TARM, MICHAEL, Michael Balsamo, and Michael R. Sisak. 2021. AP analysis: Executions likely COVID superspreader. Telegraph – Herald, Feb 06, 2021. (accessed February 11, 2021).

In addition, at least a dozen other people, including execution team members, media witnesses and a spiritual adviser, tested positive within the incubation period of the virus, meeting the criteria of a superspreader event, in which one or more individuals trigger an outbreak that spreads to many others outside their circle of acquaintances. The tally could be far higher, but without contact tracing it’s impossible to be sure.

The Bureau of Prisons has repeatedly refused to say how many other people have tested positive for the coronavirus after the last three federal executions last month. And the agency would not answer questions about the specific reasoning for withholding the information from the public, instead directing the AP to file a public records request.

An analysis of public health data shows the virus was raging at peak levels in Indiana’s Vigo County – home to the Terre Haute prison – as the federal government carried out an execution in November, essentially sending dozens of Bureau of Prisons staff members, witnesses and others into a virus hot zone, leaving them susceptible to being sickened and spreading the disease back to their home prisons and hometowns.

You can read the full article here: https://apnews.com/article/public-health-prisons-health-coronavirus-pandemic-executions-9c355b58c78492613eedbf1c7c1fb42c