I am relieved that Doug, in his potentially plague-ridden state, will not be attending a show near me in the near future. However, as he points out, this disease will not be going away any time soon, which means we need to live with it, and that includes holding wargames shows. I mean, cases of
MERS (with a mortality of 34%) still occur in the Middle East and elsewhere, yet no one suggests we should abstain from enjoying ourselves as a result, even in Saudi Arabia. Incidentally, case numbers cited on Wikipedia are only those with a positive test and cases diagnosed by other means are significantly higher.
To the best of my knowledge, neither Doug nor I have any medical qualifications higher than a first-aid certificate. However, having been in Guangzhou during 2003 when people were attempting to rescue their relatives from the House of Death (aka Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hospital) and in Saudi during the 2013-19 MERS outbreaks, I probably have more experience than most in living through these diseases.
Presently, a number of mass, unmasked sporting events and raves have taken place with attendees testing before and after. These have demonstrated that havng lots of people,
sans-PPE in an enclosed space are not the super-spreader events that some feared. I do not believe a wargames show would be any riskier than these rigorously monitored events. On the contrary, evidence suggest that at least one class of the major UK Covid infections are the
quarantine centres ostensibly established to protect us from travellers bringing in the disease from elsewhere. This should come as no surprise as Australia has had several lockdowns due to spread from such petri dishes and even as early as March 2020 the Diamond Princess showed the inherent dangers in applying such medieval containment strategies.
Of course, if anyone still feels unsafe, by all means bolt the doors and retreat under your beds. This is a matter for individual judgement or otherwise. However, consider this. Since 2000 there have been four new coronavirus-type diseases identified; SARS, Mexican Swine Flu, MERS and Covid-19. This seems to indicate we can expect another one in the next 5 years or so. I hope everyone is looking forward to this and is investing in the luxury, under-bed figure painting studio.
Cheers!