Governor Noem is showing she is up to the COVID-19 challenge and we should be grateful she is in charge.
By Troy Jones, Guest Columnist
Facts (as of today, even after the new cases at Smithfield):
Cases:
USA per million: 1,750
So. Dak. per million: 1,000
SFSD SMSA per million: 2,730
NYNY SMSA per million: 9,200
Deaths
USA per million: 67
So. Dak. per million: 7
SFSD SMSA per million: 12
NYNY SMSA per million: 290
Fortunately, the key factor regarding infections (and lower deaths) is to manage infections to our hospital capacity. South Dakota is still well within the projected capacity of needed hospital beds even after these new infections. Plus, the Governor just announced we have been approved to deploy in clinical trials one of the most promising treatments – hydroxychloroquine – which hopefully will decrease deaths and stress on our hospitals.
We don’t have evidence of broad-based substantial community spread. We have evidence of minimal community spread and a single concentrated spread. South Dakota had a similar situation in Beadle County where Governor Noem deployed Department of Health resources to contact trace, isolate those who were infected, and today they have no active cases. Doesn’t it make sense to do the same thing in Sioux Falls with a similar concentrated spread?
Unfortunately, Mayor TenHaken has panicked with his request to the Governor for Shelter-in-Place for three weeks with no real evidence shelter in place has had a discernible impact.
1) Over the last four weeks, Germany, UK, France, Italy, & Spain (total population is the same as US) have been under shelter-in-place orders and have added 575,000 in new cases. Over the same period, the US has added 537,000 cases. Further, shelter in place has not proven effective at all in protecting the elderly and vulnerable as these European nations experienced 48,000 deaths over this period while the US experienced less than 15,000.
2) Sweden without hardly any coercive action (similar to what Governor Noem has done) has virtually the same cases per capita as Denmark and Norway who issued coercive stay at home actions. More important, Sweden’s has experienced 91 deaths per million while Germany, UK, France, Italy, & Spain have experienced 208 deaths per million.
3) Over three weeks ago, the Governor of NY issued his “stay at home” order. Yet after three weeks, they are still adding cases and people are dying at a higher rate than they were when the order went into effect. Today, the Governors of NY, NJ, & Conn. are beginning the planning of opening their economies while their daily deaths per million population are 4x what SD has experienced in TOTAL deaths per million.
Reason: It is becoming increasingly evident that individual actions (wash, wipe, sanitize, wear cloth masks and isolate the elderly/vulnerable) has a much higher correlation of flat curves than coercive actions imposed over long periods of time.
4) Besides the impact on people’s financial condition and no discernible impact on preventing the spread of Covid and corresponding deaths, domestic violence surges under shelter-at-home orders. In France since their order, DV is up 35%. In the US, law enforcement has preliminarily reported a 30% increase nationwide.
Now think of this. Mayor TenHaken asked the Governor for a Stay at Home Order but couldn’t tell us how this would look beyond what is happening right now.
If he doesn’t know this detail of what this would look like, there is no way to assess if it will make any difference, whether this is the right time to do it, or how long it can stay in place. His order request is just “doing something to do something” without regard whether it will have an impact or unintended consequences. Good leaders have the capacity to play decisions out, weighing the realistic outcomes against the unintended consequences and not succumbing to a mob mentality or panicking.
Or, if he does know the detail of what his request would mean, he isn’t being forthright. For what it is worth, when Mayor TenHaken was asking for greater powers from the Legislature, he was asked for an example of what he action he was thinking about and under what condition. He evaded the question from the Legislature and then closed the parks the very next day, which doesn’t indicate an attitude of forthrightness or transparency.
But, in his press conference he seemed to be ready for National Guard enforcement of whatever was included in the Order? Really? Martial Law? Must be pretty draconian to think it would need the National Guard. After watching his press conference today, I want to applaud our legislature for denying expanded powers to Mayors. Authority is to be given only if one is confident they are capable of exercising that authority with Wisdom, Justice, Prudence and Temperance.
Mayor TenHaken presents a demeanor of panic and not of true leadership when presented with the decisions facing our city with huge consequences making a comparison to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appropriate. True leadership appeals to our better nature to inspire our best efforts to protect ourselves and others each and every minute. Edicts by fiat exhibit an attitude the people of Sioux Falls have to be forced to do the right thing. We are better than that and deserve leadership who inspires and not dictates.
Governor Noem is showing she is up to the challenge and we should be grateful she is in charge.
I agree.
