The Mackinac Policy Conference, held just after Memorial Day weekend at the Grand Hotel on Michigan's highest-profile vacation spot, is where Michigan's movers and shakers schmooze and booze, and, this year, diffuse -- Covid-19.
Mackinac's Grand Hotel, site of the May 31-June 3 conference (File photo)
The MPC is emerging as a super-spreader event, with at least 40 attendees reporting testing positive for Covid-19, including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Most report mild symptoms, The Detroit News says:
The number represents about 3% of the 1,347 attendees at the annual event on Mackinac Island last week, a representative told The Detroit News.
The chamber reported Monday that 15 attendees had tested positive in the days following the event, and that they were experiencing mild or no symptoms. Proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test were required to attend the conference, and only 14 people used the test option, the chamber said.
Masks were not required and sparsely used indoors during the gathering at the island's Grand Hotel.
The Detroit Regional Chamber, which puts on the conference, asks anyone who tests positive to notify them via call or text at (313) 550-7827.
