Superspreading at the Biogen conference

Superspreading at the Biogen conference - Printable Version

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Superspreading at the Biogen conference - Mick - 08-25-2020

At a time when there were 15 diagnosed COVID cases in the United States, the Biogen conference in late February had a superspreader that infected 70 of 92 attendees, who then helped spread it across the country.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Genetic-data-show-how-a-single-superspreading-15512903.php

RE: Superspreading at the Biogen conference - BostonCard - 08-25-2020

I saw that; thanks for posting. It is a strong rationale for stopping major meetings indoors.

Unfortunately, Biogen is the exception that proves the rule in terms of data.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02478-z

Quote:"We shouldn’t be flying blind at this point," says Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "We shouldn’t have to speculate."

Experts told Nature that political meddling, privacy concerns and years of neglect of public-health surveillance systems are among the reasons for the dearth of information in the United States.

RE: Superspreading at the Biogen conference - Farm93 - 08-25-2020

If you think ~100 people in a Biogen meeting was a superspreader event??

Imagine 20,000 people watching Bama or Georgia in an SEC stadium for 4+ hours.
Bama will get ~$2 million in ticket revenue.
Tuscaloosa might get a similar amount in service sector business revenue.
And the USA will likely pay several times that tally in healthcare costs over the next 4 or 5 months.

I think the SEC officials are putting far too much faith in the safety of outdoor gatherings, especially after what happened in South Dakota with Sturgis over the last two weeks.

I have always believed the players will be more or less OK, especially for Bama since many of its players tested positive with COVID already. I remain less and less confident that the essential stadium workers around the SEC will be as lucky.

The SEC teams trying to squeeze out a few million in ticket revenue appears very inappropriate given the amount of COVID19 in the region and the problems the region has had with campus parties and other gatherings.

RE: Superspreading at the Biogen conference - fullmetal - 08-25-2020

To be fair, a lot of Sturgis' activities took place indoors (bars, hotels, etc). But we know the virus can spread in stadiums (Italy), and $EC stadiums are similarly problematic.

RE: Superspreading at the Biogen conference - 82 Card - 08-26-2020

I'm not sure we know what happened at Sturgis yet. I have only seen stories that talk about dozens of cases. The city estimated participation at about 366,000. All the stories I saw indicated that test results had mostly not come in yet. From descriptions of what went on, it seems likely that the numbers of cases will go up substantially. However, that hasn't been proven yet.

RE: Superspreading at the Biogen conference - magnus - 08-26-2020

(08-26-2020, 01:22 AM)82 Card Wrote: I'm not sure we know what happened at Sturgis yet. I have only seen stories that talk about dozens of cases. The city estimated participation at about 366,000. All the stories I saw indicated that test results had mostly not come in yet. From descriptions of what went on, it seems likely that the numbers of cases will go up substantially. However, that hasn't been proven yet.

This news article says 112 (or 104)
cases linked to Sturgis

https://www.twincities.com/2020/08/25/sturgis-rally-linked-to-104-coronavirus-cases-in-8-states/

RE: Superspreading at the Biogen conference - 82 Card - 08-26-2020

(08-26-2020, 01:36 AM)magnus Wrote:
(08-26-2020, 01:22 AM)82 Card Wrote: I'm not sure we know what happened at Sturgis yet. I have only seen stories that talk about dozens of cases. The city estimated participation at about 366,000. All the stories I saw indicated that test results had mostly not come in yet. From descriptions of what went on, it seems likely that the numbers of cases will go up substantially. However, that hasn't been proven yet.

This news article says 112 (or 104)
cases linked to Sturgis

https://www.twincities.com/2020/08/25/sturgis-rally-linked-to-104-coronavirus-cases-in-8-states/

That doesn't strike me as a high number. Per capita, it amounts to a couple of days in California. That would be miraculous for a 10 day event without distancing or PPE, assuming most participants were there for at least several days.. I suspect many of the cases have not been counted yet.