The 2020 Los Angeles Marathon is about to start on March 8th, 2020, with estimated 27,000 athletes from all 50 states and more than 78 countries. There will also be tens of thousands of spectators from the city and from all over the country. In light of the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) situation, to hold this event is extremely unwise, dangerous and can be an inflection point that will cause the large-scale spread of the deadly virus to all over the country.

A large gathering like this is a perfect setting for the virus to spread widely.

• On January 19, 2020, a ten-thousand-family dinner was held in Wuhan. Four days later, the city was locked down because of the wide virus spread, and where the dinner was held was one of the hardest-hit areas. The dinner might have been a key event that caused the wide-spread of the virus to the whole city of Wuhan, to the whole of Hubei, and the whole world 
• In South Korea, more than 60% of the country's more than 4,000 confirmed cases are a religious sect members who held gatherings despite government warnings

Virus spread during these events are unavoidable

• Infected patients can be asymptomatic. Due to the limited availability of the test kits in previous weeks, many infected people are not diagnosed, and in a large gathering like this, the chance of somebody is infected in the crowd is close to be certain! Community infection is already happening in the US!
• The virus can be transmitted through contact and through respiratory droplets. What's more, the virus can stay alive for days on hard surfaces. In other words, in such a large crowd, if somebody is infected, it's impossible to avoid its spread!
• If somebody is later on tested positive, it's impossible to track who the person has contacted during the event

The event can be a launch board for the virus to spread to all states

• When athletes and spectators dissipate from the event to their home states, they may carry the virus with them to their community and cause the virus to spread 

The virus is much more deadly than most people realize

• In Italy, COVID-19 death rate is more than 4%; in Iran ~10% at one point; the death rate in the US  6%; the rate is hard to estimate due to under-diagnosis. One news outlet in the US reported that each of the six cremation facilities in Wuhan has been working 24/7 for the last two months, and one cremates ~250 bodies per day!

Therefore, we urge Mayor Eric Garcetti and the organizer Conqur Endurance Group to cancel the event for the safety of the participants, the people of Los Angeles and the people of the United States! You do not want to be remembered as the one who let the virus out of control in the US!