A Skagit Valley Chorale rehearsal early last year became a deadly COVID-19 superspreader event. Now, the group is figuring out how to come back together and reforge the bonds of a community choir.

Transcript

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Even with effective COVID vaccines, choirs around the country are debating how to sing together safely. One group in Washington state had one of the first super-spreader events in the United States, and that experience is complicating their decisions. From member station KUOW in Seattle, Clare McGrane reports.

CLARE MCGRANE, BYLINE: The Skagit Valley Chorale doesn't hold auditions. Their door is open to anyone with a passion for singing. Here they are performing at a Christmas concert a few years ago.

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SKAGIT VALLEY CHORALE: (Singing) Peace, peace, peace on Earth.

MCGRANE: The choir's super-spreader event happened early in the pandemic, at a rehearsal on Tuesday, March 10, 2020. Ruth Backlund is one of the group's co-presidents.

RUTH BACKLUND: It was just general consensus that if you observed social distancing and washed your hands, you'd be fine. And so we did that. To the extreme, we did that.

MCGRANE: The choir loaded up on hand sanitizer and spread out in their practice hall at a local church. They sang together for two and a half hours.

BACKLUND: Never a sneeze, never a sniffle, never a cough from anybody that was there.

MCGRANE: But just a few days later, singers started coming down with symptoms. Of the 61 people at practice, 52 were diagnosed with COVID. Several people were hospitalized, and two of the choir members died.

LEA HAMNER: This particular incident was one of the first strong pieces of evidence that there could be airborne transmission.

MCGRANE: Dr. Lea Hamner works at the Skagit County Public Health Department.

HAMNER: Because it just seems mathematically impossible that you would have 52 people get sick all at once.

MCGRANE: This event was a turning point in scientists' understanding of the virus.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: So now, let us all say, good evening, with proper resonance.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Good evening.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Good evening.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Good evening.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Good evening.

MCGRANE: A year later, the Chorale is rehearsing over Zoom.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Let's do some spending some time with the altos. Let's all sing the alto line.

MCGRANE: They're planning a return to in-person rehearsals this fall, which has led to conflict over a vaccine requirement.

NINA TALLERING: Unless there's a medical reason that they can't do it, I hope that people would really think of it as a kindness to the people around them and protecting the group as a whole.

MCGRANE: That's Nina Tallering. She sings in the choir with her mom. Both her parents got COVID during the outbreak.

TALLERING: It's hard for me that this has become kind of a political issue - you know, getting the vaccine, wearing a mask - and that we're not trusting in experts.

MCGRANE: Other choir members don't want to get a vaccine. Among them, Carolynn Comstock.

CAROLYNN COMSTOCK: I got all my kids their vaccines. I'm a believer in vaccines for those things. But I had COVID, and I had a pretty good case of it. As far as I'm concerned, I don't need a vaccine.

MCGRANE: The CDC does recommend getting vaccinated even if you have had COVID. Comstock believes it should be a personal choice.

COMSTOCK: Now, that may mean that the Skagit Valley Chorale decides that I don't get to sing with them.

MCGRANE: Others say without a vaccine requirement, they will leave the group. Right now, it's unclear what decision the choir will make, but co-president Ruth Backlund hopes the love of singing will keep them together.

BACKLUND: It doesn't really matter how you feel politically, how I feel politically. If our voices blend, it doesn't matter, does it?

MCGRANE: The Skagit Valley Chorale will be singing together come fall. The question now is, who will still be in the choir, and who will walk away?

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SKAGIT VALLEY CHORALE: (Singing) Sing on...

MCGRANE: For NPR News, I'm Claire McGrane in Seattle.

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SKAGIT VALLEY CHORALE: (Singing) Sing on. Sing on. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tags: choir  COVID  superspreader event  COVID-19  Vaccines