Greetings, folks!
Can*Con 2023 is seeking your views on measures we will have in place to protect attendees from COVID and will consider your responses before implementing the conference COVID policy. We do this to be transparent with all attendees so that each person can make an informed decision about whether they feel safe attending Can*Con 2023.
The World Health Organization and the Canadian and Ontario governments have ended the state of emergency for COVID-19 and have dropped most mitigation measures, even in educational and medical settings. However, different COVID variants do continue to circulate in the community. Can*Con’s 2022 COVID policy included:
- A reduced conference attendance
- A virtual track for those who did not feel safe attending in person
- mandatory full masking and
- proof of vaccination, although already by October, 2022, the apps and proofs were not broadly required in society and verifications were done manually at conference registration.
The Board of Can*Con is working from some important core facts and assumptions, including:
- Provinces have generally dropped most mitigation measures
- Based on the experiences of other conventions, we would statistically expect about 1 in 100 attendees to be COVID positive (knowingly or unknowingly) at the time of the event
- COVID is airborne
- COVID can be contracted multiple times
- One in ten infections is estimated to result in long COVID
- Each COVID infection lowers the body’s defenses against other diseases
Proposed Can*Con 2023 COVID Policy: That attendance will return to pre-COVID levels. That the wearing of masks is optional and encouraged for attendees. Base vaccinations and booster vaccines are encouraged for attendees. If attendees have new or increasing symptoms of respiratory illness, they should, out of respect for other conference attendees, not attend and receive a full refund, or attend the virtual portion of Can*Con.
Please submit any thoughts, concerns, supports, suggestions about the Can*Con 2023 COVID policy in the form below by 1 August, 2023.