{"id":201623,"date":"2021-03-12T23:37:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T20:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/daytona-beach-bike-week-hosts-thousands-despite-covid-risks\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T23:37:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T20:37:34","slug":"daytona-beach-bike-week-hosts-thousands-despite-covid-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/daytona-beach-bike-week-hosts-thousands-despite-covid-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"#Daytona Beach Bike Week hosts thousands despite COVID risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Daytona Beach Bike Week hosts thousands despite COVID risks<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Hordes of maskless bikers descended onto Daytona Beach this week to party, hangout with scantily clad women and defy COVID-19 health restrictions they believe infringes on their freedoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI refuse to mask. Joe Biden ain\u2019t gonna tell me what to do. I have a constitutional right to do whatever the hell I want,\u201d biker John Saxon, who cruised 550 miles from Biloxi, Mississippi on his hog to the Florida locale to celebrate the 80th annual Bike Week, told the Daily Mail<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in all that virus bullsh-t. I\u2019ve had a friend who\u2019s had it three or four times,\u201d Saxon, decked out in a stars and strip<\/a>e bandana and a sleeveless shirt with confederate regalia, insisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if anyone should be worried about the virus, it\u2019s me. I don\u2019t have a spleen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The annual party, which started as an informal gathering of rival biker gangs decades ago and has since flourished into an organized, $75 million tourist extravaganza, typically sees 500,000 guests but only 300,000 to 400,000 are expected to come this year, the Mail reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A
Coronavirus is hardly a concern to many of the revelers who attend the motorcycle event. <\/figcaption>
Paul Hennessy via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Business owners along the main drag told the outlet they rely on Bike Week for at least a third of their annual revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers aren\u2019t quite what we are used to but it\u2019s a healthier event,\u201d Janet Kersey, the Dayton Regional Chamber of Commerce\u2019s executive vice president, which runs Bike Week, told the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"People
People walk past a row of parked motorcycles during the 80th Daytona Beach\u2019s annual Bike Week event on March 10, 2021. <\/figcaption>
Paul Hennessy via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

While the event has drawn comparisons to the Sturgis Motorcycle rally in South Dakota, which was accused of becoming a COVID-19 super spreader event, Kersey brushed off those concerns and said a host of measures were in place to prevent that from happ<\/a>ening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore it tended to be people [sitting] inside bars listening to bands but this year we are seeing a lot of people enjoying the sunshine, riding around, walking around the town,\u201d Kersey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Measures include spacing out events and a deal with local venues to reduce indoor capacity in exchange for permits that allow outdoor drinking and entertainment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bars have moved the majority of the entertainment outdoors. There are safety plans on top of that as well as signage and messaging, stay safe, wear a mask, stay six feet apart,\u201d Kersey explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists ride down Main Street during the 80th year of Daytona Beach\u2019s annual Bike Week event, on March 10, 2021. <\/figcaption>
Paul Hennessy via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe governor has declared Florida for business. The vaccines are rolling out, we are seeing the numbers decline, and if people are concerned about the event, it\u2019s ok not to come,\u201d she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not trying to make light of COVID or what people have gone through by any means. But a lot of businesses here have already closed, people are unemployed, they can\u2019t pay rent, they can\u2019t feed their children.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the best intentions, the measures were largely in vain, as few wore masks, the Mail reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t enforce the mask rule because I don\u2019t want to be a hypocrite, I often don\u2019t wear mine,\u201d Louie Louizes, a local shop owner, told the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a beating last year. We were shut down for three months. We missed all of Spring Break, that\u2019s 40 percent of our business\u2026 It\u2019s quieter this year, more spread out, but it\u2019s been good for the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Reportedly
Reportedly 300,000 to 400,000 guests are expected to attend this year\u2019s Daytona Beach\u2019s annual Bike Week.<\/figcaption>
Paul Hennessy via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Wednesday, the most recent day where data is available, the Sunshine State saw over 5,000 new COVID-19 cases and 96 deaths, records show, but it was hardly a concern to many of the revelers who attended the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are just ready to be out there with other people. Everyone is happy and excited to be around each other with no masks, no distancing,\u201d said Vanilla Dawn, 43, an employee at Cruisin Cafe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial<\/a> distancing has been hard on the world.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Daytona Beach Bike Week hosts thousands despite COVID risks” Hordes of maskless bikers descended onto Daytona Beach this week to party, hangout with scantily clad women and defy COVID-19 health restrictions they believe infringes on their freedoms.\u00a0 \u201cI refuse to mask. Joe Biden ain\u2019t gonna tell me what to do. I have a constitutional right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/daytona-bike-week-getty-03.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[97382,97655,1545,9923,6642],"class_list":["post-201623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-12-21","tag-bikers","tag-coronavirus","tag-daytona-beach","tag-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}