President Donald Trump’s packed rallies may have led to 700 COVID-19 related deaths and 30,000 additional coronavirus cases, according to a new report.
Researchers with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research looked at the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the weeks after Trump held 18 massive rallies between June 20 and September 22 – three of which were held indoors.
Researchers compared the spread of the virus in the counties that held the rallies to counties that had similar coronavirus case trajectories before the rallies were held.
They found that the rallies increased subsequent cases of COVID-19 by over 250 infections per 100,000 residents. Extrapolating that figure to the 18 rallies led researchers to conclude the events resulted in more than 30,000 COVID-19 cases.
'The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death,' the study published Friday on open access preprint platform SSRN said.
However, the paper has not yet undergone peer review and has not been vetted by experts in public health or epidemiology.
Today there are more than 9.1million cases of COVID-19 in the US and more than 230,000 deaths.
Eighteen of President Donald Trump’s packed rallies may have led to 700 COVID-19 related deaths and 30,000 additional coronavirus cases, according to a new report by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Researchers looked at the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the weeks after Trump held 18 massive rallies between June 20 and September 22 – three of which were held indoors. That includes the packed rally Trump hosted in Minden, Nevada on September 12
'Our analysis strongly supports the warnings and recommendations of public health officials concerning the risk of COVID-19 transmission at large group gatherings, particularly when the degree of compliance with guidelines concerning the use of masks and social distancing is low,' the report says.
One evaluated rally was the president’s event in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20.
Herman Cain, the former presidential candidate, attended the event and was seen not wearing a mask there. He later caught COVID-19 and died on July 30 from complications of the virus. Trump says he doesn’t believe Cain caught the virus at the rally.
Public health officials in Tulsa said that they suffered from a subsequent surge in coronavirus cases likely linked to the rally.
A little after two weeks after the event, Tulsa recorded 206 new confirmed coronavirus cases in a single day, a record high at that time.
In Minnesota state officials traced 16 coronavirus cases and two hospitalizations to a Trump rally on September 18 in the city of Bemidji.
The study was led by B. Douglas Bernheim, a Stanford economics professor along with three doctoral students.
'When this went viral I was honestly kind of shocked,' Bernheim sad.
He explained that those who died weren’t just rally attendees but those who may have been infected by attendees.
Herman Cain died of COVID-19 on July 30. He attended President Trump's June 20th rally in Tulsa, where he tweeted the above photo. Trump says he doesn’t believe Cain caught the virus at the rally
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio on September 21
People listen as President Donald Trump speaks a rally at an airport hanger on August 28 in Londonderry, New Hampshire
MAGA rally attendees have often been seen not wearin gmasks and ignoring social distancing
The Biden campaign has since jumped on the study, claiming it’s proof that Trump’s rallies have been super-spreader events.
'The same president whose disastrously mismanaged response has failed our nation for eight months, who dismissed thousands of deaths by saying "it is what it is," and whose administration privately told Wall Street the truth about this outbreak while lying to the American people for his own optics not only has no plan to defeat the pandemic — he’s even costing hundreds of lives and sparking thousands of cases with super-spreader rallies that only serve his own ego,' said Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, said to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Trump campaign deputy national press secretary Courtney Parella defended Trump’s campaigns saying that coronavirus measures were taken.
'Americans have the right to gather under the First Amendment to hear from the President of the United State,' Parella said to The Hill.
'We take strong precautions for our campaign events, requiring every attendee to have their temperature checked, providing masks, they’re instructed to wear, and ensuring access to plenty of hand sanitizer,' she said.
'We also have signs at our events instructing attendees to wear their masks,' she added.
The report was released as the US keeps hitting new records for daily coronavirus cases.
However, Trump has brushed off the severity of the resurging virus, claiming instead the US is 'rounding the turn' on the pandemic.
On Friday he sparked outrage for claiming that doctors are improperly counting coronavirus deaths for personal and monetary gain.