David J.
Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
Good And Bad And Circular Logic – June 2022
Attending a
superspreader event comes with dangers from COVID…and apparently from fellow
attendees too
“I’ve got good news and bad news…”
We’ve all heard that sentence thousands of times. It is a sometimes satirical, sometimes funny introduction
to something that has multiple sides to view.
In our lives we rarely get the opportunity to experience something
completely black and white / binary – something that’s all good or all
bad. There are often downsides to our
best experiences, and often at least some silver-linings to the worst of experiences. That is human nature…and the last time I
checked – AI bots not withstanding – we are all still humans.
I bring this up because of a recent experience I had
in my industry. After almost three years
of a horrific global pandemic, our communities are starting to get back
together again in-person. It is
wonderful to be able to emerge from our self-imposed exiles and experience
group events again. We hug, we toast, and
we celebrate humanity – just as we did in the past. It is wonderful, except of course when it’s
terrible. Honestly, it can really be
both.
No matter where you placed yourself on the concept of
pandemic mitigation, the fact that it’s almost over is universally a good
thing. We now have vaccinations, we now have
treatments, and (at least so far) we’ve been facing newer virus strains with
milder symptoms. Everyone likes the fact
that we’re hopefully over the worst of it.
So, celebrations and get-togethers are a natural source of ‘good’ for
everyone.
During the first three industry trade-shows I attended
since the start of this year we had all the hugs and toasts and celebrations I mentioned
above. Then came my fourth show this
year.
Everybody was feeling exuberant – and we all let our
guard down (including me.) Many people
brought masks to the conference but were embarrassed to put them on because
nobody else was doing so. We hugged,
dined-together indoors, and celebrated at parties big and small. It was awesome…until it wasn’t. The conference organizers (who had all the
legally necessary health and safety information in every communication) either
didn’t know or didn’t report to attendees that the location (Las Vegas) at the
time of the event was experiencing an over-the-top surge of COVID infections.
There is no official data from the event. (Heck, there isn’t even verifiable data on
how many people actually attended – the organizers historically only report the
number of registrations, not the number of people actually there.) My view, aggregating a number of sources (my
conversations with other attendees, the “oh-oh,
I’ve got it” texts like the two below, the calls I received, the social
media posts I saw, and those people reaching out to me privately after they saw
some of my social posts) is that the majority of attendees were exposed
to COVID19, and at least half the attendees caught it. No matter how one looks at it and at what
data, it is a staggeringly large percentage of the ~19K attendees that caught
the virus.
Now here’s where the good and bad thingy comes-in.
Does the fact that the event turned out to be a COVID superspreader
make it “bad?” Conversely, does the fact
that people got together in joyful celebration for the first time in years make
it “good?”
Clearly again here it’s not binary. There were some awesome aspects of the event,
but they don’t take away from the fact that we probably exposed some people
with suppressed immune systems to a deadly virus. From all the people I’ve chatted with – and from
my own perspective – everyone knew COVID was not over, but no one expected the
event and the location to be absolutely surging with virus exposure.
I always look at life with the belief that “it’s never wrong to do the right thing.” From that perspective I believe the event
organizers had an obligation to inform attendees in advance if they knew about
the surging condition (and frankly, I don’t see how they couldn’t know while
setting-the show up for many days before it opened.) This notice should have gone beyond the
boiler plate health and safety information they had been providing on all
correspondence. (The Monty Python Crunchy Frog sketch comes
to mind – the fine print isn’t adequate, it needs to say “WARNING, LARKS VOMIT” in bold print on the box.) It should have been a clear, simple message
like, “URGENT - PLEASE BE AWARE: It has
come to our attention that Las Vegas is experiencing a surge of COVID
infections at present. Please keep this
in mind and take every precaution that you are comfortable with.” Something like that would have made a big
difference to a lot of people. I believe
they also had an obligation to inform attendees after the fact. It could simply have been an email to all
attendees once the show ended that stated, “It
has come to our attention that many attendees may have
been exposed to COVID. If you attended the event please
get tested and seek proper medical care if appropriate.”
The event organizers did
neither. On Friday, the last day of an
approximately week-long event, and after everyone was already in the hall, the
organizers sent an “important” email that stated the CDC had updated the COVID19
community level in the area to high and masks were now recommended. That’s it – nothing else.
I was lucky upon returning home
to not test positive for COVID. I’m
pretty sure I did get infected but I believe my recent 2nd booster, the
fact that I had it before, and the fact that I wore an N95 mask everywhere
except on the expo floor and at conference events helped me fight it off with
barely noticeable symptoms. I never had
enough viral load to test positive. My
mobile however exploded with notifications from friends and colleagues who did
test positive when returning home.
