Nearly three dozen attendees at the CDC-hosted Epidemic Intelligence Service Conference in Atlanta on April 24-27 returned home with an unwanted souvenir of the event, testing positive for COVID-19 a few days afterward.
The conference brought together “disease detectives” who discussed “leading-edge investigations, scientific findings and forward-thinking strategies to inform improvements in public health,” the CDC said, per Fox News.
As of May 2, 35 of the approximately 2,000 conference-goers had tested positive for COVID-19.
Prior to the event, Eric Pevzner, chief of the Epidemiology Workforce Branch, said the CDC leaders were looking forward to meeting together in person for the first time since the pandemic began.
“We haven’t had the conference in four years, so we’re really excited to have our current officers and our alumni back,” said Pevzner, per The Washington Post. “This is the place where our disease detectives are showcasing their work.”
The event was held near the CDC headquarters at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia. At the closing session, CDC leaders publicly advised attendees of potential cases of COVID-19 and canceled an in-person training workshop, later following up with an email to the attendees.
“We’re letting you know that several people who attended the [Epidemic Intelligence Service] Conference have tested positive for COVID-19,” wrote a CDC branch chief in an email, according to The Washington Post.
Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokesperson, said the organization is currently working to determine how many people contracted the disease.
“CDC is working with the Georgia Department of Health to conduct a rapid epidemiological assessment of confirmed COVID-19 cases that appear to be connected to the 2023 EIS Conference to determine transmission patterns,” said Nordlund, per Fox News.
However, while the CDC said it was aware of several confirmed cases of COVID-19, it stopped short of calling the situation an “outbreak.”
Jay Varma, an infectious-disease expert at Weill Cornell Medicine, said the situation is unsurprising.
“This is, unfortunately, the new normal,” Varma wrote in a text message to The Washington Post. “While it is unsettling to see widespread COVID-19 transmission at CDC’s premier public health conference, it’s probably the clearest example yet of the virus’ worldwide prevalence.”
The World Health Organization reported that there have been 103,266,404 reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. since the outbreak first began in 2020. There have also been a total of 1,124,063 COVID-related deaths in that same time period.