An alarming new epidemiological study released on Tuesday describes how a business conference in late February was ultimately responsible for 20,000 cases of COVID-19. The conference, which the researchers of the study called a “superspreading event”, could be one of the biggest cases of viral spread since the pandemic began.
Done by scientists from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, the study, which is a preview and has not yet been peer-reviewed, traces the cases back to a conference held by drug company Biogen at a Boston hotel on Feb. 26 and 27. At the start date of the conference, there were exactly 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US, according to the Washington Post. By analyzing genomic data, the researchers found that the virus then spread to four counties in Massachusetts and was also responsible for a major outbreak in the homeless population of Boston.
“Our results highlight the failure of measures to prevent massacres in Massachusetts early in the outbreak, underscore the role of superspreading in amplifying an outbreak in a large urban area, and lay a foundation for contact tracing informed by genetic data,” authors wrote. .
The new study raises questions about COVID-19 and so-called superspreading events, as some gatherings that trigger an outbreak of cases of the virus. Here are some of the biggest incidents recently identified as superspreader events, and what we can learn from them.
February: Biogen Conference, Boston, Mass.
In late February, Biogen hosted a conference at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf, a hotel that was shut down later in mid-March over concerns about COVID-19, according to the Boston Globe.
“February 2020 was almost half a year ago, and was a period when general knowledge about the coronavirus was limited,” Biogen said in a statement to the Boston Herald. “We adhere to the official guidelines. We would never have deliberately put ourselves at risk. When we learned that some of our colleagues were ill, we did not know the cause was COVID-19, but we immediately alerted public health authorities and took steps to limit the spread. “
“This is probably the biggest superspreading event in the pandemic,” says Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Yahoo Life. Timing is important here, Adalja adds. “There were not really widespread guidelines on how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at that point.” A conference like this is mainly about the spread of the virus, because “people have so many contacts and potential opportunities for spread in these situations,” says Adalja.
Video: Large meetings affecting the overall coronavirus
July: Wedding, San Francisco, California.
A large, secretive wedding in San Francisco’s Saints Peter and Paul Church was stopped by the city attorney’s office because it passed local public health rulings. An email received by NBC Bay Area showed that local authorities had received a complaint about the planned marriage of 100 people that happened with the pastor’s knowledge.
At the request of the city attorney, the marriage was moved outside to a connecting basketball court. Still, the bride, groom and at least eight guests may have contracted COVID-19 there, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. People flew in from Nashville, Tenn., Arizona, and San Diego, California, for the wedding, via SF Gate, and 40 wedding guests celebrated earlier in the evening in the courtyard of the city’s Harborview Restaurant and Bar.
A guest later told the San Francisco Chronicle that no one wore masks at the rehearsal dinner and that social distancing did not exist.
While the event has been linked to at least 10 cases of COVID-19, the actual number may be more, Schaffner says. “People can get infected in these events and then spread them and take it home again,” he says. “It becomes very difficult to measure because people spread over large geographical areas after the event. If they go back home and develop disease, you may not know it. Meanwhile, they spread it further in their own communities. ”
August: Wedding Reception, Millinocket, Maine
On August 17, it was revealed that the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was investigating a COVID-19 outbreak linked to a wedding reception at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket, Maine. At that time, 24 people associated with the event had positive test for the virus. About 65 guests attended the event, the Maine CDC said. As of now, at least 53 cases of COVID-19 and one death have been recovered after the event.
State requirements say the number of people that can gather at an event should be limited to 50 inside and 100 outside, or less if the space cannot accommodate five people per 1,000 feet, the Maine CDC says.
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said Tuesday in a newsletter that the marriage is now tied to an outbreak of six cases at the Maplecrest Rehabilitation & Living Center in Madison. The marriage is also linked to an outbreak of 18 cases in the York County Jail, Shah said.
A man who stayed at the inn while the wedding took place told the Lewiston Sun Journal that the event was “very crowded” and that there was “not much social distance.” He added: “I may have seen one or two people wearing a mask, but that was it.”
Weddings are prime places for the spread of COVID-19, says Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Yahoo Life. “What normally happens is that a lot of people are unmasked, maybe all of them,” he says. “People get close to each other and they often celebrate, dance and talk – and that can spread the virus.”
August: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Sturgis, South Dakota
State health departments have reported at least 103 cases of COVID-19 from people in South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin Nebraska, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Washington who attended the 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, according to the United Press. Adalja says he expects that number to climb. Photos from the rally, which began on August 7, showed many cyclists unmasking and not following social distance guidelines.
South Dakota has no ordinance for masks in the entire state and Gov. Kristi Noem, who told Fox News she was proud that her state hosted the annual event, has spoken out against wearing masks in public.
The city of Sturgis is now conducting mass tests for its 7,000 residents, the AP reports, and an analysis of anonymous mobile data by Camber Systems, a company that collects mobile activity for health researchers, found that rally participants visited 61 percent of all counties in the U.S. after the event.
“I’m worried about Sturgis because of the size of exposure both in number and geographic range,” says Dr. David Cennimo, an infectious disease expert and assistant professor of medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Yahoo Life.
But, says Adalja, it’s hardly shocking to see cases come out of the rally. “This was completely predictable,” he says. Still, he adds, it is difficult to fully track all cases coming out of the event back to the rally due to the wide geographical spread of participants after the event.
As a whole, larger events in the US are “dangerous”, according to Dr. Richard Watkins, a communicable disease physician in Akron, Ohio, and a professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University. “‘Do not go’ is the simplest advice,” he says. “Your health must be more important to you than a one-time event. COVID-19 can cause long term damage to your body and people should take it very seriously. ”
Schaffner agrees. “If there’s an event, do not go,” he says. “Large meetings are not recommended for a while.”
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow up https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised are most at risk. If you have any questions, please refer to the GGD‘s and WHO’s resource guides.
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