We asked 1,000+ attendees to mask indoors this weekend, and everyone just did.
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@andymcmillan Honestly, if the risk is high enough that masking is needed, I'm not going to be attending an indoor event with 1,000+ attendees. I'm not even one of the people who is overly cautious about COVID, but I don't like being around large crowds when there's something going around. I do mask on public transport when covid and flu risk are high.
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Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:replied to Andy McMillan last edited by
@andymcmillan thank you for doing this.
You're showing that you can run a large event with Public Health in mind with masking.
It's so awesome to see and I'm sad this will be the last xoxo event.
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@dzso @andymcmillan I believe the point is that the risk is now always high enough. There is no COVID season, so it is *always* going around. For the foreseeable future, a big crowd situation is a risk, full stop. Simple efforts like even the majority of attendees masking reduce that risk.
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@aehdeschaine @andymcmillan I don't think that's the case at all. CDC is still publishing data that shows waves, and despite news headlines, the waves are generally seeming lower as time goes on.
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aria, die Chaoskreatur 🤘replied to Harp :wigglytuff: last edited by
@wigglytuffitout @andymcmillan
But also, even ignoring covid:- what about immunocompromised people?
- what about the flu? it can be severe.
- what about mpox, H5N1, and every next thing?
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@melunaka @andymcmillan oh, definitely. it's just one of those things where i feel like the perfectly ablebodied are used to normalizing a thing, when really, they can just go... "oh hold on i don't actually have to be sick with the con crud" LOL
it's tiresome to have to go for "here, normies, this is how you can be entirely selfish with this" kind of pitches, but also they're surprisingly effective lol. like how people suddenly love cut curbs more if you point out how they're useful for grocery carts and baby strollers and not just wheelchairs :blobcatgoogly:
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aria, die Chaoskreatur 🤘replied to Harp :wigglytuff: last edited by
@wigglytuffitout @andymcmillan
Well I mean, people probably don’t want to catch mpox or H5N1, idk it feels like especially the later is making people anxious but we wouldn’t have to be anxious if we protected against it -
@dzso This is wishful thinking.
Fauci said, much closer to the start of the pandemic, that we would be able to return to living our lives normally when daily new cases dropped to 10,000 per day. New cases have *never, not for a single day,* dropped to anywhere near that level since he said that. There are around a million new cases of COVID per day in the U.S. right now.
@andymcmillan @aehdeschaine
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Jonathan Kamensreplied to Jonathan Kamens last edited by
That means daily cases would have to drop to 1% of where they are now for it to be safe. And that's never going to happen because we've chose to prioritize seeming normalcy for some over safety and inclusion for everyone.
And COVID deaths and ED diagnoses are an absolutely horrendous measure of the danger, because there is now overwhelming evidence that even asymptomatic cases risk Long COVID.
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Jonathan Kamensreplied to Jonathan Kamens last edited by
So if you're serious about not going to events when it's not safe, then @aehdeschaine is correct: it is *never* safe to go to events that do not take any mitigation precautions.
You could choose to attend while taking sufficient personal precautions to meet your own safety comfort level. Or you could choose something like the https://publichealthpledge.com/ and, for both safety and principled reasons, not attend events that do not take safety and inclusion precautions.
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@melunaka @andymcmillan oh probably. just like how people would like there to be cut curbs if they break their ankle. but occasionally there's power in mentioning the exceedingly everyday annoyance that we all know and making them realize that they can avoid it too by helping make an accessible world, because people are odd LOL. it means you don't have to spin a hypothetical, and people will overestimate their ability to withstand that hypothetical, and instead point out a thing that they already know and try to avoid.
(fwiw iirc monkeypox is something far more about physical contact than masking? it ain't gonna hurt if you mask tho lol)
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@andymcmillan that's a lot of #FaceDiapers! Good job on helping to increase the spread of stupidity.
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aria, die Chaoskreatur 🤘replied to Harp :wigglytuff: last edited by
@wigglytuffitout @andymcmillan
It has several modes of transmission, and it’s possible that one of them is airborne. The clade I there’s an outbreak of in DRC, and which is starting to spread in Europe, is much more likely to be transmitted by another route than sexual.I thought it was proven to be airborne but apparently it isn’t, my bad, so it may not be such a good argument after all. But better safe than sorry I’d say
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@cryptoduke @andymcmillan Lol look at this clown who unquestioningly accepts the narratives that fascists hand him, all while cowering under a fake name because he’s too terrified and pathetic to stand behind his impotent rants. Reject the scientific consensus on playing in traffic you pants-pissing baby
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@andymcmillan Was this XOXO? Dang, If I had known I would have gone! I just assume that no real masking policies happen anymore so I just... don't go to stuff anymore.
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To folks asking, yes this was XOXO: https://xoxofest.com/2024/ Here's our COVID policy, which is licensed under CC: https://xoxofest.com/guide/covid/ Please steal it!
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Can-crisociality 🦀〰️🥫replied to Dawn Nafus last edited by
@dawnnafus Yeah, academics have left very little to the imagination. I helped put on a conf in May where I was proud of our *policy*--but people needed a big reminder after Day 1 (but then they did do better)
Here's our policy, if anyone cares (XOXO one is more to the point ie. better but I am still proud of our aspiration)
https://www.petrocultures2024.com/accessibility-policies.html -
Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:replied to aria last edited by
@melunaka @wigglytuffitout @andymcmillan This is where looking at @phpledge and actively asking events to have a health policy and COC visible is so important.
Like even at the call for contributions and date announcement stage.
Then folks who are COVID cautious can judge the risks.