@MartyE posted:Hey guys why don't you rain on your own parades. Until there is any word otherwise, the show in on. Seems like there's a few that just want to spread the negativity. It may very well end up being off but until then can we just drop the gloom and doom and maybe show some support.
Marty, @david1 really isn't raining on anyone's parade and he isn't being negative. Rather, as @Greg Houser says, he's realistic. I'm in the events business and a close friend of mine is also close friends with several of the world's leading infectious disease researchers—in regard to COVID-19, they are advisors to some of the largest countries on the planet, some of the world's biggest sports leagues, and colleges and universities hoping to reopen. My connection is close enough that I can get personal advice about whether or not they think it is safe for my wife to go to hairdresser. (One felt that the risk is acceptable only if outside, and wearing masks.)
There is no way that the Amherst show can safely go on in its traditional format and on its traditional date unless a safe and effective treatment or vaccine is developed and administered widely by the end of 2020. The odds of that happening are extremely slim. It's fine if the Society has a contingency plan in case this does happen, but it is dishonest if they lead people to believe that the Show will likely happen. (The winter conferences in my industry will all be held remotely.)
Spreading false hope doesn't help anyone. The impact of this pandemic is possibly on the scale of World War I and II. There are beacons of hope, but in order to realize the potential of these beacons we need to take the pandemic as seriously as we did the World Wars and unify at least as we did then.
