Howdy Andrew,
I went to Blackhat USA 2021 in Las Vegas back in the beginning of August. This was also a hybrid event with live sessions and some zoom-style sessions. Las Vegas had just re-introduced their mask mandate for indoors. Defcon was running
at the same time and for some reason to get into Defcon you needed to prove vaccination and I have a philosophical aversion to those sorts of mandates so I didn't go to Defcon.
Some of the live sessions at Blackhat were reasonably crowded but I was fine with that since I am fully vaccinated and my risk of dying by COVID now approximates my risk of death by lightning which is not something I have ever worried
about in my life. Mostly people were masked but not everyone followed the mask mandate 100%, myself included. None of my fellow Blackhatters seemed to mind, though, and no one was visually distressed to see my mouth and nose and I didn't feel like I was getting
the stink eye from anyone. There was a Wednesday evening session in the Business hall at Blackhat in which food and drinks were supplied and lots of people walked around without masks eating and drinking and socializing. Again, there was no panic or obviously
discomforted individuals. Many people remained masked though.
So I think we might need to consider recommending that people who become distressed at seeing others faces take advantage of the virtual portion of a hybrid meeting and let others who are evaluating personal risk differently (again, I'm
more at risk of choking to death on food or dying of sunstroke than I am from covid) to enjoy a _face_ to _face_ meeting.
Dan.
P.S. scientific studies have shown that natural immunity from previous infection is better than that afforded by a vaccination on a person who was never infected. I think our policies should be well-grounded in science and not in fear.
A "no exemptions for previous infection" rule is not grounded in science.
--
"the object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." – Marcus Aurelius
On 10/6/21, 4:07 PM, "***** IEEE 802 Executive Committee List ***** on behalf of Andrew Myles (amyles)" <STDS-802-SEC@ieee.org on behalf of
00000b706269bb8b-dmarc-request@ieee.org> wrote:
G’day all
A Cisco colleague recently attended his first F2F conference for some time (it was actually a hybrid meeting, but the on-line component was mainly broadcast rather than interactive). It was sponsored by the Linux
Foundation.
The experience was apparently not perfect, with my colleague reporting that some sessions were too full for his comfort, but generally pretty good. The most important aspect was that the Linux Foundation took COVID
safety very seriously, including imposing:
·
A mask mandate
·
A vaccine requirement (with no exceptions for previous infection, etc)
·
Daily temperature checks
·
A social distancing code, with wristbands
See https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-north-america/attend/health-and-safety/#in-person-attendance-requirements for details
This is the sort of thing that is going to be required for F2F activities to be provided in safety and comfort, at least in the near future. The Linux Foundation has done an excellent job at showing what is possible.
This might be a good example for IEEE 802 to follow …
|
Andrew Myles Manager, Cisco Standards
|
||
|
Andrew Myles |
Cisco Systems Limited |
|
To unsubscribe from the STDS-802-SEC list, click the following link:
https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=STDS-802-SEC&A=1
To unsubscribe from the STDS-802-SEC list, click the following link: https://listserv.ieee.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=STDS-802-SEC&A=1