WORLD & NATION A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead Coronavirus choir outbreak
By RICHARD READSEATTLE BUREAU CHIEF MARCH 29, 20207:34 PM MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal. The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south.
But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and businesses remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced.
On March 6, Adam Burdick, the choir’s conductor, informed the 121 members in an email that amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus,” practice would proceed as scheduled at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.
“I’m planning on being there this Tuesday March 10, and hoping many of you will be, too,” he wrote.
The Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in Mount Vernon, Wash.(Karen Ducey / For The Times) Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes.
“It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places,” Burdick recalled. “We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other.”
After 2½ hours, the singers parted ways at 9 p.m.
Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
The outbreak has stunned county health officials, who have concluded that the virus was almost certainly transmitted through the air from one or more people without symptoms.
“That’s all we can think of right now,” said Polly Dubbel, a county communicable disease and environmental health manager.
In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, eight people who were at the rehearsal said that nobody there was coughing or sneezing or appeared ill.
WORLD & NATION A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead Coronavirus choir outbreak
By RICHARD READSEATTLE BUREAU CHIEF MARCH 29, 20207:34 PM MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal. The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south.
But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and businesses remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced.
On March 6, Adam Burdick, the choir’s conductor, informed the 121 members in an email that amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus,” practice would proceed as scheduled at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.
“I’m planning on being there this Tuesday March 10, and hoping many of you will be, too,” he wrote.
The Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in Mount Vernon, Wash.(Karen Ducey / For The Times) Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes.
“It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places,” Burdick recalled. “We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other.”
After 2½ hours, the singers parted ways at 9 p.m.
Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
The outbreak has stunned county health officials, who have concluded that the virus was almost certainly transmitted through the air from one or more people without symptoms.
“That’s all we can think of right now,” said Polly Dubbel, a county communicable disease and environmental health manager.
In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, eight people who were at the rehearsal said that nobody there was coughing or sneezing or appeared ill.
Yet there are Fire Members who thing we should dismiss the health risks and "focus on the Bible" and continue large in person church services with hundreds of people. Because, after all, "this is just the flu".
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
Not directed to anyone in particular, just food for thought, but...
When do we come out of our holes?
If you believe those that say you can catch C19 more than once, then it means as long as there is 1 person in the World who has it, it could become a pandemic again.
Aren't you just a selfish bastard if you go out in public as long as 1 person has it? It could be you killing grandma. You could be Patient 0 version 2.
When do you come out? How are you going to rationalize that? Is it going to be an economic decision for you after you demonized people for the same thing?
Not directed to anyone in particular, just food for thought, but...
When do we come out of our holes?
If you believe those that say you can catch C19 more than once, then it means as long as there is 1 person in the World who has it, it could become a pandemic again.
Aren't you just a selfish bastard if you go out in public as long as 1 person has it? It could be you killing grandma. You could be Patient 0 version 2.
When do you come out? How are you going to rationalize that? Is it going to be an economic decision for you after you demonized people for the same thing?
Tyrone,
Are you intentionally building straw men, or just not keeping up on the science?
The early tests for COVID 19 were prone to false negatives, i.e. as much as 30% of the time the test would come back negative when a person was still infected leading to what now appears to be the false conclusion around re-transmissiblity. C19 actually a repetitively stable virus that evolves slowly giving it lower rates of retransmissibility and make it a great candidate for an effective vaccine.
One of the recents test that just came out in the last few days is for antibodies, so we can identify persons who've gained immunity through previous exposure. This could be especially valuable in the health care setting.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
That is what the people in the above article did, or maybe more accurately never went into them, and there were clear consequences to that. I don’t know if now they consider it a worthwhile trade, but they at the very least should have known the risk when they made their choice.
Sounds like they did the safe things except being close together. Scarey.
No...gatherings of 60 belting out hyms is not the safe thing. Singing is worse than sneezing which is worse than coughing as far as spreading contamination.
That is what the people in the above article did, or maybe more accurately never went into them, and there were clear consequences to that. I don’t know if now they consider it a worthwhile trade, but they at the very least should have known the risk when they made their choice.
Stick, the dumb part is that people still underestimate the contagion of this thing, even ridicule it.
Our area has 4 suspected cases but no deaths,,,,yet and folks around here are taking the social distancing very seriously so far. Being mostly rural is a big help, no doubt.
The degree of my privacy is no business of yours.
What we've learned from history is that we haven't learned from it.
