Many CCC spaces currently require proof of vaccination, daily testing and rigorous masking, and while Congress will likely be a less strict, you can expect similar rules nonetheless.
Crazy to see those types of measures still in place as we’re more than half-way through 2023. That’s a good way to self-select their members, I guess.
Just because politicians have "declared" the pandemic over, it is by far not over yet - we are still seeing significant excess mortality [1], and across Germany many companies are complaining about significant amounts of people on sick leave, most noticeably in public transit. Guess where that comes from... it's a lot of Covid.
SARS-CoV-2 is an incredibly dangerous virus and way too many people aren't even doing air purifiers any more because these are "too expensive to run" and whatnot.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/d...
But looking at the statistics in your link it is not that obvious, as it looks like the excess mortality slowly converges to zero.
Especially considering how with every previous congress the congress flu had infected the vast majority of participants and caused them to be bedridden for the 1-2 weeks after.
"Giving the immune system practice" doesn't apply to covid. Every single covid infection makes the immune system weaker.
Your suggestion is akin to saying condoms are unnecessary, everyone should just get HIV and we should just accept the new normal.
There's no easy way out of this pandemic, just like there was no easy way out of the HIV pandemic.
Everyone’s health situation is different, but I think comparing this to HIV is a bit of a stretch.
I do wish everyone has the choice to decide what works for themselves. In my case, I do just that and I don’t subject myself to anything I don’t want.
Being bedridden for 1-2 weeks after getting the flu is also very uncommon since the fever lasts 3-4 days on average. Here's a graph of viral load over a typical 5.5 day infection: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/cms/asset/3a62f972-1633-4...
It's very common if you have a high number of international participants. In Munich, the most nasty occurrence has its own name: "Wiesngrippe", named after the Oktoberfest which serves as a living petri dish with millions of people, but it's also common after the huge trade fairs (e.g. Bauma).
Service staff are hit hardest because many of them don't take off days if they're sick - they power through for as long as they can (because they can make above 15.000€ in the two weeks!) and end up spreading all the germs around.
In addition to that, SARS-CoV-2 is suspected to be able to induce immune amnesia similar to what can be observed after measles - anecdotally, I've been incredibly sensitive towards anything from the common cold to outright influenza ever since I caught COVID last year. It's no fun to travel anywhere when you know you'll catch some bug because yet another moron decided to not at least wear a mask or stay home when sick.
[1] https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/muenchen/das-verdient-e...
Now at least some care is taken, and some spaces bought and configured large air filter systems to allow unmasking without infection risk.
You don't want a ransomware infected, malware spreading windows 95 PC in your intranet either unless it's heavily firewalled.
You mean reduced infection risk. It's impossible to eliminate completely. And my gut feeling tells me that most people overestimate the amount of risk reduction caused by these air filters.
Strictly excluding those rejecting the vaccine will also select against right-wing extremists (which they generally are), so there would be an additional strongly protective factor at play.
Complaints or suggestions made here will likely fall on deaf ears.
Boosters are not widely available in many countries for people outside the risk group.
In a lot of places you simply cannot get a booster currently unless you are a healthcare worker, or documented risk group.
No, you can’t even get them privately at this time either.
Imagine a Congress without right-wing extremists at all.
I occasionally read his blog, but "right-wing extremist" would not be one of the words I'd use to describe his content. I know nothing about his following. IIRC he is also vaccinated so not sure where this is headed.
That’s “the most up to date and available booster” in many countries.
The boosters since have been often only available to healthcare workers, the elderly, or those with preexisting conditions.
It feels a tad absurd to demand following what are arguably unnecessary extra regulations at this point (vaccines have been made widely available for the majority of the populace; Germany has a non-booster vaccination rate of 72%, about 6% above the usual 2/3rds you need for herd immunity to kick in; 62% has at least one booster[0] - these are rates somewhat consistent across most of Europe at that[1] and purely anecdotally speaking, C3 leans heavily European in attendance).
The insistence that masking up as a requirement is still necessary as if we're on the peak of COVID just strikes me as odd (and tends to not translate well outside online spaces anyway - good luck convincing people that masks are necessary when most of them took the vaccine the moment they could specifically so that life could get back to normal and they didn't need to mask up all the time; for most people, COVID as a pandemic ended when they got their vaccination). If you want to do it on your own terms, sure, nobody will stop you (in fact I think the world could learn a bit from the general tedency of masking up if they have a cold like they do in countries such as Japan out of general politeness) but to request events keep doing it for everyone is a bit silly. Following government regulations is the right call here.
[0]: https://impfdashboard.de/en/
[1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1196071/covid-19-vaccina... - stat is per 100 people; a rate of above 200 means that the majority of people also got their second shot.
Also I've not even seen anything in the news lately, so maybe I'm just not looking at the right places but right now I am honestly not even sure if I should be getting more shots, or other ones, based on how the situation has developed in... about 22 months.
My point being: I am simply not sure if these last 2 years haven't changed how we looked at the vaccination numbers back then, because e.g. omicron even came after people were still pushing for this "basic immunization".
In my country at least (UK), it's not yet possible for an individual to pay to have a booster and so the only way of getting another vaccine shot is for free via the NHS. However, this is only available if you are sufficiently old (I believe over 50) or in a "vulnerable group", so teachers, someone working in healthcare, or someone who has a pre-existing medical condition that makes them more likely to have more severe effects. So, far from making it more open to all, this suggestion massively limits the potential attendee pool.
