As the crowds come and go, the infection rate for Branson and surrounding Taney County is 19.3 percent. There are 54 new cases a day in a population of 57,000, which is 10 times the national per capita average. More than two-thirds of the population are unvaccinated, including the very nice tourist information person.

“It’s not happening,” she said when asked if she had gotten the shot. “Have a blessed day.”

These statistics acquire particular significance in a locale that provides what one prominent virologist and epidemiologist terms “prime conditions” for COVID-19 to spread—and all the more so for the highly contagious Delta variant.

“Branson has a lot of country-western shows,” says Dr. Marc Johnson of the University of Missouri School of Medicine. “No Vaccines. No masks. A bunch of people indoors and air conditioning, tightly packed, listening to music, possibly singing along, i.e. a superspreading [event].”