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Comment by allovernow | Hacker News Reader

Honestly at this point the socially responsible thing to do is not to attend, regardless of whether they cancel or not. You are not just putting yourself at risk by attending. We all must take steps to combat the spread.

But I don't envy your position, I know these are tough calls to make.

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As an organizer of a very small event coming up in mid April, I'm terrified of the flu ransacking our group and killing some of our members many of whom are straight up sick and elderly. We're giving guidance to stay home if they're at risk, but I know if we have the show they'll be there.

If we cancel the show it'll be devastating in other ways, and our group is overall conservative and fiercely advocates personal responsibility. Needless to say, if we cancel it will possibly implode the group or cause similar clubs to take over a 30 year tradition.

What do I do?

The responsible thing to do is cancel, even though I know you're feeling damned if you do.

I suggest waiting a few days if you can and then cancel.

News will be way worse than now, which allows you to excuse yourself better.

I work on a virtual conference platform, we've had significant increase in interest in the last couple months... you might want to look into hosting a virtual conference to uphold your tradition and be responsible at the same time.

We will be teleconferencing. Perhaps I will advertise that option more.

There's a third option, postpone it a couple months.

Not viable imo. There's likely no cure coming this year. In a couple months the virus will be more disbursed and pose an even greater threat of transmission to our attendees that are old or sick and refuse to stay home.

You could say "let's try in August" and if warm weather has positive effects, then I guess it goes ahead, or if not, you just flat out cancel.

It's irresponsible to hold events right now.

The warm weather thing keeps coming up. Sure it’ll be warm where most the population is, but the other half of the world is going into winter.

No one really knows if it has any effect anyway, yet, from what I can tell.

shouldn't we be able to tell from countries on the equator? Or is too early to tell?

That’s what we’re doing with an event originally scheduled for May. We’re postponing until September and hoping for positive news over the summer.

Seems like the best course of action if you can swing it.

That is a problem you can handle in a couple months.

At worst, it'll give you more hindsight, and at best time will help people see reason.

Call the local jurisdiction where your event is being held and 'ask' them if you should cancel it. 'If' they say yes, then call your insurer.

Love the quotes on this. Those individuals you're asking are guaranteed to be risk averse from a game theory perspective, rightly or wrongly (probably rightly here).

Take a look at the Biogen conference. 70 of 92 coronavirus cases in MA are linked to the employees of that company, and the conference is thought to have been a major vector [1].

Ask yourself if that's a risk you're welling to take having been associated with that conference.

I think event organizers are in a particularly brutal position. I know that the credibility and finances of a lot of events are on a thread, and that cancellation can crush the event (even in the future). It's a tough decision.

Were it me, I would cancel, because I think it's the responsible thing to do.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/11/health/coronavirus-massachuse...

> Ask yourself if that's a risk you're welling to take having been associated with that conference.

This seems to be as if making a choice between what actually might be good and how something might impact you personally (psychologically or otherwise).

It's the difference between thinking 'I could never live with myself if that carnival amusement ride killed a child' vs. 'I'd hate to have a child killed on that carnival ride'.

Not criticism of what you are saying - just pointing this out.

Totally fair, I went back and forth on the wording a few times, and never felt like I got it quite right.

I didn't want to come across as saying "You will have blood on your wants if you do this", but I think there is a risk that there will be blood on the hands of event organizers.

I guess I didn't know how to frame it other than "are you willing to risk this outcome?"

I'll back you on your wording. Made perfect sense to me and I'm right at Ground Zero (Redmond, WA) of the US outbreak and in the high risk cohort (old, fat, diabetic). These decisions have to be made as you've phrased it.

It's good wording that by chance I already realized last night when I was talking to our 70 year old organizer who's going through chemo and he was telling me he's coming...

I really don't want his blood on my hands. If it's decided to push forward, I'll do what I can to stop people from taking unnecessary risks.

Since they are a group of people who are heavily into "personal responsibility," as you put it, then why not leverage that to make your point.

"I feel it is my personal responsibility to maintain the sanctity of our group and ensure the safety of everyone involved, especially those who are most vulnerable among us. It is important that we all understand the risks involved: should we decide to proceed, there is the possibility that our group will be directly responsible for knowingly facilitating the spread of a virus with a mortality rate estimated to be around 3%. Should this virus surface at our event, the likelihood of someone we all know succumbing to the infection is quite high.

Given the gravity of the situation and potential implications to our personal lives, are we certain that we wish to proceed?"

Good luck and stay safe.

Thanks this is a good case study to present to the board. It's one I was unaware of that closely mimics our conference.

Surely a group of conservative old, wise people who advocate personal responsibility would all choose not to attend an event while a novel virus is spreading around the world?

Ask for updated RSVPs, and when you see 0 plan to attend your event nor any alternative, cancel this year's live event.

In an effort to try not to be too political, not all conservatives are always capable of making the best personally responsible choices...

But where I stand on that is that's their problem, not mine. At the same time as the lead organizer I don't want their blood on my hands. It's a conundrum for sure. I liked one of these other posters that said to wait for things to get worse and then cancel haha.

The same thing is true of going to work.

The risk model is different based on a lot of varieties. If you're working in an office in an unaffected area, nobody is traveling and there's no high risk, it's not necessarily a big deal.

If you're in a major corporation and your coworkers fly all over creation - then yeah, time to start feigning a cough and taking a few sickdays to work at home.

Which is why many companies are encouraging their employees to work from home when possible.

Not nearly enough. Some are resisting for no apparent reason. (no technical reason)

Which puts you, the employee, in the position of deciding whether you are going to defy them, or not.

I started working from home yesterday.

But traveling to conference is worse than just going to your office.

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