SUPER-SPREADER-BOWL

Maskless Partygoers Crowd Streets of Tampa Ahead of Super Bowl

Epidemiologists fear the Big Game could be a big source of new infections, given Florida’s lack of COVID restrictions and people's tendency to gather en masse to watch the game.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Super Bowl this year might be a superspreader. Several fans flocked to Tampa to watch the hometown Buccaneers play the Kansas City Chiefs in tonight’s championship game, according to the Tampa Bay Times. According to a Times photographer on the scene Saturday night, tens of thousands of people packed the city’s Seventh Avenue, many of them without masks which are recommended by the CDC. As The Daily Beast reported Friday, local epidemiologists feared that the Big Game could be a big source of new infections, owing to Florida’s lack of COVID restrictions and the tendency of people to gather en masse to watch the game. “We’re hoping people will just kind of work with us when it comes to the mask compliance,” Tampa police chief Brian Dugan told the Times last week.