Coronavirus: How one drug company meeting became the earliest 'superspreading' event in US
A gathering of the country's brightest in Massachusetts helped the new coronavirus reach six states. The infection struck at least 99 attendees and their close contacts within the state and many more outside of it.
The gathering in question was a leadership meeting organized by a biotech giant Biogen in late February. Reports suggest over 175 employees took part in it. Such gatherings are bound to help the virus thrive.
“The smartest people in health care and drug development — and they were completely oblivious to the biggest thing that was about to shatter their world,” said John Carroll, editor of Endpoints News, which covers the biotech industry.
Some of the attendees, unaware of the infection, may have unwittingly helped the virus spread discreetly. After the meeting drew to a close, some flew and others drove back to their homes.
As a result, the employees carried the virus to over six states, the District of Columbia and three countries, according to the New York Times. Thanks to the Biogen meeting, these states recorded their first few cases being the first two cases in Indiana, the first six cases in North Carolina and the first in Tennessee and North Carolina.
The Biogen employee who was reported to be the first COVID-19 patient in Tennessee wrote, “I was patient zero,” on Facebook. He added, “Imagine having to confront a virus so feared, it now has the entire world on the brink of mass hysteria.”
The company has come under fire for organizing the meeting at a time of imminent threat when the virus was ravaging through China. The virus was gaining inroads into Europe, with Italy reporting an outbreak.
In defense of his company’s decision to attend the event, Michel Vounatsos, chief executive of the drug company Biogen told The New York Times, “When we learned a number of our colleagues were ill, we did not know the cause was Covid-19.”
Reports suggest that at least two of the company’s senior executives have tested positive. However, the company has not revealed names, citing privacy issues. The two executives have since recovered from the disease. “For a company whose mission is to save lives, it was very difficult to see our colleagues and community directly get affected by this disease,” Mr Vounatsos said in his first public comments about what happened at Biogen. “We would never have knowingly put anyone at risk," he added.
The company has committed to donating $10 million to support global response efforts and communities around the world impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement read.
This, however, is not the only super spreading event in the US. Superspreading happens when a large number of people contract the disease from a small group. For example, the virus spread in a Life Care Center in Kirkland, Seattle, where it infected two-thirds of residents and 47 employees, out of which over 35 people lost their lives fighting the disease. Experts tracked another cluster of infections to a birthday party in Connecticut. Of the 50 attendees, at least 25 are believed to have contracted the disease.