Have there been any COVID19 superspreader events when everyone had masks on?

I can’t think of one either.

I can think of several where people were unmasked.

Well, since the tourists have gone home, I wouldn’t think there’d be any in Florida!

To answer the question, I haven’t really heard of any super spreader events since Sturgis. Some of my music friends have been going to outdoor concerts all summer, unvaxxed and unmasked and I am surprised that I haven’t heard of any of them being sick.

Maybe they ded…

Not that I am aware of, unless I missed something in the news.

Doesn’t have to be in the news, it could just be friends of yours or local knowledge.

@janbb Well, I mean the entire time of covid pandemic. Sturgis was not 100% masked, it was barely masked.

The most recent superspreader I am aware of was my friend’s workplace a month ago, but they weren’t masked either and mostly not vaccinated. I’ve mentioned that one before, 15 out of 35 employees got sick. Not really related to tourists, they do not deal with the public, unless it was a tourist who started that chain of disease, which is unknowable. Anyway, I know you were just being snide or sarcastic.

How are you defining superspreader?

@janbb Not sure exactly how it should be defined. Like I said in the Q description, we could even include all people at a table of 4 for dinner. I would say when a group of people are together and a lot of people present or all people present contract covid. When the Rose Garden event happened they called it a superspreader, but I think it was only around ten who became sick at the event? I hope a jelly corrects me if I am wrong.

Here in The Villages we have had 4 people bowling together, 4 people at a dinner table, 7 out of 10 at a dinner table, 14 in one zumba class, the 15 out of 35 in the workplace, over 20 at a party, but those are all maskless. I have not heard of one covid spreader event like that when everyone was wearing a mask.

Got it. The definition isn’t clear to me either but I’ve thought of it more as larger numbers. In any case, I haven’t really heard of that many super spreaders personally although of course, I’ve known people with Covid so I can’t answer for masked or unmasked. I have read studies that show that masks do reduce transmission for sure.

@janbb The studies seem to not convince some people, and I guess the studies are in lab settings, is that right? I was just wondering about real world settings, more antidotal, but maybe more relatable.

Since I run that facebook covid group where I live, I hear about a lot of the covid case spread. Everyone in the group is seeing the same info, but I am always tuned into what is posted since I am an admin. People have been great about sharing information.

Plus, since I am an instructor in The Villages (zumba) I would often hear when a class had to shut down because of covid cases. That did not happen very often, but it did happen. As far as I know that has not happened since the vaccinations. Instructors do email their class if they are notified about a covid case, but they do not shut down the classes anymore. I haven’t heard of a class having multiple cases at once in the last 6 months.

@JLeslie I read about one real life study that was done in a country with a masked group and an unmasked but I don’t have the info at hand.

Found an article about the real life test:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02415-8

@janbb That was really nice of you to search for it. Is it saying cases were down only 9 or 11% with masks compared to no masks? That seems disappointingly low to me. I’m guessing older people had better stats because they were probably more careful snd consistent wearing masks.

@JLeslie Yes, less than we would have hoped. Maybe the older people weren’t out and about as much as well? I do think I saw results of another real life test that were better but I can’t find that one now. If I do, I’ll post it.