

"Great turnout today for Police & Pancakes hosted by the 9th Precinct," says a Facebook post March 6 with this photo and two below. (Photos: Facebook/Police Safety Foundation)

Update: 9 a.m. Monday -- The Detroit Police Department issued a statement saying we are "not confirming that this event is what caused the spread of of the virus throughout the department." Also, Chief James Craig, who has tested positive, did not attend the breakfast as originally reported here.

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Posted Sunday

How did the Detroit Police Department get hit so solidly by coronavirus, infecting many and sending hundreds into quarantine?

Pancakes?

Coronavirus isn't food-borne; you can't get it by eating pancakes, or anything else. But a community event called Police and Pancakes, which brought about 100 people together for breakfast, talking and socializing in close quarters, may indeed have been an effective way to spread the bug. Members of the 9th Precinct, students and community leaders all attended the event on March 6.

The Detroit Free Press reports on how a single goodwill event probably spread the virus to a number of individuals.

Joe Guillen and Gina Kaufman write:

The guest list also included Marlowe Stoudamire, a business consultant and Detroit community leader who died March 24 from COVID-19. Stoudamire was a presenter at Police and Pancakes, which was held at the Ford Resource and Engagement Center on Maddelein Street.



Officers and community members mingle early this month in close quarters before "social distancing" became common knowledge.

But early on in the epidemic, further delays allowed the disease to spread further.

... The Detroit Health Department did not learn about the positive COVID-19 test results tied to the Police and Pancakes event until March 17, department spokesman Vickie Winn said. The health department conducted contact investigations and recommended that officers in attendance go into quarantine through March 20, two weeks after the breakfast. The quarantine recommendations were made to all attendees though a notification the department posted on its website March 18. The notice was removed on March 24th, Winn said.

As the pandemic has spread and doctors and scientists learn more about it, it's clear that time and ignorance are enemies, and enable its spread. Widespread testing is only now ramping up in Michigan; for weeks, people who didn't know they were infected have carried it throughout the country.

And events like Police and Pancakes, large church services and even Mardi Gras have been identified as important connection points between the infected and uninfected.