Here’s where the story gets
interesting. I’m hardly quiet when it
comes to opinions, and I certainly expressed some in my industry’s various on-line
communities. I believe that the lack of
communication before the event – when the organizers must have realized the
issue was substantial – was just wrong. However,
even if one chooses to excuse them by thinking maybe they didn’t realize the
gravity until that Friday message, I believe the lack of a simple warning to
attendees to get checked once the show ended is unforgivable. When I voiced that opinion I was hit from
many sides with circular and often irrelevant arguments. ‘…people
knew the risks…’ ‘…we all made a choice…’ ‘…I’ve taken precautions for too long
and I’m tired of it…’ ‘we needed this show, it was
great for the attendees…’ ‘…don’t make people feel bad for making their choices…’
etc. Those comments need to get
parsed-out and rebutted…and without the circular logic.
· Yes, we all
made a choice and took a risk, but we did so based on the information the
organizers provided, which we now know was at least incomplete. The area was surging and the conference was a
superspreader. Many people attended with
masks but kept them in their pockets. They’d
have made different choices if they had more facts.
· Yes, the industry
needed this show, it was cathartic and a joy for the attendees – including myself. That is not a response to the fact that the
organizers should have better warned and prepared attendees and/or acknowledged
it when done. At best it is a circular
response as the situation is not black and white / binary. The show can be both
good in some aspects and bad in others.
· Then there’s the
no one should be made to feel bad for
making their personal choices argument – well, that deserves some additional
scrutiny IMHO. As I’ve written many
times, some ‘personal choices’ affect more than the person making them. When it comes to COVID19, many of my fellow
humans want the equivalent of a peeing-section in a community pool. Some choices affect not just the person
making them, but everyone else who did not have input into the choice. Yes, people fed-up with wearing masks,
getting vaccinated and taking precautions can choose to skirt those
common-sense actions, but they are the reasons that COVID has never gotten
under control. I wore a mask in every
airplane, taxi and public space because I wasn’t going to make a choice for those
that couldn’t. I took it off at the
conference events – which in retrospect was pretty stupid – partially because the
people attending chose to be there, and partially because I felt safe around my
industry colleagues. I mean, surely the
organizers would tell us if there was a substantial danger – right?
I share all this with you for a few reasons. Firstly, as I’ve been saying for far too many
months, COVID IS NOT OVER. Mask-up! Get
boosters! Take precautions. Yes, attend
events if you will gain from them, but NEVER be embarrassed to be the one
person wearing a mask. In addition, DON’T eat indoors if you’re not 100% aware
those around you are not carrying COVID.
(There were attendees of this conference that wore masks all the time in
the halls, but caught it anyway at the restaurants at the end of the day.) Secondly,
as we’ve learned all too often in the last few years, when people make bad
choices they will often protest loudly, defending their position rather than
facing the facts of their bad choice. By
pointing out the show organizers should have done better by attendees I was
attacked for trashing the entire event.
Things are not all “good” or “bad.”
They can be both. In this case
they definitely were. If I hosted a
party where I found out someone was spreading a disease I’d certainly feel obligated
to reach-out to all attendees to make sure they knew to be checked. Does that message expose me as the host to
legal liability? I don’t know…I think not
informing attendees may have just as much liability. In any case I believe it is more of a lack of
human empathy thing than a liability thing.
And then finally, it’s a good idea never to be so
stuck in your own position that you lose that human empathy. My fellow attendees at this conference ‘who made their choices’ probably haven’t
a clue which one of the people standing next to them at the show was fighting cancer…or
has a loved one about to be diagnosed with an immunosuppressant condition…or was
someone with something similarly at risk.
Even those who would loudly shout for policies that support diversity
and inclusion – ostensibly so that we can be sensitive to the journeys that
other people have to take – seem to sometimes forget that people fighting diseases
need that same consideration. Yes, we
may have to be inconvenienced for the sake of others – whether it’s waiting for
someone in a wheelchair to be lift-loaded onto a bus, or accepting that
affirmative action may reduce some people’s opportunities as it levels the
playing field for others, or having to wear a damn mask to slow the spread of a
virus so as not to infect a cancer patient – those are all inconveniences
that are part of being inclusive. People’s
supposedly personal choices to ‘pee in
the community pool’ affect more than just them and unfortunately they always
will. Some are actually a pretty bad
choices, but that may not make them bad people.
This good-bad thingy is sometimes much more complex that it seems.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.
Copyright 2022 David Danto
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As always, feel free to write and comment, question or
disagree. Hearing from the traveling
community is always a highlight for me.
Thanks!