South Dakota Officials Blast ‘Blatantly Faulty’ Study Calling Sturgis Rally a Superspread Event

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and South Dakota officials are pushing back against a study from the left-wing IZA Institute of Labor Economics claiming that last month’s Sturgis motorcycle rally was a “superspread” event.

The dubious study, which has not been peer reviewed, estimates that 267,000 COVID-19 cases nationwide, which accounts for 20 percent of the overall cases across the country over the time span, were caused by the Sturgis rally, costing the U.S. $12.2 billion in healthcare costs. They came to these numbers, according to Newsweek, by analyzing “anonymized cellphone data to track the smartphone pings from non-residents and movement of those before and after the event.”

The city of Sturgis released a press release disputing this ridiculous fear-mongering study and its implications.

“We recognize that individuals were exposed to the virus on their trip to, from or while at the Rally,” the release said. “But the data reported by health officials across the nation show that the impact from the event was a mere fraction of what was projected and anticipated by many of the experts.”

The press release noted that the city’s mass testing ratio only showed 26 out of 650 testing positive. They also noted that the media’s dire predictions about the event simply did not come to pass.

“Following this event are reminiscent of the models that told us that locally our hospitals would be overwhelmed, we would have a massive lack of ventilators, and 3-5% of us would not survive,” the release said. “Fortunately, as we have seen, the underlying assumptions of these models were unfounded and categorically inaccurate, just as is the conclusion of this report.”

Additionally, the governor and state health officials are criticizing the irresponsible report for its fundamental inaccuracies.

“From what we know the results do not align with what we know,” state epidemiologist Joshua Clayton said.

Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon said that people “shouldn’t put too much stock into models” and that using cell phone pings to determine the spread of COVID-19 seems improper. Gov. Noem blasted the study in even stronger terms.

“This report isn’t science; it’s fiction. Under the guise of academic research, this report is nothing short of an attack on those who exercised their personal freedom to attend Sturgis,” Gov. Noem said in a press release on Tuesday.

“Predictably, some in the media breathlessly report on this nonpeer-reviewed model, built on incredibly faulty assumptions that do not reflect the actual facts and data here in South Dakota,” she continued.

“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,” Gov. Noem added.

The COVID-19 industrial complex is producing fear porn constantly to keep Americans crippled in a state of fear. Noem is one of the few politicians with the courage to speak truth to power and defend liberty during these dark times.