Approximately 12% of the population of South Dakota has officially tested positive for COVID-19. And 1 in every 500 residents of the state has perished from the virus. (This gives a case fatality rate slightly above 1.5%.) Bloomberg News ran an article Feb. 3 on the somewhat brutal approach the state took towards acquiring a version of herd immunity. And as collateral damage, from the devastation on some Indian reservations, there was also the “hastening [of] the demise of the native Lakota language, whose native speakers tend to be in their 70s or older.”
Gov. Kristi Noem made a point of insisting upon no mask requirements and no bans on large gatherings. Then, in August, the infamous nine-day motorcycle rally at Sturgis, S.D., attended by 460,000, set the prairies ablaze. Bloomberg refers to an independent data scientist, Youyang Gu, who estimated that about 42% of the population was infected. Presumably, the core of this figure was figured on a baseline of the 108,315 confirmed cases, or about 12%, and estimating from some samples of antibody testing to measure the undercount, that is, the infections amongst people who were never tested. Other studies have shown undercounting by about 6–10 times, so here, 3.5 times is on the conservative side.
While 42% would not normally fall within the parameters of achieving herd immunity, the Bloomberg article suggests that the more socially egregious were, as it were, taken out of action, while the more conservative and self-protective behavior came to predominate, as the COVID storm raged. South Dakota is now amongst the top ten states in avoiding COVID transmission. And the funeral directors also made out OK.