She is (we are) getting due respect of Alex Jones and Robert Barnes for SD’s handling of this s-show; constitutionally.
I emailed Governor Noem congratulations and thanks today, and this is an area where, despite the propaganda coming from *ahem* some corners, SD is leading the nation.
It is possible, though, that SD could be retaliated against by globalists who might want to make an example out of us .. so stay vigilant and be strong.
It’s a GREAT DAY to be a South Dakotan.
Agree on Mayor TenHaken. Good grief. Give people the information to protect themselves and let them decide how much they believe they have to do. I’m skeptical about the efficacy of Imprisoning people in their homes. Gov. Noem has the right idea.
Glad to see Dr. Troy dusting off his M.D.
Panicky Paul
Panicky Paul is a good one.
The argus will take this daylight between them and turn it into the Grand Canyon.
This is a poor decision by Mayor Paul. He should be showing solidarity with Noem and discussing this behind the scenes or he should do what Allendar did weeks ago.
Tenhaken is not a conservative. He is a big government person. Look at his budgets, look at his views about forcing people to stay home. They mirror the Argus.
Again, the Governor knew when first Covid-19 case tested positive at Smithfield but she let it go and so did mayor. Underneath both their leadership the virus kept multiplying at Smithfield. Only after whistleblowers came forward did they both admit it as it is primarily spreading in migrant communities because those people worked sick with Coronavirus and received $600 bonuses f rye om Smithfield. They refuse to mitigate(ever been in a neat packing plant or their homes?) And then the Governor lied on national TV saying cases at Smithfield came from people whetever their residences are. No it came from an employee out on vacation who brought it back to Smithfield. This was a coverup AZ nd now it is a disaster for Sioux Falls…secondary cases are popping up from relatives AZ nd friends of the over 400 testing positive from Smithfield. These people refuse to quarantine. Our Governor knew from first case and they did not start contact tracing.
Troy once again thinking he knows the facts. I hope you’re right, but wonder if our sparsity is playing a bigger roll than Noem’s choices. Also we could be lagging behind on our peak numbers. So comparing numbers at the moment is misleading.
We are lagging behind. Cases will be over 2,000 in no time. Noem will panic at some point and issue shelter in place about 3 weeks too late. We ain’t seen nothing yet and you’re all so happy to heap praise on Noem when I think it’ll be shown that she was too lax.
I imagine sutton is polling about 6-10 points ahead of her right now.
She does not do herself any favors.
Tenhaken doesn’t look like a leader but he is likely saying what many constituents want to hear.
Sutton can poll well in 2020 but in 22 he will get smoked again.
There are no winners in this mess.
Sorry; Billie likes Bernie’s policies which are, on the whole, anti-American, so Billie won’t ever win anything of any note, and I am glad for that fact. This country, and indeed, the world, don’t need any more Bernies in power.
at this point i’d put national guard with tanks and guns at all ways in and out of sioux falls. state lockdown, not so much.
Wonder if the Mayor’s ears were burning last night when Tucker Carlson advocated science and not hysteria should drive our decisions.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/tucker-carlson-coronavirus-response-most-vulnerable
Hope Noem is taking the right tact in this but I have my doubts. Time will tell. I will vote for Ten Haken again, not so sure about Noem.
Comparing our cases to NYNY who is 2 weeks ahead of us is an exercise in straw manning. Smithfield has the #3 most cases of any single location in America, to think that we have missed the iceberg while the boat is sinking takes some mighty impressive mental gymnastics.
Now employees at retail stores, gas stations, and Wal Marts have tested positive and were in contact with thousands of people last weekend… in 2 weeks we will be under water here.
Exactly
Troy is spot on about “shelter in place” accomplishing nothing. Have you drove around SF lately? It looks likes a ghost town. Like the Governor keeps on saying, the citizen are making the right choices all on their own. Paul Tenhaken can’t make up his mind who the latest scape goat is going to be. Legislature? Governor? Smithfield? Walmart shoppers? Guy needs to grow up.
Ghost town? What part of the City do you live in? Traffic is down 30%, that hardly makes it a ghost town but nice try. TenHaken is doing a great job trying to protect the people of Sioux Falls. How dare he.
Pass the buck Paul.
One reason I don’t think Tenhaken is governor material is that Governor’s need to make decisions (right or wrong) and live with the consequences.
He could have done What Mayor allendar did in Rapid City.
Instead of being bold and doing what he feels is right he is publicly calling on Governor Noem for not doing enough and asking her to close Sioux Falls for him.
