Biogen Conference Likely Led to 20,000 COVID-19 Cases – NBC Boston
The Boston hotel that was linked to a coronavirus outbreak after it hosted a local biotech company’s conference earlier this year likely led to about 20,000 cases, according a new study.
The cases can be linked to the conference held in February at Boston Marriott Long Wharf, which was shut down in mid-March, in four Massachusetts counties by early May, the Boston Globe reports.
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The estimate indicates that the coronavirus is more widespread than the dozens of cases in Massachusetts that had been previously linked to the meeting.
The scientists studied nearly all the confirmed early cases by changes in the genetic makeup of the virus as it was transmitted from person to person, according to the Globe. The genetic mutations enabled researchers to better understand the scope of what they called a “superspreading event.”
The researchers’ told the Globe that their calculations are based on viruses isolated from 772 patients in Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk counties, but the estimation not included in the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed for publication.
