OPSBA Conference in the Time of Covid

I'm missing my first trustee conference this weekend because there are no Covid mitigations in effect. I called to ask about it, and they're following the Ontario protocol, which is basically nothing. It's a full weekend at a hotel eating together, and I suspect that very few will be masked. Meeting people of a similar bent, being able to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of taking on this role, and being recharged by one another is something I normally relish. But it's not safe enough for me. They also decided not to livestream because it would be too costly, so I'll just hear about it second-hand. But Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth went and responded to a speaker with this concern about Covid. (I have no idea what the general topic was or what was said just prior to elicit this, and this is tidied up a bit from the recording at the link): 

"It is not over. It is airborne. The World Health Organization has issued a statement saying anybody gathering indoors should be masked, and look around: Who's masked? 

So we have people who have minimized the effects on children and that has been to the detriment of children for generations because the effects of Long-COVID are serious both for them and for their families. As a physician, I'm still dealing every day with people who are struggling right now who have brain fog, who have memory loss, who have pain, who have fatigue, who have illnesses that are yet to be addressed because we are not taking Long-COVID seriously enough. 

I also want to point out that two boards in Ontario attempted to have mask mandates in schools. One succeeded, which was Hamilton. Ottawa tied on a vote, but we were bombarded by hundreds of anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, and people sending death threats. In the last two months since we had our mask mandate, I have not gone through a day where I did not receive anti-semitic death threats, and I'm talking about threats to kill my family and to kill me for having suggested that we should do everything we can to keep each other safe. 

I'll leave it at that, but with all due respect, we should have had somebody here today to talk about the seriousness of Covid in our communities now and as we move forward, not just about deaths but also about Long-COVID, not just about what we want for ourselves and the idea of normalizing, going back to what was before, but instead thinking about people with disabilities and the effects on our communities. Thank you."  

The speaker commented that, regardless your position, nobody should be receiving death threats. Absolutely. 

But wouldn't it be nice if we could all recognize the damage being done the longer we ignore the harm caused by letting Covid run wild. Yes, they're well within their rights and legal obligations to ignore Covid, but they could be fostering a super-spreader event. Even just requiring masks on everyone when not eating, and only having food available at specific times would have done a ton to make it safer to attend. Then throw in a few Corsi-Rosenthal boxes between the tables, open the windows a crack, and bob's yer uncle! 

We're rather die than look weird. 

See how quickly someone reacts to a smoke filled room when alone compared to when others are in the room ignoring the same event. ETA -- This isn't about cigarette smoke, but an experiment to see how long people react to smoke filling a room as if from a fire! I thought the experiment was well-known enough to not need an explanation, but I'm immersed in social science experiments so much that apparently I have a mistaken understanding of how famous it still is! The results show that alone, people will alert authorities to a potential fire, but in a group, with others not reacting (paid actors), people will do nothing despite the air getting so thick with smoke they can't see their own hand.

 

This study was done in the 1970s, and we have learned nothing since! 

ETA: Hear a discussion on this at VoicEd Radio, starting at 47 minutes in. They point out that there's no way to tell where you got a case from even if you're careful. Because nobody's testing anymore, there's no way to track it. And they talked about the concern with people like me being uncomfortable at an indoor conference, and what a difficult spot it puts people in. But then one said he goes unmasked to the grocery store, but goes early enough that it's pretty empty, and the other commented, "So, you spread their germs on all the produce and leave." Pretty much. It's really hard to be the odd one out!