Even as pandemic surges, Donald Trump rallies keep packing in thousands

There are no crowds at Disneyland, still shut down by the coronavirus. Fewer fans attended the World Series this year than at any time in the past century. Big concerts are cancelled.

But it's a different story in Trumpland. Thousands of President Donald Trump's supporters regularly cram together at campaign rallies around the country masks optional and social distancing frowned upon.

Trump rallies are among the nation's biggest events being held in defiance of crowd restrictions designed to stop the virus from spreading. This at a time when public health experts are advising people to think twice even about inviting many guests for Thanksgiving dinner.

It doesn't matter who you are or where you are, when you have congregate settings where people are crowded together and virtually no one is wearing a mask, that's a perfect setup to have an outbreak of acquisition and transmissibility, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, recently told Yahoo News. It's a public health and scientific fact.

The Trump campaign, which distributes masks and hand sanitizer at its rallies, says those who attend are peaceful protesters who, just like Black Lives Matter demonstrators, have a right to assemble. The president says he wants to get the country back to normal.

Some states have fined venues that host Trump rallies for violating caps on crowd size. But the rallies continue even as the U.S. sees cases spike, especially in the Midwest and the Plains. The nation posted a record high number of new infections last week nearly 500,000.

And the crowds keep turning out for Trump.

Ysabel Benejam, 69, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, drove about 90 minutes to Lansing and waited more than four hours in rainy, near-freezing temperatures to see Trump on Tuesday.

I'm not afraid at all, said Benejam, wearing a Make America Great Again hat and a mask emblazoned with Trump 2020. "We need to step back into normality.

Democrat Joe Biden, in contrast, has shunned rallies and instead holds online and drive-in events where people honk their horns to show support. He calls the Trump rallies super-spreader events and says he's listening to the warnings of public health experts.

Since Feb. 7, when Trump told author Bob Woodward that he knew the coronavirus was airborne and deadlier than than the flu, the president has hosted more than 50 rallies in more than two dozen states. They were halted during most of March, April and May because of the pandemic. After they resumed in late June, they were held primarily outdoors at airports.

Mask use is spotty. Some people cover their mouths but not their noses. And by the end of Trump's hour-plus speeches, some masks are slung low around people's chins. The campaign makes a point to ask people sitting behind Trump and likely to be captured on camera to wear masks, but they don't always comply.

Pete Kingsley, 80, of Strasburg, Pennsylvania, was not wearing a mask as he approached the security line at Trump's rally Monday in Lititz. He said he believes the virus is being hyped to hurt Trump's chance of reelection and to bash the economy destroy it.

If I need to put a mask on, I'll put it on, he said. "If I don't, I won't put it on. Lita Ciaccio, 65, of Laurel, Maryland, was concerned about contracting the virus but showed up anyway. She arrived wearing a mask and plastic face shield and said she planned to stand on the edges of the crowd.

Not all locals are happy to have Trump come to town.

Trump held a rally Sept. 25 in Newport News, Virginia, even though public health officials warned that it would violate Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's executive order generally banning gatherings of more than 250 people.

Zach Nayer, a resident at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, and a colleague later compiled county data on new coronavirus cases at Trump rally sites from late June to the Newport News event. They reviewed the number of cases for the 14 days before and after each event and published their findings on the health news site STAT.

They found that spikes in COVID-19 cases occurred in seven of the 14 cities and townships where rallies were held: Tulsa, Oklahoma; Phoenix; Old Forge, Pennsylvania; Bemidji and Mankato in Minnesota; and Oshkosh and Weston, Wisconsin. The researchers acknowledged, however, that increased caseloads could not be definitely linked to the rallies.

We've had a huge increase in cases in the past six to eight weeks, said Judy Burrows, public information officer for the health department in Marathon County, which includes Weston, Wisconsin.

She said the department is far behind in processing individual cases and has not been able to do a complete job in tracing back to where people contracted the virus. A lot of people in the community are attending mass gatherings, but the health department doesn't have data suggesting that one is more to blame than another, she said.