Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Results in 100+ COVID-19 Cases and Counting

Please Ronnie James Dio who art in Heaven, let the Sturgis Buffalo Chip Rally serve as a lesson to every idiot and asshole who thinks it’s a good idea to have large social gatherings in the middle of a pandemic.

The motorcycle rally, which took place earlier this month in Sturgis, South Dakota, drew more than 460,000 vehicles, but did not require attendees to wear masks or practice social distancing. It included performances by Buckcherry, Trapt, Fozzy, Drowning Pool, Quiet Riot, Smash Mouth, Adelitas Way, Saving Abel, and Night Ranger; video from those shows doesn’t show anyone taking precautions to curb the spread of the virus, although one does show Smash Mouth singer Steve Harnell telling the crowd “We’re all here together tonight. Fuck that COVID shit.”

Less than a week ago, seven new cases of coronavirus infection had been traced back to the rally. That number has now risen to 100+ cases spread across eight states, CBS News reports. It goes without saying that that number is likely to keep growing… especially because, according to The Star Tribune, “An analysis of anonymous cell phone data from Camber Systems, a firm that aggregates cell phone activity for health researchers, found that 61% of all the counties in the U.S. have been visited by someone who attended Sturgis, creating a travel hub that was comparable to a major U.S. city.”

That’s what people don’t seem to get about rushing back out to concerts and bars and parties: their stupid decision affects all of us. They are delaying a return to normalcy for the rest of us, and, even worse, helping to spread a potentially deadly disease (remember, asymptomatic carriers have been a big part of why it’s been so hard to combat this son of a bitch).

But hey, at least some people got to see Drowning Pool and Trapt, right?

[via Metal Injection]