Was a virtual conference for this year considered? > On Mar 12, 2020, at 12:54 PM, Jon <[email protected]> wrote: > > It is with great remorse that you must make the difficult decision to cancel > the LinuxFest this year. Many attendees are older and most are younger and > stronger. > > However, I’d like to see everyone attend next year. > > Jon Wasserman > > >> On Mar 10, 2020, at 4:26 PM, Walter Lapchynski <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On 2020-03-10 19:42, Jamie Douglass wrote: >>>> On 3/10/20 10:33 AM, James Mason wrote: >>>> Hopefully true leadership will prevail and the committee does not >>>> bow to the hysteria and LFNW goes on as is. >>> US currently has 805 confirmed cases with 28 deaths. >>> Washington state accounts for 23 of these deaths. >> >> Thank you, Jamie, for providing some actual data. I hope that is enough >> to convince people that this is no matter to brush away as "hysteria." >> I'd like to add a little perspective and context to those numbers for >> further consideration. >> >> People have in the recent past suffered from several zoonotic (i.e. they >> can transmit across species) outbreaks, most notably SARS*. This was >> relatively minor compared to COVID-19, accounting for 774 deaths >> worldwide and none in the US, all within a little under a year: >> https://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/ >> >> That said, I can understand a certain amount of healthy skepticism and >> resistance to panic. However, this is most certainly not the same >> situation. By contrast, in less than three months, we have 4012 deaths >> worldwide with COVID-19: >> https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200310-sitrep-50-covid-19.pdf >> >> The deaths in the US have primarily been in King county, Washington, and >> most notably at one particular nursing home facility in Kirkland, just >> across Lake Washington from Seattle proper. This essentially makes the >> Seattle area the epicenter of the outbreak in the US: >> https://apnews.com/3c6e4d0676eb3b7b653b9fb90da3086e >> >> The governor of the state of Washington has already made suggestions >> that folks give serious consideration to avoiding gatherings: >> https://www.opb.org/news/article/coronavirus-covd-19-washington-governor-jay-inslee/ >> >> Because of this, many events have been cancelled worldwide, but most >> notably within the area, including the Emerald City Comic Con, which was >> previously adamant about not cancelling: >> https://www.emeraldcitycomiccon.com/About/A-Statement-From-Reedpop/ >> >> Given all that, this is not mere hysteria or panic. This is a literal >> pandemic that has found a significant foothold less than 100 miles away >> from LFNW. >> >> This is not a political issue. The people who are dead and suffering >> from this illness (which, I might add, can last as long as 6 weeks) are >> not up for debate. The death rate might be (depends on how you cut up >> the numbers) but no matter how you look at it, it's very high. >> >> This is unquestionably a legitimate concern worth very serious >> consideration. I'm very glad to see that the committee is giving it the >> attention it deserves. >> >> Sincerely, >> Walter Lapchynski >> >> * Technically, COVID-19 is also a severe acute respiratory syndrome, but >> I mean here the one that broke out in 2002. >> >> -- >> @wxl | polka.bike >> C563 CAC5 8BE1 2F22 A49D >> 68F6 8B57 A48B C4F2 051A >> _______________________________________________ >> Fest-list mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.blug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fest-list > > _______________________________________________ > Fest-list mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.blug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fest-list
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