Adrian Bunk dijo [Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 01:24:36AM +0200]:
- Strongly recommend vaccines for infectious diseases before attending
debconf (covid, flu, etc.)
...
Chances are that everyone already had multiple covid infections during
the past 6 years, which makes it a mostly moot question whether someone
got a covid vaccination 5 years ago.
I will be eligible for the next covid booster when I reach the age of 75,
which is still a few decades away.
Non-medical people trying to push covid vaccinations in the year 2026
sounds to me like trying to continue an old culture war where everyone
else has moved on years ago.
Regarding flu, it's questionable whether conference organisers should
give medical advice that contradicts the recommendations from the
experts in the field of healthcare. At least here in Europe, flu
vaccination tends to not be a recommended vaccination covered by
public healthcare for working age people.
Things are different in each part of the world. As I bragged in Debian
Planet¹, in Mexico we have COVID and Influenza reinforcement vaccines as a
non-mandatory yearly campaign, and the vaccines are “updated” with the
newer year-to-year strains; I suggest that if your lifestyle includes
travelling on an airplane (or train, even) to meet with dozens (or more) of
people from all around the globe... You try to get a vaccine.
Of course, that is _if_ it is reasonable for you to get it. I know not
every country on Earth has the first-world healthcare standards we Mexicans
enjoy ;-)
¹
https://gwolf.org/2025/11/while-it-is-cold-ish-season-in-the-north-hemisphere.html
And yes, this year in Mexico people below 50 years also got a measles
shot, as vaccination coverage fell below acceptable thresholds during the
COVID lockdown and there have been many infections.
What conference organisers should do instead is to inform about venue
specific vaccination recommendations:
Most countries recommend Hepatitis A vaccination for their citizens who
visit Argentina, this is something that should be informed about during
registration for a DebConf in Argentina.
And the region of the venue, in the context of yellow fever vaccination.
You have a point there, we didn't even discuss Hepatitis A, and I have
never heard about it being important to cover when traveling to Argentina
(and I travel to Argentina at least once a year, for over 15 years
already). But that may speak bad about myself. Regarding yellow fever, I do
not consider it to be sensible, as it is a disease closely related to hot
weather — there have been yellow fever outbreaks as much South as in Buenos
Aires, but _not_ in the Winter season (July).
- Organize DebConf as a hybrid conference, enabling full remote
participation for attendees and speakers.
A very sensible point — and one I take pride in saying we are pioneers in,
and we take as much care as we can to keep. We have live-streamed most of
DebConf talks since 2005, and part of the roles of the talkmeister is to
chack for activity in IRC channels; we _could_ add an open Jitsi session to
each talk, but I know videoteam will kick me if I propose it, because it
introduces a lot of noise (in many ways) in the process, and lessens
overall quality. Are you thinking of something in particular we could add?
Looking at it from my own point of view:
Based on experience, when I travel abroad where I go through two
airports and one or more trains my assumption is that I will catch
some contagious disease during the travel.
For myself I just do whatever mitigation is required for the symptoms
(which tend to be mild), and I do not really care whether the inevitable
infection is a cold or a flu or some other contagious disease.
I do care about the people I visit, spending Christmas alone or
cancelling a travel a few hours before takeoff are actions I have
each done multiple times and would do again without hesitation
whenever it is the best option to protect the people I would
have visited.
(...)
Someone asking my on the evening before travel to take a covid test and
me asking "Why?" is a "cancelling a travel a few hours before takeoff"
story - it doesn't matter whether I was infected before the travel when
the main infection risk is during the travel.
If you test positive before boarding your first train or airplane, you will
be very unhappy, but will be able to remain unhappy (and, hopefully, not
too sick) at home, with your full usual environment. You will miss out on a
lot of social interactions, but you won't feel as a castaway. We have
determined we will cover whatever trip cancellation costs arise due to this
decision.
I guess some people will prefire it that way. Again, we can only
_recommend_ people to do so.
...
- Be excellent to each other. Understand that some attendees are more at
risk than others, and we don't all take the same risks in handling
infectious disease.
...
DebConf organisers should also be excellent by organizing a hybrid
conference instead of excluding people like me from participation.
Please help us understanding how to better include you. I might be too
naïve in my thinking that DebConf is close to the ultimate hybrid
conference; I have been to several conferences promoting themselves as
hybrid (both being presentially in the conference and connecting online),
and more often than not, remote participants are not even a present thought
for the in-person attendees.
Greetings,
– Gunnar