If he was governor would he be asking President Trump to shut the country down while pleading that he doesnt have the authority?
If he was president would he be pleading with the WHO to shut the world down?
He needs to make the decision to do what is best for his city and let the public opinion fall where it will.
Alender = strong
Noem = strong
Both different tactics. Both leading. No complaining or begging someone else to do something for them.
Paul is the Mayor of Sioux Falls, thus he never had a chance in hell of being governor of this State no matter the circumstances. Nobody outside of SF would vote for him.
This site was fawning over PTH a few weeks ago. Now that he’s shown to have a bit more bite then KN he’s a bad guy?
Guest column, in case you missed the headline.
When this broke, I was one who fawned as he initially was focused on inspiring people to do the right thing and practice the President’s 30 days to slow the spread.
Notice it is slow the spread because we need to not overwhelm our hospitals capacity to care for the more severe cases. At the end of the day, our elderly and vulnerable can leave their quarantines safely when either have a vaccine (next year?) or have sufficient herd immunity. To get herd immunity, it requires the young and healthy to get infected and recover from their mild symptoms. Based on NY, non-elderly deaths are over 99% of people with an underlying health condition and need to take the same precautions as the elderly.
A month ago or so, models (based on best available information) projected cases, need for hospital beds and the most outcome (deaths).
Back then, New York projected needing 100,000+ hospital beds and a large amount of ventilators (forget the number). Now we know they only need 20,000 hospital beds and a proportionately lower ventilator number. They missed their projections such that all the beds and the military ship went virtually unused.
Yet, even with the infections from Smithfield, we are behind our projections from a month ago on cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Combine that with the solid data from from NY (vs. from Europe or China), we can tolerate a higher and quicker infection rate than projected a month ago. Again, let me stress, we need the young and healthy to get infected for the elderly and vulnerable to be ever safe.
So, to your point, we need leadership who can adapt to new and more reliable information. And, we need to stay focused on the most critical- protect our elderly and vulnerable.
Meant to say “worst outcome” and not “most outcome”.
it’s tiresome to see so many who are butthurt over not having their fears assauged sufficiently.
Guest columns are how bloggers get around having to take a position on controversial topics.
Some of the underlying health conditions have been obesity and diabetes. How many of those people do we have in SD? There have also been young people that died with seemingly no underlying issue. SD has tested an abysmal number of people and we’re basing our decisions off that crappy metric. Troy you and yours can venture out and get voluntarily infected, I ain’t taking my chances just yet.
Anonymous at 10:27…
There is good news.
The youngest person to die in South Dakota was in his 50s, so no children have succumbed. South Dakota and Wyoming have the fewest deaths nationally, with six and one, respectively. Only 5 percent of South Dakotans infected have needed hospitalization. And less than 1 percent of those infected have died. One other good sign: We haven’t seen any flare-ups of the virus in nursing homes so far.
You’re welcome to stay in your home as long as you want. In the meantime, odds are excellent for the great majority of South Dakotans that CV, while contagious, won’t hurt us terribly. I’ll like everyone’s chances.
Should be “the youngest person to die in South Dakota was in her 50s.” Also, the last sentence should be “I like everyone’s chances.”
Your comparison on a per/1m basis with NY is a little disingenuous, Troy. Compare it to Iowa, Nebraska, even Minnesota. You know who leads, per 100,000 people, by nearly twice as much? South Dakota.
The shutdowns and the directives allowed for the Midwest to distance itself from the rapid spread seen in the major cities (New Orleans, New York) and allow us to build up our infrastructure to better fight this. Prairie Isolation, to our neighbors, has been a relatively successful policy. However, Kristi’s insistence on ignoring any common-sense directive and doing anything but lead has put us in a terrible position. Who cares about New York, we’re the kings of the upper Midwest!
But hey, we get to take hydroxycloroquine to help try to validate Trumps gaff! Just like 20 other states.
PTH has done his job as mayor and well. He’s lead, he’s advocated for local rule, and he’s been willing to respond. He has a much brighter career ahead than than the inexperienced executive we have as a governor. Governor Jackley or even Governor Sutton would have done a better job. If only Meth treated COVID.
Well stated. Ten Haken is doing a fine job. Is Fargo the Kings of the Upper-Upper Midwest?
didnt trump say governors should be grateful for him? do something worthy and gratefulness will come naturally.
I, for one, am shocked that Troy is picking unrepresentative data samples to make his argument. He doesn’t have a history of doing that at all.
