provision of hand sanitising stations, cleaning of public surfaces
As I understand it, these two measures are more safety theater than anything else—it seems that almost all transmission is through the air, not through surfaces. But it would be good to hear about ventilation: getting lots of fresh air is one of the most effect ways of reducing transmission.
Finally, I realize this is probably futile given venue restrictions, but as far as I’m aware one dose of J&J is not more effective than one dose of Pfizer or Moderna. If you’re going to accept a single shot of J&J, why not also a single shot of Pfizer? Conversely, some other vaccines (e.g. Sinopharm) seem much less effective—does it really make sense to give people full credit for those? Or is there an implicit restriction on which vaccines are accepted based on e.g. MHRA approval?
Thanks for your reply! I’ve responded to your points separately below:
As I understand it, these two measures are more safety theater than anything else—it seems that almost all transmission is through the air, not through surfaces. But it would be good to hear about ventilation: getting lots of fresh air is one of the most effect ways of reducing transmission.
Great point about ventilation, I’ve added that to the protocol. See my reply to the OP:
Missing safety measures
The venue does provide surface cleaning and hand sanitizer stations, and we considered including that information in the protocol, but we worried that listing excessive detail would contribute to “safety theater” so we cut it from the final copy. We decided to focus on highlighting the policies that we think are most likely to contribute to safety, rather than giving attendees a false sense of security by highlighting precautionary measures that we think don’t add much. You can find more details on the venue safety protocols here.
We failed to mention that the ventilation system at the venue brings in fresh air from outside (rather than recycled air) and has filters that are changed weekly. Windows will be opened to provide additional ventilation where possible (depending on the weather). In addition, the venue capacity is 1,200 in some configurations. We are only having 500 attendees, which is a 23% reduction compared to EA Global: London 2019. I’ve added this information to the protocol.
Finally, I realize this is probably futile given venue restrictions, but as far as I’m aware one dose of J&J is not more effective than one dose of Pfizer or Moderna. If you’re going to accept a single shot of J&J, why not also a single shot of Pfizer? Conversely, some other vaccines (e.g. Sinopharm) seem much less effective—does it really make sense to give people full credit for those? Or is there an implicit restriction on which vaccines are accepted based on e.g. MHRA approval?
We discussed this with our COVID Advisory Board, and they acknowledged that vaccine efficacy varies and the data is shifting. But we don’t feel up to doing our own vaccine assessment, and we’ve decided to follow the UK government’s policy here as a bright line.
Great point about ventilation. I am not aware of any evidence that hand sanitisation in particular is merely ‘safety theater’. Surface transmission may not be the major method of viral spread, but it still is a method, and hand sanitisation is a very simple intervention. Also, to emphasise something I mentioned in the post, masks are definitely not ‘safety theater’. It is good to see that the revised COVID protocol now mentions that mask use will be encouraged and widely available.
As I understand it, these two measures are more safety theater than anything else—it seems that almost all transmission is through the air, not through surfaces. But it would be good to hear about ventilation: getting lots of fresh air is one of the most effect ways of reducing transmission.
Finally, I realize this is probably futile given venue restrictions, but as far as I’m aware one dose of J&J is not more effective than one dose of Pfizer or Moderna. If you’re going to accept a single shot of J&J, why not also a single shot of Pfizer? Conversely, some other vaccines (e.g. Sinopharm) seem much less effective—does it really make sense to give people full credit for those? Or is there an implicit restriction on which vaccines are accepted based on e.g. MHRA approval?
Thanks for your reply! I’ve responded to your points separately below:
Great point about ventilation, I’ve added that to the protocol. See my reply to the OP:
Missing safety measures
The venue does provide surface cleaning and hand sanitizer stations, and we considered including that information in the protocol, but we worried that listing excessive detail would contribute to “safety theater” so we cut it from the final copy. We decided to focus on highlighting the policies that we think are most likely to contribute to safety, rather than giving attendees a false sense of security by highlighting precautionary measures that we think don’t add much. You can find more details on the venue safety protocols here.
We failed to mention that the ventilation system at the venue brings in fresh air from outside (rather than recycled air) and has filters that are changed weekly. Windows will be opened to provide additional ventilation where possible (depending on the weather). In addition, the venue capacity is 1,200 in some configurations. We are only having 500 attendees, which is a 23% reduction compared to EA Global: London 2019. I’ve added this information to the protocol.
We discussed this with our COVID Advisory Board, and they acknowledged that vaccine efficacy varies and the data is shifting. But we don’t feel up to doing our own vaccine assessment, and we’ve decided to follow the UK government’s policy here as a bright line.
Great point about ventilation. I am not aware of any evidence that hand sanitisation in particular is merely ‘safety theater’. Surface transmission may not be the major method of viral spread, but it still is a method, and hand sanitisation is a very simple intervention. Also, to emphasise something I mentioned in the post, masks are definitely not ‘safety theater’. It is good to see that the revised COVID protocol now mentions that mask use will be encouraged and widely available.