An Unwelcome Souvenir From the Democratic National Convention: COVID

People often leave political conventions with lots of good memories and fun souvenirs, but some participants in the recent Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago also brought home an unwelcome visitor: COVID-19.

“Ugh: DNCovid-24,” Doug Sovern, a political reporter at San Francisco’s KCBS, wrote on X, adding a photo of his positive test result. “I brought home an unfortunate souvenir from #DNC2024. And so did many of my fellow convention crew. I guess 4 hours of sleep a night + endless work + close indoor proximity to so many people = my first COVID since the NBA Finals in 2021.”

“Oh man! I brought home so much sweet swag from the DNC!” said Fred Wellman, a retired Army officer, in a social media post that has since been deleted. “Coffee mugs, stickers, t-shirts, poster, buttons, bags, pins, and…COVID!”

“I arrived at the DNC healthy and hopeful and left very sick and disillusioned,” wrote Yasmine Taeb, a human rights lawyer, who, like Sovern, also posted a photo of her positive test on X.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — one of the event’s marquee speakers — also came down with COVID. The illness forced her to drop out of a Democratic fundraiser she had planned to attend.

The Democratic National Committee, which hosted the convention, gave convention-goers conflicting guidance regarding masking, one of the prime COVID prevention strategies. In its convention FAQ, the “Public Health and Safety” section says the following regarding COVID: “The 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee adheres to current guidance from relevant public health authorities regarding COVID-19. Masking is not required at convention events, but any participant desiring to wear a mask is welcome to do so.”

However, in the “Accessibility” section of the same document, a question about whether attendees are allowed to wear masks at the two main convention venues is answered as follows: “Yes, masks will be allowed if necessary due to a disability. You may be asked to remove your mask when going through security.” The committee did not respond by press time to an email asking about whether any COVID precautions were taken at the event, at which very few masks were visible.

Public health experts were not surprised by the COVID reports. “There’s not much attention right now on COVID in the public sector, so its presence is easy to ignore — until a super spreader event occurs,” said Rebecca Bartles, DrPH, MPH, executive director of the Centers for Research, Practice, and Innovation at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. “Looking at the current numbers and trends, it’s not all that surprising to see DNC attendees returning home with COVID.”

“Two of the main strategies used in large-group settings to reduce COVID spread are pre-event testing and masking,” she told MedPage Today. “It is clear that we are not at a point where masking is palatable to most folks, and requiring testing prior to an event in a time where rates are still relatively low might also be a hard requirement to get compliance with. Not knowing what the protocols were at the DNC, their minimum strategies should have been asking folks not to attend if they were sick, providing well-stocked, accessible hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene stations, and ensuring air quality of the venue in advance.”

Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, the author of the “Your Local Epidemiologist” newsletter, told MedPage Today that she was “not surprised at all.”

“We are in the middle of a massive infection wave and, presumably, a national gathering like this provides new social networks for the virus to explore,” said Jetelina, who is a senior scientific consultant to the CDC. “There are a lot of things people could do to prevent this from happening, including wearing a high-quality mask to the event. Unfortunately, when I was watching from television, I saw very few utilizing this tool.”

There appeared to be fewer reports on social media of COVID cases contracted by Republican National Convention participants, although a person on X did note a bump in COVID detection in wastewater in Milwaukee — where that event was held — during the convention period in mid-July. Like the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee did not respond by press time to an email asking about whether any COVID precautions were taken at the event.

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