This pandemic has proven to be leaderships’ Kibayashi Maru Putting public health versus individual liberties. It is fine line to walk to be sure. It is hard to compare South Dakota to other States, and Sioux Falls to other cities as each one is unique. So far, I have been pleased with our Governor’s response to the current situation. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward as the economy restarts and how well return. Crisis management is one thing, returning back to ‘normal’ is quite another.
King of the Midwest,
It is hard to make an apples to apples comparison of these other states as they don’t provide the same detail we do. But, I’ll do the best I can:
Confirmed Cases per million people: The question here is does the low number indicate less infections or less identification of infections. Alternatively, is the high number an indication of more infection or just better identification of infections (for instance from contact tracing). The other information should give us insight.
Iowa: 538
Minn: 289
Nebr: 446
SoDak:986
Deaths per million people: At least, to date, SD appears to be doing well at protecting our elderly. This inference is also supported because of our hospitalization information below.
Iowa: 13.5
Minn: 12.2
Nebr: 9.2
SoDak: 6.6
Deaths Rate (Death per Confirmed Case): Since I’m not sure we have that different of quality of health care or demographics, this is likely a function of us responding to leadership to protect the elderly/vulnerable.
Iowa: 2.5%
Minn: 4.2%
Nebr: 2.0%
SoDak: 0.7%
Hospitalizations per million people: This is appears to be an indication MN has not done as good a job as us protecting their elderly and vulnerable, why that is I’m not sure.
Iowa: Can’t find it. Their dashboard just spins so it might be available
Minn.: 127
Nebr: Can’t find it.
SoDak:48.7
Hospitalizations per confirmed case: Even combined with Minnesota’s higher hospitalizations per million people, such a discrepancy (when combined with their low cases per million) indicates they likely have many more cases than confirmed.
Iowa: See above
Minn.: 44%
Nebr: See above
SoDak:5%
All of this confirms my prior view: South Dakota and Sioux Falls is in good shape relative to the region with one exception: The infections from Smithfield.
To that view, I’m not sure what a shelter at home does to solve the problem.
1) Most of us are not going to have contact with Smithfield employees unless we have a personal relationship with them as most of us work somewhere other than Smithfield. So how does whether I go to work or stay home change my risk of infection from these infected people.
2) The Smithfield employees are already sent home so I’m not sure why their infections be a factor on others going to work or staying home.
3) Based on my observation of Smithfield employees they appear younger than the general population and thus less vulnerable. Because of this, they aren’t likely to put a big strain on our hospital beds. Remember our efforts to flatten the curve is related to not impacting demand on our hospitals.
4) The biggest risk to having the Smithfield employees not working is it increases the odds and time they might spend with the elderly and vulnerable of their community which only raises the question on if there might not have been a better solution to closing the plant (ala quarantining the 200 people in some of our empty hotels for two weeks and taking temperatures and/or testing those who come to work. I’ll bet this would have been cheaper than Smithfield paying workers not to work AND gotten a better result).
Thanks Troy for the valid comparison. I think in the Watertown area, as of a few days ago, they had 12 covid cases. Of those, 11 had totally recovered, 1 still recovering, NONE were hospitalized. I suspect that numbers will go up, but how many will require hospitalization remains to be seen. I do not believe mandatory stay at home orders help. Personal responsibility like limiting going out, using masks, staying away from groups and social distancing are all good practices. But don’t shut down the economy.
And how about the Wal Mart employees, Lewis Drug workers, and gas station clerk that all tested positive and worked for over 40 hours while contagious between the 4 of them… hundreds if not thousands infected and it will exponentially grow. You will be crying for harsher measures in 2 weeks and it will be too late!
This is very important:
1) We are trying to flatten the curve. Flatten the curve does not mean reduce infections. Flatten the curve is an effort to spread out the infections so we don’t over-load our hospitals.
2) A portion of the social distancing strategy (in addition to flattening the curve) is to protect the elderly and vulnerable.
3) In addition to #1 & #2 above, reducing hospitalizations and deaths required extra-ordinary protection and segregation of the elderly and vulnerable from contact from asymptomatic carriers. In other words, to the extent they didn’t self quarantine, they were at risk.
4) A month ago, projections were made of the maximum level of infections which our hospitals could bear. Most of the inputs for the models was based on European experience with Covid. Those models generated a need in New York of 100,000 Covid beds. Actual experience resulted in needing less than 20,000. Based on New York, South Dakota’s maximum level of infections has increased.
5) The reason we want to go as high as reasonably possible to our maximum level of infections is it lessens the time the elderly and vulnerable must maintain a significantly stricter level of segregation because we develop herd immunity and have less asymptomatic carriers.
