Two Years Later…
By: Governor Kristi Noem
March 4, 2022
They say hindsight is 20-20. Looking back at the year 2020 in hindsight, we now can say that South Dakota consistently made the right decisions during the pandemic. After all, our path has led us to the strongest economy in America, and we took care of people along the way. But with the two-year anniversary of COVID in South Dakota coming up, I want to dive deeper into how I made those pandemic-related decisions at the time I made them – without the benefit of hindsight.
Melissa Klemann, our long-time health policy advisor, walked into a staff meeting on March 10 of that year and informed me that the first COVID cases had arrived, as well as our first COVID-related death. The news was bleak, and we did not know what was next.
I focused on what we did know. We had prepared for the virus for nearly two months. Our emergency operations center would help us monitor the situation and keep South Dakotans informed. And I knew that we would get through this if we worked together.
I stayed focused on what my authority as Governor was – and that, most importantly, I did not have the authority to close our state down. I advised the people of South Dakota to stay home if they were able, but we did not mandate it. On that first day, I said, “I encourage all South Dakotans to take this seriously. Now is the time to prepare and stay informed.”
As the weeks passed, I focused on absorbing new information. I talked to medical professionals, my state epidemiologist, my general counsel, and other constitutional attorneys. I spent countless hours on the phone – and I hate talking on the phone! I kept gathering science, facts, and data because I knew the people of South Dakota were looking to me as their elected leader for guidance.
We focused on Facts – not Fear. And over the next two years, we stayed true to that approach. We were the only state to never order a single business or church to close. The results speak for themselves.
Those decisions were not easy – but they were simple. They were built on my trust in the people of South Dakota and on the principles that built our great nation.
In the two years since, we have seen new variants of the virus come and go. As tends to happen as viruses mutate, COVID has become more transmissible over time – but it has also become less deadly. We have developed treatments and therapeutics. Vaccines became available in record time. And we have learned to adapt the virus – though it took other states much longer to figure that out than South Dakota.
On that first day, I was asked, “How should South Dakotans handle this moving forward?” Today, the answer to that question is straightforward: exactly as we have been. New variants may come in the future. New variants of the flu come every year, too.
I hope that other states can look to South Dakota and realize that they do not have to go too far when responding to any future variants. We have set an example that other states should follow. We have the strongest economy and the best educational outcomes of any state, and we have taken care of people along the way. We balanced freedom and personal responsibility. We focused on Facts – not Fear. In hindsight, I am glad that we did.
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And while you are taking credit Kristi, don’t forget the other “facts”.
We are surrounded by six states with lower Covid death rates than South Dakota. Nebraska and Minnesota have a 30% lower death rate. So, if we had their lower death rate, we would have spared the life of nine hundred South Dakotans.
Kristi says: “We have set an example that other states should follow.”
Well, let’s look at Nebraska. If they would have followed her example and matched her death rate – they would have lost 2,000 more lives. California would have lost 40,000 additional lives.
Those are facts, Kristi. That’s the whole truth.
Yep…knew that chicken little would open his mouth before the end of the day….again.
OH NO, THEY SKY IS FALLING!
Truth hurt ?
I just crunched the numbers, the national case fatality rate is 1.21% and South Dakota’s is 1.05%
nationally there have been 983,486 deaths reported out of 80,895,651 cases, (but I don’t know if those were all deaths with covid or just the ones caused by covid.)
SD has had 2485 deaths caused by covid, out of 236,276 cases.
While it is true that if people had been more careful about washing their hands, wearing masks and staying home if they were sick, fewer people would have gotten sick, but what difference could the governor have made? People either take care of themselves or they don’t. If they wont quit smoking and drinking, wont eat broccoli and wont exercise, it doesn’t matter what anybody tells them. .
The difference is that Noem promoted and encouraged large gatherings in the middle of the pandemic. That’s worse than doing nothing.
the biggest surges in case numbers occurred in November of 2020 and January 2022.
What large gatherings did she encourage just prior to them? Are you blaming her for Halloween 2020 and Christmas 2021?
Those are the only two events which precipitated our biggest surges: Halloween and Christmas. How is the governor responsible for either one?
Peaks. You are talking about peaks – not the beginning of the surge.
Try honesty, for a change.
Elk, the incubation period for Covid averages 5 days. If there is an outbreak after a superspreader event, people will be getting sick within a week of it. They are considered contagious for about 3 weeks.
We had impressively large surges in the 2nd week of November 2020, and the 3rd week of January 2022, suggesting there were superspreader events in the previous weeks. The November 2020 surge followed the first winter storm and Halloween in October, then Election Day.
People went indoors because of the weather, took the kids trick or treating, went to the polls and attended watch parties.
The January 2022 surge was probably the result of the holidays and people thinking they were vaccinated and deciding to return to normal celebrations after the year before.
Neither surge was preceded by any event promoted by the Governor.
As much as you would like to blame the case numbers on something she did, the data just isn’t there.
Covid cases in Meade County (Sturgis) jumped 20 times higher following the last biker party. That’s from the beginning of the Rally to the end of August. (30 days.) The rest of the Black Hills spiked about ten times higher. It spread even faster than the year before.
In the four months prior to the 2021 event, Meade County had one death. In the four months after – 20 people died.
Hey, I am all for the Sturgis Rally. When we aren’t in the middle of a pandemic, that is. You can deny the deadly consequences all you want, but our Governor promoted this disaster… in person.
In case you are still in denial, you should note that the rest of South Dakota didn’t have nearly as great a surge during this same time frame.
The “peak” occurred later, as we all know.