Despite delta, Sturgis Motorcycle Rally poised to ride again

While some other large events have been canceled due to the looming threat the delta variant poses, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is still slated to begin on Friday.

While a series of high-profile events have been canceled this week due to the looming threat posed by the delta variant, one that last year contributed to hundreds of COVID-19 cases will not. South Dakota's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which begins Friday and runs through Aug. 15, is expected to draw upwards of 700,000 attendees. Last year's rally, which took place during the height of the United States' summer surge, had more than 400,000 estimated attendees, many of whom didn't wear masks as they patronized bars, restaurants and concerts. The downstream effect was tangible: At least 649 COVID-19 cases were linked to Sturgis, including secondary and third-degree contacts. "The Sturgis rally had many characteristics of a superspreading event: large crowds, high intensity of contact between people, potential for highly infectious individuals traveling from hotspots, and events in poorly ventilated indoor environments," a 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study concluded.