I have read we need roughly 30% of the population to have the low end of a critical mass of herd immunity. If that is true, for South Dakota, we need to get 270,000 people to be infected and recover to allow our elderly and vulnerable to begin to have a modicum of safety to enter society.
Scenario #1: 270,000 non-elderly and non-vulnerable get infected- Estimated Deaths are under 270.
Scenario #2: 270,000 elderly and non-vulnerable get infected- Estimated deaths are over 35,000.
The point is our lowest number of deaths depends on how well we shift infections away from the elderly and non-vulnerable. Thus, all policies should be measured by how they add to or subtract from the ideal shifting of infections and monitoring projections of demand on hospital beds. Infections/Cases are only relevant on how they impact deaths and hospitalizations.
Who are contact tracers on Covid positives from Smithfid. This was a coverup from mayor and Governor and union boss and Smithfield management. Minnehaha County had leaked but you see they left Smithfield as “essentisl” running wherever they wanted. They even worked sick. This past Saturday one was taken off our with 1pp degrees temp. So if Mayor had done his job and put “eyes on that place after first case was reported” we would not have this problem. Too latd…they ARE the community spread and city of Sioux zfalls will never come back from wring moves by Mayor and lies by Governor on Neil Cavuto. Kids are minding the candy store.
Here are some honest questions I would love to have you on the record for Troy, as I feel the goalposts keep moving…
You seem to at least put on airs as though you are an expert so I would love to get a peek into the methodology you use.
1) What statistics matter? (Cases? Deaths? Mortality rate?)
2) How do we evaluate those statistics (per capita? As whole numbers? by region?)
3) what would constitue success and/or failure based on the above statistics
I do not intend to move the goalposts. However, as more information and data comes in, realistic outcomes and best/optimal strategies become clearer.
1) A month ago, national deaths were forecast to be in the half million range. Then down to 100K-250K. Now under 100K.
2) A month ago, it was assumed hospitalizations per case will be higher because data was from Europe. Now, we have data from New York (most valuable as it was data accumulated in stress which is what we are trying to avoid).
3) A month ago, we were building hospital beds and ventilators as a critical “first bottleneck.” Now those beds are unused and we are talking of sending ventilators to our allies in Europe.
To answer your question:
1) Cases matter so we can get to herd immunity and have a modicum of safety for the elderly and vulnerable to be safe in society. Deaths matter for obvious reasons. Mortality rate is a measure of how well the elderly and vulnerable were protected, by themselves and by others.
2) Yes. This is a complex matter requiring analysis of these matters to gather relevant information with which to make decisions. This is a fast moving campaign and all information can be relevant in certain circumstances.
3) Low hospitalization relative to other states, low deaths relative to other states, herd immunity as soon as possible. Those are the matters to optimize. When you are talking about death, indirect hardships (economic or familial like divorce, abuse, suicide), and the like, I think success will be it is behind us and being able to look back and say we did the best we could with the information we had at the time.
The Secretary of Health has a Social Work degree? That inspires confidence.
If she has a competent epidemiologist (which I have heard she does) and they work well together, we are in great shape. The CEO of a video game company isn’t expected to be a great gamer.
It would inspire more confidence if the CEO of a video game company was a great gamer. Or so I have “heard.”
According to SD HHS, we average 33 deaths/year from influenza. Troy, would you be willing to guess that we will somehow stay under that number for COVID-19 this year?
Check out David Montgomery in MPR for up to date statistics on the Midwest, including great things like number of tests performed each day. Fascinating stuff that all points to us being screwed here in SD
Information referenced above from Montgomery:
1) SD #1 in cases which we all know is Smithfield related.
2) SD a close #2 in tests after ND
3) SD lowest in deaths and death rate
Not sure to whom any of that is news.
Regarding the death projections, I have no expectation we will have less deaths than influenza. First, we have no herd immunity against it. Second, we have no vaccine. Third, we are just in the testing process of anti-virals.
Not sure what the news is in that either unless you are suggesting we shelter in place until we have a vaccine. Otherwise, the challenge in front of us is to develop herd immunity at a pace under our capacity to provide hospital beds AND segregate our elderly and vulnerable as best as possible until we achieve herd immunity or develop a vaccine.
P.S. Just read the ordinance to be proposed tonight at the City Commission: $500 fine and 30 days in jail, police can detain you for being in violation, and a business can lose their sales tax license (probably an empty threat as SD Department of Revenue decides who has sales tax licenses).
