diff --git a/backend/importer/loop.py b/backend/importer/loop.py
index ffe14ad6..af061445 100644
--- a/backend/importer/loop.py
+++ b/backend/importer/loop.py
@@ -31,41 +31,49 @@ def __init__(self, queue_name: str, region: str = "us-east-1"):
         self.loader_map: dict[str, Loader] = {}
 
     def run(self):
+        self.logger.info("Starting import loop")
         while True:
-            resp = self.sqs_client.receive_message(
-                QueueUrl=self.sqs_queue_url,
-                # retrieve one message at a time - we could up this
-                # and parallelize but no point until way more files.
-                MaxNumberOfMessages=1,
-                # 10 minutes to process message before it becomes
-                # visible for another consumer.
-                VisibilityTimeout=600,
-            )
-            # if no messages found, wait 5m for next poll
-            if len(resp["Messages"]) == 0:
-                sleep(600)
-                continue
+            try:
+                self.logger.info("Polling for scraper event messages")
+                resp = self.sqs_client.receive_message(
+                    QueueUrl=self.sqs_queue_url,
+                    # retrieve one message at a time - we could up this
+                    # and parallelize but no point until way more files.
+                    MaxNumberOfMessages=1,
+                    # 10 minutes to process message before it becomes
+                    # visible for another consumer.
+                    VisibilityTimeout=600,
+                )
+                # if no messages found, wait 5m for next poll
+                if len(resp["Messages"]) == 0:
+                    sleep(600)
+                    continue
 
-            for message in resp["Messages"]:
-                sqs_body = ujson.loads(message["Body"])
-                # this comes through as a list, but we expect one object
-                for record in sqs_body["Records"]:
-                    bucket_name = record["s3"]["bucket"]["name"]
-                    key = record["s3"]["object"]["key"]
-                    with BytesIO() as fileobj:
-                        self.s3_client.download_fileobj(
-                            bucket_name, key, fileobj)
-                        fileobj.seek(0)
-                        content = fileobj.read()
-                        _ = content  # for linting.
+                for message in resp["Messages"]:
+                    sqs_body = ujson.loads(message["Body"])
+                    # this comes through as a list, but we expect one object
+                    for record in sqs_body["Records"]:
+                        bucket_name = record["s3"]["bucket"]["name"]
+                        key = record["s3"]["object"]["key"]
+                        with BytesIO() as fileobj:
+                            self.s3_client.download_fileobj(
+                                bucket_name, key, fileobj)
+                            fileobj.seek(0)
+                            content = fileobj.read()
+                            _ = content  # for linting.
 
-                    # TODO: we now have an in-memory copy of s3 file content
-                    #  This is where we would run the importer.
-                    #  we want a standardized importer class; use like:
-                    #   loader = self.get_loader_for_content_type(key)
-                    #   loader(content).load()
+                        # TODO: we now have an in-memory copy of s3 file content
+                        #  This is where we would run the importer.
+                        #  we want a standardized importer class; use like:
+                        #   loader = self.get_loader_for_content_type(key)
+                        #   loader(content).load()
 
-                    self.logger.info(f"Imported s3://{bucket_name}/{key}")
+                        self.logger.info(f"Imported s3://{bucket_name}/{key}")
+            except Exception as e:
+                self.logger.error(
+                    f"Failed to process scraper events sqs queue: {e}")
+                sleep(600)
+                pass
 
     def get_loader_for_content_type(self, s3_key: str) -> Loader:
         # s3 keys should be of format /subject/source/time.jsonl