The story is well known. From February 17 to 21, just over 2,000 believers gather in the large evangelical church of the Christian Open Door in Mulhouse for a week of prayer before Easter. Some are sick with Covid-19, and the virus is circulating widely, to the point that the religious gathering has often been presented since as responsible for the explosion of the epidemic in France, nothing less. But is this really the case? Has the epidemic in France really started there? Wasn't the virus already circulating in the Haut-Rhin before?
To find out, a team of researchers from Clermont-Ferrand launched a vast epidemiological investigation, with the full collaboration of the Church of the Open Door, very eager to be cleared of such responsibility. "We did a retrospective study, by questionnaire, open to all volunteers in the Haut-Rhin" , explains Professor Laurent Gerbaud, epidemiologist and professor of public health at the University Hospital of Clermont-Ferrand.
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