Choir Held a Rehearsal Anyway. Now they’re paying the price.
As the Coronavirus outbreak was happening in Seattle, the Skagit Valley Chorale decided to go ahead with their regular choir practice on March 10 at the Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church about an hour south of the outbreak location. Of the 121 members of the choir, 60 showed up and rehearsed for 2 1/2 hours. Of those 60, 45 came down with COVID-19 and 2 are dead. That’s an infection rate of 75% and a mortality rate 0f 3%. Scientists believe that the forceful breathing required for singing caused the droplets in the breath to go farther and stay in the air longer. Meanwhile, Liberty University is back in session, and mega churches all over the country are stupidly continuing their church services.
Be careful out there, stay home, and wash your hands.
El Jefe, maybe the next PSA from the CDC should be: “researchers working on COVID-19 vaccine; no cure for st00pid.”
Will look at the NV data again later today. Overnight there were no upticks in the number of coronavirus cases. But yesterday was Sunday, and the data is often behind the actuality most days. Would be nice to see a flattening of the curve in states that did initiate early policies to curtail the spread.
1I hate to sound cold – but Darwinism might wind up correcting a lot of problems in America.
2Forced aerosols traveling at top speed… SCIENCE!
https://i.imgflip.com/3teqcs.gif
3Couldn’t access the article without subscribing to the Times, unfortunately.
4@AK – try again. I linked a different source.
5I think you mean MAGAchurches.
6I think they’ve partnered with Liberty University to form a sect called the “Branch Covidians”.
7Germs don’t care about church.
8@AlanInAustin, #7:
Except this time they’re armed with a weapons of GOP corruption…
9I know it looks like they were asking for trouble, but on March 11, were the social distancing and shelter in place restrictions in place? Our Prevaricator-in-Chief hid the intelligence warnings which could have saved so many simply by giving them the information they needed early on. Drumpf has a lot to answer for. This was Seattle, not Drumpf country.
10maryelle, yes, Seattle. Where between Governor Jay Inslee speaking the truth/facts and January 21, 2020 WA being one of the first identified hotspots for COVID-19, they were knowingly defying any sense whatsoever. Even “liberal” CA has its share of Branch Davidians. Like the KKK these institutional nutjobs need to be taxed and fined out of existence.
11There is an arrest warrant for the pastor who had services yesterday at the maga church in Tampa, The River. Arrest all of them if they were violating county or state restrictions.
12Seems the same folks who believe 4.5 and think this is a liberal plot are in for a helluva surprise when they get sick and die. Pun intended.
13Some one should inform whoever wrote that article that the Sakgit valley is north of Seattle.
14Umm, Mount Vernon is about an hour NORTH of the outbreak area, not south. I live an hour south, in Tacoma. Skagit Valley is two counties north of the initial outbreak in King County. Very beautiful agricultural area, with the Tulip Festival coming up in April.
15John 11:35
16The article is factually wrong in saying that social distancing described (not shaking hands, not hugging, not sharing music) = the social distancing prescribed by CDC.
Social distancing includes SIX freaking’ FEET between individuals. I’ve sung in choirs large and small for close to forty years now, and never attended a choir rehearsal that kept a separation like that between the singers. I will guarantee the sixty members who showed up did not stand around each six feet from everyone else. They stood and sat side by side, so they could clearly hear each other within sections. That’s what choirs do (some choirs, advanced ones, scramble the sections at times.) In breaks, while avoiding hand touching and hugging, they would talk to each other at closer range than six feet. And while singing, they all have their mouths open wide enough to be like those sharks that swim along with their mouths open, inhaling everything.
Normal choir behavior, even in elite choirs, including behaviors that put one person’s mouth less than two feet (often much less) from another’s face. Someone will touch another’s music, if a singer is “lost”, to point out where they are now. Someone will whisper into another’s ear. (“Page nine, at D.) Someone will mutter “That E’s natural!” (or flat, or sharp.) In a 2 2/1 hour rehearsal, there will be at least one potty break. Someone who’s already got the virus will open the restroom door, and everyone who touches the same, or anything else that person touched, and then touches their mouth or nose…ZAP. Someone will clear their throat. Someone will sneeze. Someone will cough. Tissues will be pulled from pockets or purses, blown into. Some will touch their hair (picking up whatever the person behind coughed or sneezed onto it) and then their mouths or noses. Mouths get dry (and thus more vulnerable.) Many singers bring a water bottle and take sips from it during the rehearsal. Many bring throat lozenges, and these may be shared. Someone struggling not to cough will be offered several, from different people.
One thing for sure: at least one person (but possibly more than one person) arrived at the rehearsal shedding virus. That person then transferred the virus to other individuals, most likely by droplet contamination through physical contact with another’s clothes, or by touching surfaces others later touched. A high infection rate in a choir rehearsing for 2.5 hours *does not* prove airborne transmission, but proves that a bunch of people standing shoulder to shoulder or sitting hip to hip (as is usual in rehearsals) and sharing a restroom for over two hours is a great way to get that virus from A to the whole alphabet.
When the first person to get sick was diagnosed, the obvious and smart thing to do would’ve been test every person who went to that rehearsal. Only that would show what the real case load was (and…by those who didn’t show symptoms, who the other dangerous virus shedders were.)
Another point. This choir’s name is the Skagit Valley Chorale, NOT the choir of the church they rehearsed in. Many secular choirs rent rehearsal and performance space in churches because churches offer excellent rehearsal and performance venues. (Austin Civic Chorus routinely rehearses and performs in any of several churches.) Since this rehearsal was on March 10, a Tuesday, chances are even stronger that the Skagit Valley Chorale–though it may have some Christians in the group–is NOT a religious organization. Most Christians churches hold choir practices on Wednesdays. Assuming they’re an “institutional nutjob” is damned arrogant.
Was their director foolish to call the rehearsal anyway? Yes. But lots of people in lots of places have thought that hand sanitizer and not shaking hands or hugging is enough. It’s not.
17Elizabeth Moon:
18Thanks for your insight.