A CNN reporter interviewing a nurse at last week’s Democratic National Convention made a sweeping pronouncement about Americans putting COVID-19 behind them.
“Four years ago, this would’ve been a superspreader event,” she said in the live interview, waving her arm to emphasize the thousands of people bunched together inside the United Center.
But just days after the four-day event in Chicago, dozens of people posted on social media photos of their home COVID-19 tests reading positive.
For the vast majority of people who are vaccinated, catching COVID-19 may more closely resemble a bad cold than a life-threatening disease that killed more than 1 million people in the U.S., officials say.
The virus is no longer a public health crisis, and annual shots are expected to keep infections — and more importantly hospitalizations and deaths — under control.
But even as a new COVID-19 vaccine is rolling out, the Democratic Convention, which attracted tens of thousands of people to the city, is a reminder that the virus is still highly contagious and poses a real risk of infection for those in large crowds.
How many people came down with COVID-19 after the convention?
“Too many. I can’t even put a number on it,” said Ronnie Reese, who is Mayor Brandon Johnson’s communications director.
Reese said he ended the week with a raspy voice after an exhausting whirlwind schedule involving long days during the convention. He said he has no symptoms and has not tested positive for the virus.
Anthony Driver Jr., executive director of Service Employees International Union Illinois State Council, said he knows at least 14 people who tested positive for COVID-19 since attending the convention.
Officially, there are no numbers and there won’t be. Many people diagnose themselves with at-home tests. With a virus incubation period of up to two weeks, many out-of-towners may just be feeling symptoms.
City and state public health officials are most focused on deaths and hospitalizations, which are down dramatically from the height of the pandemic. There have been some increases in hospitalizations in recent weeks, but health officials say the numbers are still very low.
Many people who were vaccinated last fall are due for the new shots and it's important that they get them because the virus has actually mutated into a potent new form.
“The virus continues to change and learns to adapt,” said Erin Newcomer, a genomic epidemiologist at Rush University System for Health. “It could be a relatively more contagious variant than what we had last fall.”
The current virus can spread rapidly because the last version of the COVID vaccine wasn’t created to protect against the mutated form.
“Like much of the country, we have seen COVID hospitalizations ticking up in recent weeks and they now account for a little more than 2% of [hospital] admissions,” said Michael Claffey, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Public Health. “We did not detect any uptick in respiratory illnesses related to the DNC.”
He added that the state’s overall respiratory virus level is at a “minimal level.”
A program that analyzes wastewater started during the pandemic to predict future outbreaks looks at COVID-19 infections but also focuses on other viruses and bacteria that may be concerning to public health officials.
“Serious disease is definitely more of a concern now than total infections,” said Rachel Poretsky, a University of Illinois Chicago scientist who analyzes wastewater results.
Neither reports nor concerns of COVID-19 cases were flagged to organizers of the convention, said Christy George, executive director of the DNC Host Committee.
Contributing: Tina Sfondeles, Violet Miller
