UMMS Affiliation
Program in Molecular Medicine; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology
Publication Date
2020-12-10
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Epidemiology | Genetics and Genomics | Immunology and Infectious Disease | Infectious Disease | Microbiology | Virus Diseases
Abstract
Analysis of 772 complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes from early in the Boston area epidemic revealed numerous introductions of the virus, a small number of which led to most cases. The data revealed two superspreading events. One, in a skilled nursing facility, led to rapid transmission and significant mortality in this vulnerable population but little broader spread, while other introductions into the facility had little effect. The second, at an international business conference, produced sustained community transmission and was exported, resulting in extensive regional, national, and international spread. The two events also differed significantly in the genetic variation they generated, suggesting varying transmission dynamics in superspreading events. Our results show how genomic epidemiology can help understand the link between individual clusters and wider community spread.
Keywords
COVID-19, phylogenetic analysis, SARS-CoV-2, Boston, superspreading events, genomic epidemiology
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2020 The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI of Published Version
10.1126/science.abe3261
Source
Lemieux JE, Siddle KJ, Shaw BM, Loreth C, Schaffner SF, Gladden-Young A, Adams G, Fink T, Tomkins-Tinch CH, Krasilnikova LA, DeRuff KC, Rudy M, Bauer MR, Lagerborg KA, Normandin E, Chapman SB, Reilly SK, Anahtar MN, Lin AE, Carter A, Myhrvold C, Kemball ME, Chaluvadi S, Cusick C, Flowers K, Neumann A, Cerrato F, Farhat M, Slater D, Harris JB, Branda JA, Hooper D, Gaeta JM, Baggett TP, O'Connell J, Gnirke A, Lieberman TD, Philippakis A, Burns M, Brown CM, Luban J, Ryan ET, Turbett SE, LaRocque RC, Hanage WP, Gallagher GR, Madoff LC, Smole S, Pierce VM, Rosenberg E, Sabeti PC, Park DJ, MacInnis BL. Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in Boston highlights the impact of superspreading events. Science. 2020 Dec 10:eabe3261. doi: 10.1126/science.abe3261. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33303686. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Science (New York, N.Y.)
Related Resources
PubMed ID
33303686
Repository Citation
Lemieux JE, Luban J, Madoff LC, Sabeti PC, MacInnis BL. (2020). Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in Boston highlights the impact of superspreading events. COVID-19 Publications by UMMS Authors. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe3261. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/covid19/165
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Epidemiology Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons, Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons, Infectious Disease Commons, Microbiology Commons, Virus Diseases Commons
Comments
This article is based on a previously available preprint on medRxiv that is also available in eScholarship@UMMS.
Full author list omitted for brevity. For the full list of authors, see article.