Flawed Outbreak Report Led to Bans on Choral Singing During COVID, Study Says

Two people died and dozens of people were sickened with COVID-19 after attending choir practice at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in Mount Vernon, Washington State in March 2020. Google Street View

Policymakers across the world banned choral singing during the COVID-19 pandemic after taking wrongful interpretations of a high-profile outbreak as facts, a new study suggests.

The study, set to be published in Public Health, a British journal, revisits what was widely reported as a “super-spreader event” in March 2020 at Skagit County in northwest Washington State. Among 61 Skagit Valley Chorale members who attended the March 10 rehearsal at a local church, 53 were diagnosed with COVID-19 within a few weeks, including two who died.