Biogen Conference in February Deemed Superspreader of COVID-19

A conference the neuroscience biotech company Biogen held in a Boston hotel Feb. 26-27 appears to have been a “superspreader event” for COVID-19, ultimately leading to hundreds of thousands of cases, according to a new study.

According to the study, published online in Science Dec. 10, the Biogen conference resulted in “the first large cluster” of cases in the Boston area, “with contact tracing identified approximately 100 cases associated with this conference, raising suspicion that a superspreading event had occurred there.”

The study’s researchers conducted genetic analysis of patient samples of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and found the impact of these cases was mind-boggling. “Genome data reveal that the impact of the conference was far larger than the approximately 100 cases directly associated with the event,” they wrote. Through Nov. 1, a single one of the genetic variants of the coronavirus linked to the conference caused 205,000 to 300,000 COVID-19 cases and a second variant caused another 56,000 to 139,000 cases, all in the U.S., they estimate.

“As a company rooted in science, we understand the value of the data that came from the first wave of the pandemic in the Boston area and we hope that information gleaned from these data will help continue to drive a better understanding of the transmission of this virus and efforts to address it,” Biogen said in a statement. — Martin Berman-Gorvine