Was Phish’s Madison Square Garden Run a Superspreader Event? Some, Including Howard Stern, Think So
variety.comPhish shows at Madison Square Garden had people talking for all kinds of reasons. The four-night bow represented dates rescheduled from New Year’s 2021 (due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 omicron variant), and surreptitiously fell on the stoner holiday of April 20, or 4/20; the band debuted a new stage that provided an even more psychedelic backdrop to its top-of-the-line light show; and for a late-night bonus, giant dolphins danced around the perimeter of the venue’s roof and bubbles were piped in above the crowds.
All over social media, fans reveled in the band’s return, and the end of their own live music drought, brought on by two-plus years of lockdown.But in the days that followed, it seems another wave was forming, of concert attendees who got sick and subsequently tested positive for COVID.
Perhaps the best known case was that of Howard Stern Show executive producer Jason Kaplan, a devoted Phish-head who enthusiastically described his own attendance at the MSG shows while on-air.
Noticing — and mocking — Kaplan’s scratchy throat, Stern asked the producer to take a home COVID test, and it was revealed on Wednesday’s show that the test did indeed turn out positive.
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