Lessons Learned From the Controversial Sturgis Superspreader Report

Under immense pressure, science research and science communication are prone to flaws

A controversial new paper released this week reported that the 2020 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, held in August in South Dakota, was a Covid-19 superspreader event. As reported earlier on the Coronavirus Blog, nearly 500,000 people attended the 10-day rally, and mask-wearing and social distancing was minimal. The authors estimated that a whopping 19% of the total cases in the…