Dozens catch Covid at indoor conference hosted by founder of Covid vaccine company

As conference began, indoor gatherings had been banned in state until California’s ICU capacity ticked over 15 per cent

Peter Diamandis attends the Global Learning XPRIZE Foundation Grand-prize Awards on May 15, 2019. (Getty Images for Global Learning)

More than 24 people came down with Covid-19 after attending a summit hosted by the founder of a Covid vaccine development company.

Dr Peter Diamandis hosted the event at the offices of one of his tech companies in Culver City in West LA. Hundreds took part online, but at least 80 people, partly without masks, participated in person.

Dr Diamandis had promised it would be safe, enlisting doctors to be onsite and providing regular tests.

But nearly three weeks after the conference, at least two dozen people, including Dr Diamandis himself, have tested positive for Covid-19, according to The Washington Post.

“I thought creating a COVID ‘Immunity Bubble’ for a small group in a TV studio setting was possible. I was wrong,” Dr Diamandis wrote on his website, adding that he was “humbled and pained” by what he had learned from the event.

As the January conference began, indoor gatherings had been banned in the state until California’s ICU capacity ticked over 15 per cent.

Dr Diamandis, the owner of numerous space companies and Singularity University, the Silicon Valley innovation hub, has also organized the exclusive Abundance 360 summit for the past nine years. Around 400 entrepreneurs usually attend to discuss topics like Artificial intelligence and robotics. Those who want to attend the event must apply and if they are chosen might pay over $30,000 to be there, the MIT Technology Review reported.

Initially, this year’s conference was going to be 100 per cent virtual, hosted at a LA hotel, but organizers changed the arrangements to allow 80 guests in person and hundreds online, moving the summit to offices of XPrizeFoundation, Dr Diamandis’ nonprofit organisation. The organisation has launched a program that awards $6m to Covid testing solutions. 

Despite having to submit a negative Covid test within three days of arrival and daily tests during the conference, the virus spread amongst the attendees.

Dr Diamandis wrote that not making masks mandatory 100 per cent of the time during the conference was one of his “biggest failings and one of the most important lessons learned”.

He added: “The bottom line is that I am sincerely and deeply sorry for the consequences of the choices we made. As a scientist, engineer and medical person, I believed we were using the very best that science had to offer. And I trusted that an immunity bubble was a ‘real thing’. I no longer believe that.”