Beginning date is April 24 and goes through May 8 (can be terminated early or extended).
While all businesses are encouraged to stay open, unless they are a “critical infrastructure sector job” as determined by Homeland Security or a few exceptions in the ordinance, your customers are prohibited from coming to your business and your employees are prohibited from coming to work (gee thanks Paul for letting me stay open without customers or employees).
EVERYONE else must stay home unless you are doing something directly essential which aint much after grocery shopping, going to the doctor or going for a run, walk or bike ride or caring for a elderly or vulnerable person. FOR THREE WEEKS.
I wonder if he got this idea by reading former Obama Chief of Staff and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuels book “Why Mayors are Running the World” or he has a crush on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Or, let’s just say Sioux Falls cases of COVID are nearing 1,000 and the mayor is trying to slow down the rapid increase. I also like you play down the COVID outbreak by stating “we all know is Smithfield related.” Are you saying none of those folks have had or will have contact with the rest of the community? This whole situation just sucks but I am glad the Mayor is doing what is necessary to flatten the curve.
Who really is John Dale? A part of Putin’s disinformation campaign?
William Broad, a science and health reporter, recently wrote about a decade of health disinformation promoted by President Vladimir Putin of Russia. I spoke to him about his article.
How did you become interested in this story?
Last year, I wrote about how Mr. Putin and his aides were doing their best to scare Americans into thinking the new cellphone technology known as 5G posed dire health threats. In researching that article, I noticed other areas in which the Kremlin was hypocritically ringing false alarms — especially on health issues — and started gathering string. – ESD Deep State Ranger
Three comments
1) I am playing down nothing but drawing a significant distinction. Epidemilology is an exercise of applying the right remedies for the right situation. As opposed to substantial community spread, the infections from Smithfield are considered a local hot spot which warrants a reaction and strategy different than if we had substantial community spread.
2) Since the Smithfield known infected employees are quarantined and the remaining workforce is staying at home with pay (if they aren’t, why did we close the plant?) making them a defined non-general group of infections, what difference does it make if other’s in town go to work or stay at home?
3) Doing something just to be doing something is logic which has not served us well so far. There is no indication the Mayor has adjusted his thinking in light of information, data and experience coming from New York. It would be hilarious if not so serious to think Sioux Falls could be under more draconian restrictions than New York in three weeks.
1. Localized hotspot doesn’t mean much for the surrounding community when those people traverse throughout the community every day. Their steps are already starting to show up with infections all over the city.
2. You are failing to acknowledge that little quarantine is 2 weeks behind. Let’s see what happens in the next couple weeks because based on other areas of the country, we are going to see a huge rise now.
3. In 3 weeks, we might have one of the largest outbreaks in the country. It’s only just beginning for Sioux Falls.
It means everything if the shutdown of the plant and lockdowns works since:
1) We have quarantined the people from Smithfield who are confirmed cases.
2) Sending people home from Smithfield with pay with the expectation means they aren’t traversing throughout the community every day.
Or are you saying this doesn’t work? If that is what you are saying, tell me again the rationale for a stay at home order if it isn’t followed anyway?
1. Which is great. The problem is they have been out and about for up to two weeks infecting people prior to that. The quarantine isn’t going to stop the damage that is done that we won’t know the magnitude for a couple of weeks.
2. Which is good, just a little too late.
I don’t believe in a stay at home order in regards to keeping people home who are voluntarily doing a good job. I think South Dakotan’s in general are doing it very well. The problem is that the order is required for many to receive benefits who may want/need to stay home. We are making vulnerable people choose to stay home without any sort of pay or go to work when they should be allowed to stay home and receive unemployment. A shelter in place order will allow them to do that.
1…. because you’re wrong. Only quarantining people who are confirmed cases doesn’t capture people who are asymptomatic… those without symptoms who can transfer the disease to others unless you’re testing everyone.
” Doing something just to be doing something is logic which has not served us well so far.”
Maybe we should have another day of prayer then.
Exactly
Ike, don’t go changing. That was a sick burn.
Lol. Yes the day of prayer scared the hell out of Covid. I’m sure the Social Work Secretary of Health came up with that one. Minnehaha up 166 cases today with 80 of those Smithfield. Looks like that hotspot found a way out.
Now that is funny. 🙂
Again, the data is bad. Not nearly enough tests are being done so we’re making decisions based on a tiny sliver of information. Being overly cautious unless/until testing catches up is wise. How long have infected Smithfield employees been moving around the city, state, country?