A new study linking the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to new COVID cases has been slammed by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
No pointed out that the study lacked scientific data and was nothing more than a hit piece.
According to Town Hall:
A new study from the Institute of Labor Economics claims that a motorcycle rally held in Sturgis, SD last month has resulted in hundreds of thousands of COVID cases. In their introduction, the researchers explain how they arrived at the conclusion that this was a “super spreader” event.
“First, using anonymized cell phone data from SafeGraph, Inc. we document that (i) smartphone pings from non-residents, and (ii) foot traffic at restaurants and bars, retail establishments, entertainment venues, hotels and campgrounds each rose substantially in the census block groups hosting Sturgis rally events,” the 63-page study begins.
The researchers, who represent San Diego State University, Bentley University and University of Colorado Denver, found that in counties nationwide who had a lot of Sturgis attendees, the COVID-19 case count in their home counties increased about 10.7 percent from “about a month before to a few weeks after the rally.”
This report isn't science. It's fiction.
Under the guise of academic research, it's nothing short of an attack on those who exercised their personal freedom to attend Sturgis. (THREAD 1/) https://t.co/3zkmabJV2y
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) September 8, 2020
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“Predictably, some in the media breathlessly report on this non-peer reviewed model, built on incredibly faulty assumptions that do not reflect the actual facts and data,” Noem goes on to tweet. “At one point, academic modeling also told us that South Dakota would have 10,000 COVID patients in the hospital at our peak. Today, we have less than 70. I look forward to good journalists, credible academics, and honest citizens repudiating this nonsense.”
Noem pointed out that the true objective of the study was to suppress Americans’ “personal freedom.”
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