Was the Capitol riot a super-spreader?
We may never know for certain without effective contact tracing — which the U.S. largely lacks — and because most of the rioters who stormed the Capitol yesterday are unidentified, tracing them would be difficult.
Even so, a large group of mostly unmasked people shouting indoors for long periods is a recipe for a super-spreader event, my colleague Apoorva Mandavilli wrote.
Similar concerns were raised last year during the Black Lives Matter protests and campaign rallies. But in the case of those protests, most were held outdoors, and a greater number of participants seemed to be masked. (Research afterward suggested these were not super-spreading events.)
In contrast, at the Capitol, violent protesters, the police and members of Congress mixed for long periods indoors, some without masks, and without social distancing. Given current infection rates and the highly contagious variant that has most likely already spread to every state, it’s safe to assume that some people were infectious when the riot broke out.
Experts told Apoorva that they were particularly concerned about members of Congress, who have critical roles to play in the transfer of power, and who sheltered from the violence in large groups.
Already, Representative Jake LaTurner, a Republican from Kansas, announced on Twitter this morning that he had tested positive for the virus. Mr. LaTurner hunkered down in the chamber with other members of Congress for much of the day. One lawmaker told CBS News that about half of the 400 or so lawmakers and staff members who were huddling together after being whisked from the chamber for their safety had refused to wear masks.
Experts said they were also worried that rioters, many of whom had traveled long distances to Washington from other states, would return home and ignite outbreaks across the country. Given their political leanings, the experts added, many may be Covid deniers and refuse to get tested.
“We might get an inkling into how bad it might be because of the federal employees,” said Dr. Joshua Barocas, an infectious diseases physician at Boston University. But “I don’t think that we’re going to know the extent of this super-spreader event.”
The New York Times