The Dakotas are 'as bad as it gets anywhere in the world' for COVID-19

Source: USA Today

South Dakota welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to a massive motorcycle rally this summer, declined to cancel the state fair and still doesn't require masks. Now its hospitals are filling up and the state's current COVID-19 death rate is among the worst in the world.

The situation is similarly dire in North Dakota, with the state's governor recently moving to allow health care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 to continue working if they don't show symptoms. It's a controversial policy recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a crisis situation where hospitals are short-staffed.

And now — after months of resisting a statewide mask mandate — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum changed course late Friday, ordering masks to be worn statewide and imposing several business restrictions.

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But Haseltine framed public health actions another way: Not enacting them is like standing in the way of an ambulance — the ambulance being proven health measures like mask mandates and social gathering restrictions. Even worse, encouraging large scale events in a pandemic as South Dakota has done is equivalent to manslaughter, Haseltine said.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/14/covid-19-north-south-dakota-masks-kristi-noem/6237635002/