The researchers observed 18 Trump rallies held between June 20 and September 22 and analyzed Covid-19 data in the weeks following each event.
UNITED STATES (Times Media Mexico) – According to a new article published by Stanford University researchers, President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies led to more than 30,000 people becoming infected with the coronavirus.
The researchers observed 18 Trump rallies held between June 20 and September 22 and analyzed the Covid-19 data in the weeks following each event.
According to local media reports, the researchers compared the counties where the events took place with other counties with a similar trajectory of confirmed Covid-19 cases before the rally date. Of the 18 events analyzed, only three were indoors, according to the research.
In the analysis, they found that the rallies eventually resulted in more than 30,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19. They also concluded that the Trump events probably resulted in more than 700 deaths, although not necessarily among those attending.
They also concluded that the Trump events likely caused more than 700 deaths, although not necessarily among attendees. They noted that the findings support public health officials’ warnings and recommendations about the risk of Covid-19 transmission in large group meetings, “particularly when compliance with guidelines on mask use and social distancing is low. The communities in which the Trump demonstrations took place paid a high price in terms of illness and death,” said B. Douglas Bernheim, chairman of Stanford’s economics department and lead author of the article.
The document, which has not yet undergone a peer review, was published on the SSRN open access prepress platform.
Media reports indicated that Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Courtney Parella, said, “Americans have a First Amendment right to meet with the United States President. We take strong precautions for our campaign events, requiring all attendees to check their temperature, providing masks that they are instructed to wear, and ensuring access to a large amount of hand sanitizer. We also have posters at our events that instruct attendees to wear their masks,” she added.
The researchers said they had to overcome “significant challenges,” recognizing that the dynamics of Covid-19 are “complex” and “even a cursory examination of the data reveals that the process governing the spread of Covid-19 differs among counties.
The new research comes as the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly throughout the United States.
The country continues to set new highs in infections this week. On Friday, it set a record of 99,321 new cases per day, bringing the average of seven days of new cases per day to a new high of 78,738, a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data showed.
According to the independent count from Johns Hopkins University, the United States reached the figure of 9,034,295 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and 229,544 deaths from the covid-19 virus.
On Friday, the country reported 919 more deaths than Thursday and 94,125 new infections, breaking the record for the second consecutive day.
With information from CNBC and EFE
