ERINN SPRINGER FOR “M THE WORLD MAGAZINE”
ReportageThis American, rural and conservative state is suffering the full brunt of the third wave imposed this fall by the coronavirus. In the village of Wessington Springs, however hard hit, the authorities like most of the inhabitants remain resistant to health measures. In the name of freedom.
In the Middle of Nowhere gives a pretty good idea of where the small town of Wessington Springs (South Dakota) stretches. Around its low wooden houses, scattered on either side of the only shopping street, there is nothing. Nothing but robust cows adapted to harsh winters, grain silos in gray tones and powerful pick-ups gulping down the tens of kilometers of straight roads, which connect this town to the rest of the world. The nearest town, Sioux Falls, population 150,000, is a two hour drive away.
Arriving in Wessington Springs therefore invites you to dive into this rural and conservative state, which has become in recent weeks one of the epicenters of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. Advertisements lining the roads denounce abortion, assure drivers that “Jesus loves them” or promote the armories of the region. On Highway 90, electronic billboard messages warn against “Deer crossings”, where, in other States, instructions are recalled to protect against Covid-19.
The ravages of the new rebound
The place is peaceful, a little dead, as passing city dwellers would say. Except that we do not pass by chance in Wessington Springs. People come there because this village of about 850 inhabitants offers neighboring hamlets the services they do not have: school, college, high school, two supermarkets, an outdoor swimming pool, a bowling alley, an antique ski lift for sled down the surrounding hill, a theater “Dating from 1905” and no less than six churches. Above all, this “Prairie pride”, according to the official name given on the sign at the entrance to the city, houses a clinic, a hospital connected by telemedicine to that of Sioux Falls and a retirement home. It was there, in these red brick buildings, that the virus emerged, heralding the disaster that has befallen the small community in recent weeks.
In early fall, 10 of the 35 residents of the retirement home, Weskota Manor, died of illness. “Among the twenty-five residents who remain, almost all have had the Covid and the virus is still active there”, soberly confirms Nikki VonEye, the manager of the place, a little distraught. The face crossed out by a surgical mask, the solid forty-something admits having herself been affected by the disease. For two months, the United States has known a “third wave” of the pandemic, without the first two having ever been really controlled. After having been spared in the spring and during the summer, the Midwestern states, mainly led by elected Republican long reluctant to recognize the seriousness of the pandemic, are now suffering the ravages of this new rebound.
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