people who had been Sturgis event employees or volunteers. On August 27, 2020, the results of mass testing in Sturgis became available. Out of 650 tests there were 26 positive results, all asymptomatic. As of August 28, 2020, 46 cases in Minnesota had been linked to the rally, including two hospitalizations, with one person in intensive care. An additional cluster of secondary transmission from the rally was identified at a wedding. The number of infections increased substantially although health authorities suspected the real number could be far higher because many attendees refused to cooperate with contact tracers. On September 2, 2020, the first COVID-19 death related to the 2020 Sturgis rally was reported in Minnesota. A paper by economist Dhaval Dave and colleagues at IZA Institute of Labor Economics estimated the number of cases that could have been caused by the 2020 rally, at which few attendees wore masks, could have infected 267,000 and result in $12.2 billion in health care costs. A partnership between Slate magazine, New America, and Arizona State University, questioned the methodology and thereby contested the findings of the study. The Slate analysis did find the IZA estimates for Meade County, South Dakota, between 177 and 195 cases, to be consistent with the raw data. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem said the study was "fiction," and an "attack on those who exercised their personal freedom to attend Sturgis...Predictably, some in the media breathlessly report on this non-peer-reviewed model, built on incredibly faulty assumptions that do not reflect the actual facts and data here in South Dakota." State epidemiologist Joshua Clayton stated, "From what we know the results do not align with what we know." By September 8, 2020, South Dakota reported 124 residents had become ill after attending the rally. On November 20, 2020 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified 51 people from Minnesota who were infected at the 2020 rally and another 35 who got secondary infections from attendees; four of the 86 were hospitalized and one died. Researchers noted that the actual figures were probably higher since many people who attended the rally refused to speak to them. They also pointed out that the study only involved one state, although rally attendees came from across the country. Concerns about virus transmission appeared again before the 2021 rally, expected to draw 700,000 visitors. The City of Sturgis planned to make 15-minute self