February medical conference caused up to 300,000 COVID-19 cases - Business Insider

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A medical conference held in late February in Boston may have caused up to 300,000 coronavirus infections, new study finds

A late February medical conference in Boston, Massachusetts may have led to 300,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, a new report found.

By studying and tracing the genetic code of the virus, scientists determined up to 300,000 cases could be attributed to the conferences through November 1.A Biogen medical conference in late February led to between 205,000 to 300,000 COVID-19 infections from February to November of this year, according to a study in the peer-reviewed journalThe number does not account for transmissions of the virus after November 1.

"We don't think these strains had a propensity to spread more than any other," Jacob Lemieux, the lead author of the study, told CBS News. "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.

In the four counties that comprise the Boston region, 51,000 — about half — of the cases of COVID-19 until the beginning of November had genetic markers that linked the cases to the conference, according to the report. The virus also spread from the conference to other states at the beginning of March, when the conference attendees returned to their home states, according to the article.

 

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