Maybe the Democratic National Convention had a surprise guest after all.
Several participants at last week’s convention in Chicago have since tested positive for the COVID-19 respiratory illness, raising concerns about a surge in infections across the country.
“Spending five days in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention and coming back with COVID-19? That sucks,” Christopher Wiggins, a reporter for LGBTQ magazine The Advocate, posted on X.
Several others also shared their diagnoses on social media.
“That’s right: I went to the DNC feeling healthy and hopeful, and left feeling very sick and disillusioned,” human rights lawyer Yasmin Tayeb wrote on X.
“Oh wow! I brought back so many cool souvenirs from the DNC! Coffee mugs, stickers, t-shirts, posters, buttons, bags, pins and… CORONAS! Awesome!” exclaimed “On Democracy Pod” host Fred Wellman.
“A friend who was at the Democratic National Convention tested positive and posted that a surprise guest actually had COVID,” writer Joshua Hill posted on X.
It was not immediately clear how much the virus spread during a four-day party in Chicago last week that drew tens of thousands of people to the Windy City.
Exact attendance figures were not immediately available, but a spokesman told The Washington Post that the United Center, where the main speeches were held, had a capacity of about 20,000.
Ironically, because the pandemic forced the 2020 convention to be held virtually, this will be Democrats’ first in-person major convention since 2016.
The Washington Post reported that some convention attendees were seen wearing masks during the celebrations, but they were a minority of the overall attendees.
Still, it was a stark contrast to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where GOP attendees were still emotional over pandemic-era mask mandates and other mitigation policies.
Like Republicans, Democrats also chose not to mandate strict virus containment measures at their convention, a move that appeared to irritate a few progressives.
“‘What is it like to be in a room that would have been a superspreader event four years ago?’ There is so much misinformation in this interview,” Dr. Lucky Tran complained about X in response to a clip of the interview airing on CNN.
“The Democratic National Convention is a superspreader, taking place at the peak of the largest summer surge of COVID-19 cases of the pandemic,” Tran said.
David Kronig of the nonprofit watchdog American Oversight blamed tournament organizers for failing to implement containment measures.
“It’s infuriating that the Democratic National Convention didn’t call for mitigation measures in the middle of a major COVID pandemic. [sic] “The surge. Not only is it very irresponsible at the community level, but it’s also very shortsighted,” he complained on X.
“They are some of the most fervent Democrats in the country, yet they will all be stepping away from the fight for weeks, months or even forever.”
Many of the netizens who complained about the apparent spread of COVID-19 at the tournament had posted photos of themselves wearing masks on their social media profile pages.
Though still well below pandemic levels, deaths from COVID-19 have been steadily increasing across the country since June, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). COVID Data Tracker.
Testing numbers are also significantly lower than at the height of the pandemic, but national levels are “very high” based on wastewater data for the virus. According to the CDC:.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last Thursday approved a new mRNA COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna aimed at combating the KP.2 variant ahead of the winter season.
