Re: COVID and Dates: Should we consider changes?

DIP Discussion
#1

Hello Folks!

Things seem to be moving in the right direction vis-a-vis vaccinations for COVID, but August isn’t so far away when considered against many countries’ time-tables for vaccinations.

Do we still think that August will work? In the US I think we are hoping to have the vaccine available widely by then, but as a company in the Ethereum space with employees in many countries, I don’t know if our colleagues are going to have access to the vaccine by then, and perhaps most importantly: will Colombians have widespread access to the vaccine by then?

Are there contingency plans for considering the vaccination timetable, and what would those be? Should alternative dates be considered?

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#2

I think this is a very good question. Push the event to the October/November time frame. This would be on line with previous years and be the more prudent way to proceed. Could there be anything worse than the Ethereum community creating a super-spreader event months before everyone is vaccinated?

#3

Thanks for sharing your thoughts @crazyrabbitLTC @tjayrush !

I can say that the global health situation and vaccine rollout timelines are certainly on the Devcon team’s radar. Over the coming weeks and into early 2021, we’ll be closely monitoring the situation including vaccine rollout predictions and progress in various areas around the world. Hoping to see more progress, or at least have more reliable timeline predictions by the Devcon 6-month mark, which is in early Feb 2021.

Staying tuned. Happy Holidays in the meantime!

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#4

I think August is good, during winter months COVID tends to spike anyways. Better to do it during the summer.

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#5

Just to make a note, August is technically winter for the Southern hemisphere. It gets down to 50degF/10degC, which is still plenty warm, but it is not summer for everyone.

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#6

True but most people live in the Northern hemisphere and this is a global issue.

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#7

A few points to answer questions raised at the top of this thread:

  1. Weather in Bogotá is the same year round; there aren’t seasons in the same way there are at mid-latitudes. Temperature/weather variation within a day exceeds variation across the year. There might be some times of year where storms can interrupt travel at origin/connection airports (e.g. connections via southern FL in peak Atlantic hurricane season, winter ice & snow or summer thunderstorms at origins) but beyond recommending travel insurance I don’t think that should be a significant consideration for dates. (On a related note, has anyone started offering blockchain-based flight cancellation insurance? If not, does anyone want to collaborate on that?)
  2. Under current plans for global distribution, widespread rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine won’t reach Colombia until 2022, maybe late enough in the year that vaccine-based herd immunity isn’t reached until 2023. Basically, the rich countries have bought up all the supply.

Considering the mutation rate of the virus and related factors, I don’t think a large, global, in-person event in 2021 is likely to be a good idea, and the likelihood of that being a good idea (in my view) drops significantly when you add “in Colombia.” I was excited to see that choice of location announced, but just don’t think the Covid-19 timing is right.

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#8

Unfortunately I feel similarly. I think we all really want this to happen, but as an outsider just looking at the number, it really seems difficult in my head to imagine how we (as a team that would be attending) could make it work.

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#9

+1, doesn’t seem like a good idea