Trump rallies led to 30,000 Covid-19 infections, 700 deaths: Stanford study

US President Donald Trump's eighteen election rallies held from June to September are estimated to have led to 700 deaths, a study by Stanford University researchers said.

Also read: On the final weekend before Nov 3 vote, Trump and Biden press closing arguments

According to the report, the communities where Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death.

In the study titled ‘The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies', researchers concluded 18 rallies by Trump held between June 20 and September 22 "ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19 and likely led to more than 700 deaths, which may not necessarily have been among attendees.

Also read | Joe Biden leads in Michigan and Wisconsin, Donald Trump struggling: Survey

Public health officials have repeatedly warned that Trump campaign events could hasten the spread of the virus, particularly those held in places where infection rates were already on the rise. Determining the actual impact of those rallies on infection rates has been difficult due to the lack of robust contact tracing in many US states.

Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, described the report as "suggestive."

“I would just say it’s suggestive but hard to completely isolate the specific impact of one event without robust contact trace data from the cases,” Adalja said.

(With inputs from agencies)