CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explained why President Donald Trump’s planned indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this weekend is “the worst-case scenario” for spreading the coronavirus.
Gupta, appearing on Monday’s broadcast of “The Lead,” told host Jake Tapper the threat of spreading the virus increases in relation to crowd size, whether the location is indoors or outside, and whether attendees adhere to social distancing measures.
“The highest risk sort of scenario would be sort of the situation we’re talking about here,” Gupta said of Trump’s planned campaign event at the 19,000-capacity BOK Center, which multiple medical professionals and public health experts have warned against attending.
“Indoors, attendees coming from all these various areas, difficult to practice physical distancing, and who knows about what the mask sort of wearing is going to be,” Gupta continued.
“There’s no question. This is a contagious virus. Indoors is going to be far worse than outdoors. Not wearing masks a lot worse than wearing masks. Not keeping distance if they’re filled to capacity,” Gupta said. “There is no magic here. There is no scientific proclamation where you’re going to have some sort of revelation about this. That’s the worst-case scenario.”
“If there is a person there who has the virus, the idea that it could be spread and turn into a super-spreading event would be a big concern,” Gupta concluded.
Trump’s campaign claims more than 1 million people have registered to attend the rally. A waiver on the campaign’s website advises those seeking tickets that they cannot sue if they contract the virus at the event.
