Saturday, Jun 13, 2020
Does the CDC consider large indoor events the ‘highest risk’ activities while COVID-19 is still spreading?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not mandate protective measures for the U.S., but as the coronavirus has spread it has provided more specific guidance for state and local authorities who do. The agency says the highest risk is taken by anyone who attends large indoor gatherings where six-foot "social distancing" is hard to maintain, where attendees may be singing or cheering without recommended face coverings and where some in the crowd may have traveled from other places.
"The more closely you interact with others, the longer the interaction lasts and the greater the number of people involved in the interaction, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spread," Dr. Jay Butler, a CDC deputy director, said. "The guideline is really for any type of gathering, whether it’s the backyard barbecue or something larger."
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.
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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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