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Ingham County official calls Trump rally "unfortunute"

"Donald Trump" by Gage Skidmore is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail says it’s “very unfortunate” that President Trump held a rally at Lansing’s airport during the pandemic.

Vail says some people arrived overnight and spent the day at Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport to await the Trump rally. She saw what she described as “mixed mask wearing” in coverage of the event.

“It’s obviously deeply concerning that we have those kinds of crowds at a time when we have higher levels of transmission in the state and in the county,” said Vail.

Vail told reporters Tuesday that she “doesn’t have a crystal ball” about calling the rally a “super spreader” event, adding that she’s been concerned about many gatherings that included political protests this year. Still, she notes that there have been increases in COVID-19 cases following some of the President’s rallies.