Current Events > Boston medical conference linked to as many as 300,000 COVID-19 cases in U.S.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boston-biogen-medical-conference-300k-covid-19-cases/

Major events were among the first things to go when the novel coronavirus first started spreading around the world in February. Concerts, conferences and other gatherings were called off or went virtual in the spring. In Boston, however, Biogen's elite medical conference on February 26-27 continued as planned, with more than 100 cases of COVID-19 tied to the event, according to contact tracers. But a team of scientists using genetic sequencing to track the continued spread of that strain of coronavirus say it actually spread further much, much further until November 1 of this year. Between 205,000 and 300,000 coronavirus cases across the U.S. can be traced back to the Boston conference, say the scientists, whose findings were published in the journal Science on Thursday. "Genome data reveal that the impact of the conference was far larger than the approximately 100 cases directly associated with the event," the scientists write. The paper's authors reached their conclusions by analyzing the genetic code of the coronavirus. Like all viruses, the one that causes COVID-19 mutates as it moves from person to person. Tracking genetic changes in the virus across a population can help scientists understand how and where it has spread. "It's as if some viruses have polka dots and others don't, and we follow those polka-dot viruses across time and space," Jacob Lemieux, the study's lead author, told CBS MoneyWatch.

The Boston incident was not unique, which is what makes the study so valuable. "We don't think these strains had a propensity to spread more than any other," Lemieux said. "We suspect that these types of events have been happening over and over again, and are major contributors to the propagation and spread of SARS-cov2 throughout the world." Lemieux added: "The conditions that allow these super-spreading events to occur are very much still with us and will continue to be with us for a long time."



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Meanwhile Trump hold maskless rallies for his cult

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PAX East happened immediately afterward

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