Tag: pandemic

No, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Didn’t Spawn 250,000 Coronavirus Cases

Here’s what we were told: An August motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, helped spread COVID-19 to more than a quarter-million Americans, making it the root of about 20 percent of all new coronavirus cases in the U.S. last month. So said a new white paper from the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, at least. And national news outlets ran with it.

“Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was ‘superspreading event’ that cost public health $12.2 billion,” tweeted The Hill.

“The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held in South Dakota last month may have caused 250,000 new coronavirus cases,” said NBC News.

“The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally represents a situation where many of the ‘worst-case scenarios’ for superspreading occurred simultaneously,” the researchers write in the new paper, titled “The Contagion Externality of a Superspreading Event: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and COVID-19.”

Not so fast. Let’s take a look at what they actually tracked and what’s mere speculation.

According to South Dakota health officials, 124 new cases in the state—including one fatal case—were directly linked to the rally. Overall, COVID-19 cases linked to the Sturgis rally were reported in 11 states as of September 2, to a tune of at least 260 new cases, according to The Washington Post.

There very well may be more cases that have been linked to the early August event, but so far, that’s only 260 confirmed cases—about 0.1 percent of the number the IZA paper offers.

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‘I’m The Public Face’: Here’s A List Of Lawmakers Who Broke COVID Rules

  • Not all lawmakers have been willing to follow social distancing restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney was photographed dining indoors Sunday, though Philadelphia still prohibits indoor dining.
  • Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended hair appointments despite COVID restrictions.
  • Here’s a list of lawmakers who have tried to dodge coronavirus rules. 

Lawmakers have mandated a variety of COVID restrictions to stem the spread of the pandemic, but not all lawmakers have been willing to follow the rules.

Governors, mayors and state health departments have required that Americans wear masks, social distance, refrain from spending time in large groups, quarantine after traveling across state lines, stay home from church services and much more.

But many political leaders and members of their families have failed to comply with social distancing rules. Here’s a list of lawmakers who appeared to dodge coronavirus-related restrictions.

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L.A. County walks back Halloween ban, says trick-or-treating ‘not recommended’

Less than a day after issuing new health guidelines that banned trick-or-treating and other Halloween activities, Los Angeles County public health officials walked back the decision Wednesday.

Citing an inability to maintain safe social distancing and the potential for gatherings beyond household members, county officials initially nixed trick-or-treating along with other Halloween traditions, including haunted houses and parades.

But Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday that the guidelines have been “slightly revised.”

Ferrer said the change distinguishes between activities originally prohibited under the health officer order from activities that are “not recommended.”

“This year, it’s just not safe to celebrate in the ways we usually do,” Ferrer said. “We are recommending that trick-or-treating not happen this year.”

The Department of Public Health previously said that because some of the traditional ways in which Halloween is celebrated do not allow contact with nonhousehold members to be minimized, it is important to identify safer alternatives.

“Trunk-or-treat” events involving car-to-car candy dispersal, which are sometimes held by churches or schools, also are not recommended under the revised order.

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Houston’s Daily Covid-19 Tally Inflated by Months-Old Cases

Houston-area health authorities are overstating the number of new Covid-19 cases as data teams struggle to work through a backlog of old test results in the third-largest U.S. county.

On an almost daily basis, Harris County Public Health releases a tally of what it calls “new cases” that a Bloomberg analysis found includes hundreds of diagnoses that are weeks or months old. On Tuesday, for example, more than 70% of the new cases disclosed actually were detected prior to this month and some dated as far back as June.

The confusion means authorities may be exaggerating the current severity of the outbreak — and were unknowingly understating the extent of the crisis in June and July, when hospitals were stretched to their limits. The situation also highlights the dilemma facing political leaders imposing mask mandates and other restrictions based on what they presume is accurate, timely data.

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New York Indoor-Dining To Resume Sept 30th, Cuomo Urges Citizens To Snitch On Violators

So what “science” changed in the last 24 hours?

Just a day after a large group on New York restaurateurs filed a $2 billion lawsuit against Cuomo and De Blasio over the ongoing COVID lockdowns, the Governor just announced that indoor-dining will be allowed (at 25% capacity) starting on September 30th.

The restaurant owners exclaimed:

“We’ve been patient, the numbers are fantastic, the COVID statistics, we don’t know what more we could do,” said one business owner.

“This is a lawsuit. We don’t wanna do this. This is not us, we are workers. We work 100 hours a week. It’s not a luxurious lifestyle. I have waiters; none of them drove here in a Ferrari today.”

And now they can open – but who decided that 25% capacity was the right number? why not 30% or 50%?

“Because compliance is better, we can now take the next step,” the governor said.

Additional restrictions would also be placed on restaurants and their patrons, including a requirement to wear face coverings when not seated.

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Los Angeles bans Halloween trick-or-treating due to COVID-19 risk

Traditional Halloween activities like trick-or-treating, parties, festivals and haunted houses won’t be permitted throughout Los Angeles this fall due to the risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19, health officials announced.

“Door to door trick or treating is not allowed because it can be very difficult to maintain proper social distancing on porches and at front doors especially in neighborhoods that are popular with trick or treaters,” the new guidance reads.

Also banned this year is so-called “trunk or treating,” where children get candy and other treats from cars instead of doorsteps, as well as gatherings or parties with non-household members and live entertainment like haunted house attractions, county officials said.

“Since some of the traditional ways in which this holiday is celebrated does not allow you to minimize contact with non-household members, it is important to plan early and identify safer alternatives,” county health officials said in a statement.

To that end, those who wish to celebrate Halloween amid the pandemic with safer alternatives can host or attend online get-togethers, costume contests or pumpkin carving parties.

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Up to 90% of people who test positive for Covid barely carry any virus & are not contagious. Every stat about the disease is bogus

It has been revealed that the standard tests being used in the US to diagnose Covid-19 cases are far too sensitive, with the vast majority of people marked down as being positive actually turning out to be negative.

Top US virologists have been stunned by revelations about the laxity of the US Covid testing regimen. It turns out that tests that deliver a simple binary “positive or negative” result are not fit for purpose, as they tell us nothing about the contagiousness of each person.

Data from three US states – New York, Nevada and Massachusetts – shows that when the amount of the virus found in a person is taken into account, up to 90 percent of people who have tested positive should actually have been negative, as they are carrying only tiny amounts of the virus, are not contagious, pose no risk to others, and have no need to isolate.

This means that only a fraction of the daily “cases” being reported so hysterically in the mainstream media are actual, bona fide Covid-19 sufferers, and need treatment and to separate themselves from others.

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