2020 3:50 p.m.



People wear red in solidarity against a potential city-wide mask mandate during a city council meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, in Brookings, S.D. Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks, personal responsibility and freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic. (Erin Bormett/The Argus Leader via AP)Erin Bormett/AP


SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.

The argument over masks raged this week in Brookings, South Dakota, as the city council considered requiring face coverings in businesses. The city was forced to move its meeting to a local arena to accommodate intense interest, with many citizens speaking against it, before the mask requirement ultimately passed.


Amid the brute force of the pandemic, health experts warn that the infections must be contained before care systems are overwhelmed. North Dakota and South Dakota lead the country in new cases per capita over the last two weeks, ranking first and second respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

South Dakota has also posted some of the country's highest positivity rates for COVID-19 tests in the last week — over 17 percent — an indication that there are more infections than tests are catching.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/As-virus-rises-in-the-Dakotas-freedom-argument-15562040.php

[LisaM]

1. My young niece and nephew are in North Dakota.

This terrifies me.

[nattyice]

2. This is what the vote for

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Lemmings heading for the cliff.

[Midnightwalk]

4. Lemmings hijacking a bus

And driving us all off a cliff.

[Stallion]

5. South Dakota One of the Least Populated States is 24th in Cases Per Million

...and growing

[progree]

14. And it's #2 in Daily NEW Cases Per Million, 7 day moving average (behind #1 Nodak)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

at 172 cases per 100,000 in the past 7 days (25 per 100,000 per day)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

Scroll down to the "Cases and deaths by state and county" table.
Sort it by the "per 100,000" column that follows the "cases in last 7 days" column

South Dakota is 2nd highest state on this list

========================================================

As for the trend:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/south-dakota-coronavirus-cases.html

Last 14 days: down 7%

========================================================

Test Positivity rates https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/south-dakota
It's 17% (though down from nearly 23% from a couple of weeks ago)
For the U.S. its 5.0%

========================================================

State motto: "We're not as bad as North Dakota, neener neener"

[louzke9]

19. NO SPACE...

Too BIG or SMALL for COVID19! From Fifth Avenue in New York to the prairies of the Dakotas. Have man, will travel!

[bucolic_frolic]

6. If they mistrust government/public health so much, why do they trust Trump?

[riversedge]

20. remember that trumpy always tells his fans he is NOT the deep state-which is the government!

[jeffreyi]

7. I don't want my hard earned tax money

Paying to care for these idiots when they get sick.

[Lasher]

8. BUILD! THE! WALL!

Around the Daktas. Nobody gets in, nobody gets out

[Miguelito Loveless]

9. I suggest the Dakotas be designated

as a new country for anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, Q-Anonites, birthers, Flat Earthers, Dominionists, et al. The borders should then be sealed to protect the rest of the world.

[SWBTATTReg]

10. Ain't going to stop me from wearing my mask nor telling me when someone visits my home, to wear

a mask. If these people don't want to wear a mask, fine. They're the ones putting everybody else at risk.

I think though, a lot of businesses will think otherwise and demand that masks be worn while shoppers are in the store. This is everywhere I've been in STLMO.

[riversedge]

21. Non maskers are SELFISH fools--putting themselves, their families and all contacts at risk.

[SWBTATTReg]

24. Of course! And the news has been full of stories of 'Oh I thought it was a hoax, etc.' and they're

either sick or died.

I guess I'm getting cynical, in that if they get sick and/or die, okay. Their choice. I guess serves them right for listening to the moron in the WH. In the meantime, I've got things to do, places to be, people to see, etc. a great deal of life to live and thus, I'm going to self isolate, wear a mask, wash my hands, cut down the number of trips outside the house, try and be as healthy as I can just in case I do get the big CV.

So far, I've only run into one friend of mine who's had the CV (only one thank god) and he's in his mid to upper 80s. He said that all it did to him is just make him very very tired. I finally saw him at the little Mom and Pop bar that he and I both go out to (he with his walker, he commutes from his senior care home from up the street).

It was so nice to see him and he was just full of advice, smiles, and so forth (like normal). I've always enjoyed his company (all of us do, and someone always takes him home later (instead of letting him walk back home with his walker). I hope that he is the only friend that I see that comes down w/ the CV.

I only have a limited group of friends in their 80s, and they've drastically cut back their trips outside the home. Another friend of mine in his 80s, to keep himself busy, also works at a neighborhood bar called Nadine's, and he was still out and about working there. It does seem like w/ the CV raging, that those friends that you do have (and in the groups most at risk from the CV), you truly do value them even more so (if possible).

[Bengus81]

11. The corona virsus will all go away with cold weather...er warm weather or whatever

Do any of those jackasses look like they have a functioning brain? All they want to do is "own them Libruls" by refusing to wear a mask.

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Trump's Bleachers

Poor, misguided, misinformed, disinformed, confused suckers, losers and mopes.



The Dakotas are great states, filled more than mostly with good people. More than a few above wearing masks.

That a majority of voters in the two states support Drumpf is a testament to the power of television.

[bluestarone]

13. WE live in North Dakota and

our numbers have gone Ballistic! Beginning with the crazy fucking South Dakota 4th of July bullshit, rodeo, Bike rally Kool Deadwood nights, the state fair. Kids in Schools K-12 scares the crap out of me! WHY are these fucking people so against masks is CULT times a BILLION!! totally FUCKINGUNEXPLAINABLE to me!! NOFUCKING body cares? I just hate it!!

[ToxMarz]

16. I'm in NW Iowa and they have latched onto just saying "herd immunity" around here

They don't even know what it means, but to them it means the solution is we don't have to do anything, it will just work itself out. Nothing to see here.

Why do they always have a solution to the most complex issues that will fit on a bumper sticker.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. #COVIDIOTS

[sakabatou]

17. *facepalm* COVID-iots

[Progressive Jones]

18. Sturgis didn't help. FREEDUMB !!! nt

[Blues Heron]

22. antima terrorists

lock 'em up if they don't mask up!

[oasis]

23. So long suckers!

[Yeehah]

25. They're wearing red because they're trump bumpkins

and their Dear Leader says masks are for losers.

[Marthe48]

26. 2 more states not getting my tourism dollars

stupid, stupid, stupid people