Coronavirus (COVID-19) has killed more than 97,000 Americans to date, and in the midst of this pandemic, states and local governments are reopening essential businesses, local communities, and other places. In Missouri, those openings resulted in a gigantic lake party at the Lake of the Ozarks.
The actions occurring here are in direct opposition to the CDC's guidance that coronavirus spreads through "community spread," or person-to-person contact.
It seems unbelievable but this is not the only place to hold events en masse that completely defy the logic of avoiding coronavirus spread and contamination. Mass gatherings have also been recorded at a boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland.
WATCH: WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren took this video from a packed boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, on Saturday… https://t.co/FnMbe8m8nT— WJZ | CBS Baltimore (@WJZ | CBS Baltimore) 1590278411.0
Knowing that an estimated 35 percent of people may actually be asymptomatic means that coronavirus could spread not only to the people involved in the parties, but to the people they interact with, their local community, friends, family, and spread from there even further.
Experts have warned that opening up to quickly might result in a second wave. If these events are any indicator of what is in store for us after a phased reopening in many parts of the country, it is not boding well for us in containing the disease.
In Arkansas, the Governor has literally said that a "second peak" of coronavirus was sparked as a result of a pool party. According to Chron, Governor Asa Hutchinson said it was "A high school swim party that I'm sure everybody thought was harmless." He continued on saying, "They're young, they're swimming, they're just having activity, and positive cases resulted from that."
The party at the lake of the Ozarks and on the boardwalk in Ocean City are eerily similar circumstances. And they might have very similar results, sparking another peak of cases locally and nationwide.