What boggles my mind is it doesn't really matter to the right-wing what happens.

• If there's a miracle and only dozens of people go into the hospital - "See? The pointy-headed scientists are super-fucking idiots."

• If rally puts 100s of people into the hospital - the right-wing will say "See? The pointy-headed scientists are fucking idiots. No biggie." They might even quote morality rates.

• If it becomes a super-spreader event just like last time - they'll say say "Freedom is more important."

Comments are disabled at the NYT - what a shitty site.

Hundreds of Thousands of Bikers Expected in Sturgis Despite Delta Variant - The New York Times

The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally began on Friday, just as the infectious Delta variant is producing a surge in cases nationwide.

Although most large events shut down last summer because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally forged ahead, panicking health experts as nearly a half-million motorcycle enthusiasts descended on the Black Hills of South Dakota.

This year's rally, which began on Friday, is expected to draw an even larger crowd, just as the infectious Delta variant is producing more new virus cases nationwide than this time last year.

[...]

Whatever minimal precautions people took last year have drifted away like so much motorcycle exhaust, she said. "This year it's hog-wild," she said. "Nobody cares."

[...]

Meade County, which includes Sturgis, has a 37 percent vaccination rate — significantly lower than the half of Americans who are fully vaccinated — and the six counties that border it have even lower vaccination rates.