A Georgia biology and physics professor is warning that big events including President Trump's rally

The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced a lot of new language including the word superspreader.

And thanks for joining us for 41nbc news at 6:00.

I'm shelby coates.

Tucker sargent will join us shortly.

Our top story tonight at 6... a georgia biology and physics professor ... is warning that big events -- including president trump's rally tomorrow in macon -- could put people at high risk of contracting the coronavirus.

41nbc's peyton lewis has more on potential spread ... verses super spreaders ... and how a new tracker can help you assess the risks for yourself.

"these are large events things like funerals, church gatherings, weddings, sporting events.

Really any place where a loarge amount of people are in close contact with one another for an extended period of time."

The covid-19 pandemic has introduced a lot of new language including the word superspreader.

According to the department of public health representative, michael hokanson, superspreading events can be anything from a wedding to a sporting event.

He says several factors are considered before something is labeled as that.

"whether it's indoors in a small confined area, indoors in a large well ventilated area or outdoors, that can kind of make a huge difference when it comes to how the virus might spread amongst people.

Of course the type of event too is something that contributes to it being a superspreader event."

Events like football games, holiday gatherings without masks, and political rallies like the "make america great again" rally in macon friday, could all be considered potential superspreading events.

"when you have a large gathering there are many more opportunities for transmission, it's more difficult to contact trace, and then it's not just the people that get infected at the event but then there's the secondary transmission.

These chains of transmission that radiate outwards."

Professor of biological sciences at georgia tech, joshua weitz, helped create a covid-19 event risk assessment tracker.

The tracker allows peope to assess the risk of events based on the area they're in, and the data for covid-19 spread in those places.

Based on data from the ga department of public health, the population of bibb county and the potential size of the event, professor weitz believes president trump's political rally has a high risk of being a superspreading event.

"the risk goes up significantly with event size, and i don't expect there will be only 500 people there i expect there will be many more.

So then the real question becomes not just the chance that 1 in the crowd, but actually we should expect if this is an event in the thousands there could be if not a dozen or more individuals that may be unknowingly infected, asymptomatic, or pre-symptomatic."

President trump's rally will be outside at the macon regional airport.

Senior advisor of strategy for the trump campaign, steve cortes, says there will be covid-19 safety measures in place at the rally.

"we would request that people who are very elderly or infirm of course not attend.

It's probably not safe for them, but for most people it's perfectly safe to attend.

They are required to take a temperature test to get in.

We advise masks for everybody, and masks are provided.

We don't require them to wear them because we do believe in an element of personal choice.

Again, people are responsible enough to make their own decisions based on their own health and risk profiles."

In macon, peyton lewis, 41nbc news.

To assess the risk of any event ... you can check out the georgia tech covid-19 risk tracker.

It's on the