Thousands of Coronavirus Infections Stemmed from a Biotech Event

Officials had initially linked 97 cases to a single conference held by Biogen in February in Boston, but a new study tracking viral genomes suggests the number may be as high as 20,000.

Written byAmanda Heidt

| 3 min read

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COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, pandemic, transmission, superspread, genome, virus, tracking, Biogen, Massachusetts

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In February of this year, more than 100 leaders of the drug company Biogen met in Boston. Among them was at least one person infected with COVID-19.

While the Massachusetts Department of Public Health initially identified 97 cases linked to the conference through contact tracing, a new study detailing the genomes of viruses collected from the Greater Boston area indicates that the gathering may have led to more than 20,000 cases across four counties.

The authors of the study arrived at the new count using what Bronwyn MacInnis, an infectious disease researcher at the Broad Institute and the senior author of the paper, describes to the Associated Press as “a pretty unsophisticated, back-of-the envelope calculation.” The total does not appear in the paper, posted August 25 on the preprint server medRxiv, but her coauthor Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, tells the ...

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Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
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