Of course, the other suggestions like not attending if you have any symptoms or having negative test results, seem like good steps in the right direction.
Masking is another issue - maybe it'd be OK for a 1 day event, but personally, I wouldn't attend a 3 day event if I had to wear a mask the whole time, because they are uncomfortable for prolonged periods. I was super vigilant during and after COVID and always wore a mask when I would encounter people, but because I didn't enjoy wearing a mask, I decided it was better to largely stay at home where I didn't need to interact with people instead. I'm happy to agree that the preference to not wear a mask is selfish, but it's still an interesting question on how many people would choose to not attend because they don't want 3 days of discomfort compared to how many vulnerable people would choose to attend if everyone was wearing masks. My gut feeling is that people who are that vulnerable would still rather stay away and avoid crowds because there would still be a non-zero risk, but equally I can see that some people might be glad for an opportunity to finally do something in a larger group that's safer than normal larger groups.
I guess it's all of matter of circumstance: as an anesthesiology resident/attending/private practitioner from 1977-2015, I normally wore a mask in the OR all day and sometimes all night.
It never occurred to me that this was uncomfortable — it was like a fish in water: this is the life I had chosen.
But the mask itself, if worn properly, provides no discomfort whatsoever.
Teach me. I'm at an event right now (not CCC obviously) and wearing a mask for some hours and it's killing, making me look for any opportunity to get outside and take it off for five minutes. It pulls on both ears, pushes onto the bridge of my nose (that issue seems to be this particular mask though), and depending on how I adjust it, either shoots jets or air into my eyes or onto my glasses and fogging them up. How does one wear this "properly"?
Not like you can turn it upside down or inside out, I'm not sure what options I have? I've tried one of these plastic things for behind your head, so it doesn't have to hold onto the ears directly, but that trades added nose hurt for reduced ear hurt.
This has been the case with all masks in the past years btw, so unless there's a secret brand, I'd not guess it's brand related. The thing has to be somewhat leak-proof for it to work so that seemed to make sense to me
It's not like this is mandatory atm, just trying to do the right thing (most people don't wear one)...
https://austintechsupply.com/blogs/news/benefits-to-wearing-...
You will note that, unlike the masks most people wear, it goes around the head, not over the ears, and employs not one but two flat rubber head straps.
IMHO ear-mounted masks cannot possible be as closely fitting over the face and effective as those that go over the head.
I first saw this mask in a photo of President Biden, who was wearing one.
I figured if it was good enough for him and his advisers it was plenty good enough for me.
Available (Amazon U.S.) here for about 60 cents apiece for a pack of 20: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FM2P1KF?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reord...
About 4x more expensive than in the U.S.
With the Aura masks (at least those with a strong clip), it's not necessary to push it down very strongly; you just need to lightly shape it, and then the strength of the clip will ensure that it stays in shape, and the foam around the nose will ensure a good seal.
It seems to take some practice to find the right clip shape, but once you've found it, they're quite comfortable IMO - and most of the time I've seen people complain about discomfort with these masks, it seems to be because of the nose clip being too tight.
These strips stop adhering to the skin, and in turn let air through, when they're soaked in sweat, so you'll have to swap masks somewhat regularly if you're physically active (e.g., volunteering at a chaos event — we still need Engel!)
Second, I use masks with two straps, both going on the back of your head. This prevents the mask from pulling on your ears, improves positioning and decreases the chance of the mask slipping.
I personally can recommend the 3M Aura, the Dräger FFP3 masks, and the JFM04 from Siegmund
> we still need Engel!
I tried volunteering the last two congresses, figuring I'd do my share instead of only making use of the volunteer efforts. The first year, a task came up and I went to the angel desk but they weren't sure what the task was supposed to be or where it was supposed to be or something. I was told to hang around for a while but nothing came of it. Nothing further ever came up, tasks either required training (which might be fine, but there wasn't time for that training anymore) or were already being done by others the second they become available. The second year I occasionally checked the open tasks but same story.
The system is overflowing with angels there for the free food, the ticket vouchers, the crew t-shirts, and the camaraderie. Maybe you mean on other CCC events, or during buildup more than a day before the start? (I'm always there on day zero, when the place is relatively empty but most things are set up.)
Aside from that during build-up (before day 1) and tear-down (after day 4) we also need lots of helpers.
Diff'rent strokes
Probably though, my total mask wearing for most of COVID was about an hour a week when doing shopping, so it was relatively easy just to put up with it. And whilst I did continue wearing a mask for shopping for about 4 months after restrictions were lifted, it was just because I prioritised minimising my exposure over comfort - I actually hated the experience and only put the mask on when getting within about 25m of other people and took them off as soon as possible when I was safely away from people again.
The not over ear, but around the head instead masks that someone else mentioned sound like a good idea, but I've never seen them in the UK, so I never even knew such a thing existed.
I've tried about 3 different designs of masks of the "normal" type, but apart from some having worse joins on the straps, they all seemed about the same in discomfort. I also had some of the thick KN95 masks, and actually found them better than normal masks - although it was harder to breath in them and was a bit hotter, because there was more space between the face and the mask, it didn't feel as squashed.
Here is the 3M Aura N95 mask at Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/AuraTM-Particulate-Respirator-Unval...
£59.65 for 20, so about 6-7x more expensive than in the U.S.
This will keep quite a few people e.g. with existing health conditions or long covid from attending. There are still open conferences that keep Public Health Pledge [0] or similar into account for inclusion and to avoid being mass spreading events.
[0] https://publichealthpledge.com/