I'd like to think that at the end of this nightmare, there will be a national consensus about which governors were as destructive as Trump in their responses to the pandemic and that they're all tossed into a live volcano like on that Spectrum TV commercial. I'm not even talking about the governors who were slow to react before they fully understood the gravity of them problem-- like Cuomo or Newsom, each of whom learned how badly they screwed up and moved to improve. I'm talking about the governors who refused to learn after it was clear how horrific the pandemic would be-- and moved to make sure the results would be even worse.South Dakota's brain-dead Trumpist governor Kristi Noem might not turn out to have caused the most deaths-- even though her willful incompetence is killing people in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and North Dakota, as well as in her own state-- but she seems to be the most persistent in doing all the wrong things all the time. Her latest is to make certain that Native Americans-- a big Democratic constituency-- get infected as heavily as her own supporters. This morning, CNN reported that Noem is trying to bully the Sioux with an ultimatum: "Remove checkpoints on state and US highways within 48 hours or risk legal action... [She] sent letters Friday to the leaders of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe demanding that checkpoints designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus on tribal land be removed.
According to Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe checkpoint policies posted on its social media, its reservation residents may travel within South Dakota to areas the state has not deemed a Covid-19 "hotspot" if it's for an essential activity such as medical appointments or to get supplies unavailable on the reservation. But they must complete a health questionnaire when they leave and when they return every time they go through a checkpoint.South Dakota residents who don't live on the reservation are only allowed there if they're not coming from a hotspot and it is for an essential activity. But they must also complete a health questionnaire.Those from a South Dakota hotspot or from outside the state cannot come to the reservation unless it is for an essential activity-- but they must obtain a travel permit available on the tribe's website.Both tribes have also issued strict stay-at-home orders and curfews for their communities. Noem has not issued stay-at-home orders for the state.Last month, when the checkpoints began, the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a memorandum saying tribes must consult and come to an agreement with the state of South Dakota before closing or restricting travel on state or US Highways.There are 169 cases of Covid-19 among Native Americans in the state as of Friday, the health department said. The state has 3,145 confirmed cases and 31 deaths.
As of today South Dakota's numbers don't look like much. But compare them to similar states with similarly small populations; each of these state's started out with very little COVID-activity. Noem ws mist aggressive, by far, in challenging the pandemic top come try anything in her state. It took her up on it. These are the total numbers of confirmed cases:
• South Dakota (pop.- 884,659)- 3,393• Idaho (pop.- 1,787,065)- 2,230• North Dakota (pop,- 762,062)- 1,464• Maine (pop.- 1,344,212)- 1,408• West Virginia (pop.- 1,792,147)- 1,347
It looks a little worse for South Dakota than for the 4 other states, right. But there's a clearer way of looking at it-- cases per million population. That's how I've rearranged the states-- from least problematic to most problematic, with South Dakota at the very bottom:
• West Virginia- 752 cases per million• Maine- 1,047 cases per million• Idaho- 1,248 cases per million• North Dakota- 1,921 cases per million• South Dakota- 3,835 cases per million
How bad is 3,554 cases per million? Let's compare it to some of the worse-hit foreign countries (also as of today):
• Italy- 3,610 cases per million• U.K.- 3,171 cases per million• France- 2,812 cases per million• Sweden- 2,567 cases per million• Iran- 1,265 cases per million
So, these are the governors-- excluding Gina Raimondo (D-RI) who's in her own category of horribleness-- who have done drastically bad jobs-- not ordering adequate social distancing rules, waiting too long to take any action, reopening way faster than safe. All of their states are headed towards catastrophic second wave infections (and deaths) that could have been prevented:
• Pete Ricketts (R-NE)- 4,257 cases per million• Kay Reynolds (R-IA)- 3,699 cases per million• Kristi Noem (R-SD)- 3,835 cases per million• Eric Holcomb (R-IN)- 3,525 cases per million• Jared Polis (D-CO)- 3,364 cases per million• Tate Reeves (R-MS)- 3,151 cases per million• Brian Kemp (R-GA)- 3,069 cases per million• Ralph Northam (D-VA)- 2,718 cases per million• Billy Lee (R-TN)- 2,162 cases per million• Steve Sisolak (D-NV)- 1,957 cases per million• Kay Ivey (R-AL)- 1,935 cases per million• North Dakota (R-ND)- 1,921 cases per million• Gary Herbert (R-UT)- 1,904 cases per million• Ron DeSantis (R-FL)- 1,862 cases per million• Mike Parson (R-MO)- 1,598 cases per million• Doug Ducey (R-AZ)- 1,506 cases per million• Greg Abbott (R-TX)- 1,333 cases per million