South Dakota COVID-19 infection, unemployment statistics not as good as claimed

07/26/2020 Business, Entertainment, Health, USA, World



The Claim: South Dakota took minimal government action to prevent the spread of COVID-19, yet had the least spread of coronavirus and lost the fewest jobs.

A coronavirus-related South Dakota bragging meme that was widely shared on social media weeks ago is popular again. It says: “South Dakota never made blocks. Four cases per 100,000 people, the lowest in the nation and the lowest job loss in the nation. Do you feel lied to?

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The meme appears to have its roots in May posts, one of which, released in mid-May by LaDonna Holt Hollander-Forbes, has more than 46,000 shares and 660 comments. USA TODAY has reached out to her for comment.

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True, the Governor of South Dakota did not issue orders to stay home to contain the coronavirus, and any restrictions on business were relatively lax and short-lived. In fact, a WalletHub analysis found that it had the fewest government restrictions of any state.

And while the state’s coronavirus infection and unemployment rates are low compared to many states, they are not as low as the meme says.

Then one could feel lied to.

Plus: Fact Check: What is true and what is false about the coronavirus?

South Dakota infection rate

South Dakota’s population is 884,659, according to the Census Bureau. She had a total of 8,200 cases as of July 25, according to the state health department.

Four cases per 100,000 South Dakotans would mean the state had seen only 36 cases since the pandemic began, and none of the 50 states has been as lucky, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA

There have been 932 cases diagnosed for every 100,000 people in South Dakota since the first COVID-19 case diagnosed by the state on March 17. And looking at the mid-May numbers to correlate with the meme’s initial appearance, there were 3,887 cases diagnosed as of May 15, or 439 cases per 100,000.

So the meme is turned off in hundreds of cases per 100,000.

The lowest infection rate in the nation.

South Dakotans don’t have to search far to find a state with a lower infection rate. North Dakota’s rate – 723 per 100,000 – is lower than South Dakota’s. Vermont had the lowest rate, according to the CDC, with 218 cases per 100,000. Still, South Dakota is in much better shape than hardest hit states like New Jersey, with 2,021 cases per 100,000 people in the state.

Plus: Those respirator valve masks? Not effective, doctors say

At 26th place, South Dakota came right in the middle of the group for pandemic-related deaths per 100,000 people aged 14, according to the Becker’s Hospital Review healthcare business website.

Job losses in South Dakota

Mount Rushmore state has experienced lower unemployment than most states during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is not the lowest. His June unemployment rate was 7.2%. Last June it was 3.3%, that is, a difference of 3.9 percentage points, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics published on July 17.



Donald Trump wearing suit and tie with Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the background: President Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3, 2020, near Keystone, South Dakota.

© Alex Brandon / AP
President Donald Trump at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3, 2020, near Keystone, South Dakota.

That places South Dakota behind eight states and Washington, DC

Utah actually had the lowest percentage change from 2.5 points to 5.1%.

South Dakota is still much better than Massachusetts, with the June unemployment rate rising from 14.5 percentage points to 17.4%, the highest in the country.

Our decision: partly false

It is true that South Dakota had no blocks. But other claims made about the infection rate and the impact of the virus in South Dakota on employment in the meme are not supported by information available from the state health department, the CDC and BLS. We rate this claim as PARTIALLY FALSE.

Our sources of fact verification:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free application or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-checking work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Custer State Park: Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam …

Each president at Mount Rushmore represents a different aspect of the first 150 years of United States history.

George Washington’s head is 60 feet tall and his eyes are each 11 feet wide.

The 450,000 tons of blown or chiseled rock on the mountain is still under Mount Rushmore.

The wow of Badlands National Park. So you come to South Dakota.

The model for the Crazy Horse Memorial, with the royal monument in the background. If completed according to the original design, it could be the largest sculpture in the world.

Construction of the Crazy Horse Memorial began in the 1940s and is still a beautiful work in progress.

The “needles” of South Dakota. Millions of years of wind erosion shaped these rock formations.

Black Hills National Forest, named for Native Americans because evergreen trees are dark green in color, look almost black.

Bighorn sheep roam free in Badlands National Park.

Deadwood, home to gunmen, noisy saloons, and brothels.

Old Style Saloon No.10 in Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickock is believed to have been shot during a poker game.

The “buffalo jam” at Custer State Park, where tourists mingle with residents, only from the safety of our cars.

One of hundreds of Wall Drug billboards dotting the road, taking weary commuters to the popular roadside attraction.

Wall Drug, a South Dakota institution, has been attracting tourists since the 1930s.

Wall Drug is part of a rest stop, part of a shopping mall, and primarily a gallery of American Kitchy.

The 70,000-square-foot Wall Drug even includes a traveler’s chapel.

Spearfish Canyon Falls was named after the Native Americans because the stream water was so clear that they could catch it.

Themed lodge lodges within the Black Hills National Forest.

Spearfish Canyon Lodge in the Black Hills National Forest.

21/21 SLIDES

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Verification of Facts: South Dakota COVID-19 infection, unemployment statistics not as good as claimed

Gallery: That’s how old most people with COVID are in their state (Best Life)

A close-up of a toy: In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the general consensus was that COVID-19 primarily threatened the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions. It seemed that those were the people most likely to experience severe symptoms, or worse, to die from the virus. Younger people were thought to be less susceptible to COVID and, in the event of infection, seemed more likely to recover from it. However, as this health crisis has progressed, it is increasingly clear that all age groups are vulnerable to the virus. Not only that, but in early July, Anthony Fauci, MD, said the average age of COVID-19 patients in the United States had dropped dramatically since the start of the pandemic, in 15 years, to be exact. We calculated the data to determine the age group that represents the majority of total COVID-19 cases in each of the 50 states. Figures are based on the most recent data available from each state's health department * at the time of publication. Read on to see the age group most affected by the coronavirus in its home state. And for more information on how the virus is spreading across the country, see how coronavirus is spreading rapidly in every state. from this list

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