President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies have led to over 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases over 700 deaths, a new study from Stanford University found.
Researchers examined 18 rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 22, 2020, then compared spread of the virus in the counties that held the rallies to counties that were on similar case trajectories before the rallies occurred.
The authors concluded that the rallies increased subsequent cases of COVID-19 by over 250 infections per 100,000 residents. They found that the events led to over 30,000 new cases in the country and likely resulted in over 700 deaths, but recognized that the deaths were “not necessarily among attendees.”
“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 authors wrote in the paper. “The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death.
The study was published to preprint platform SSRN on Friday.
The study comes as the U.S. set a new single-day record for coronavirus cases on Friday, logging 97,080 new cases according to COVID Tracking Project, shattering the previous record of 88,521 on set Thursday.
