So I briefly touched on WordCamps and Covid in Open Source in 2021, but WP Tavern has taken a deeper dive into the situation, WordCamp Birmingham Updates COVID-19 Protocols Amid Omicron Surge, WordCamp Europe Still Planning for In-Person Event: “WordCamp Central has agreed to cover the budget for additional safety measures like free masks and hand sanitization stations. Contributors plan to engage this sensitive topic with a larger discussion next week.”

As a quick reminder, my opinions are my own and don’t reflect those of any other human or corporation. We good? Ok. There is nothing sensitive about this topic. Covid is a disease, we have ways to combat it, just do them unless doing them is actually life threatening like, you know, being allergic to a vaccine.

I’m insanely excited about going to Birmingham. I think it will be a great camp. I think it should mandate Covid vaccination. I think folks should wear masks – preferably ones with fun designs. I think you should make your own risk assessment given both of the above are enforced.

The risk assessment frankly gets more complicated without vaccinations and masks. Let’s make life easy, WordCamp Central should mandate vaccines for events. We know they are not 100% but guess what, I trust that there is a significantly less likelihood of getting sick in a room with 200 vaccinated people than a room of any size and any density with even one unvaccinated person.

You can’t always make everyone happy with a decision. WordCamp Central needs to lead with a vax first carrot and stick. Financial and branding support should be contingent around a mandatory vaccine policy. End of conversation. Yes it sucks if you can’t or – WORSE – won’t get a vaccine and wear a mask but community must continue and to horribly hijack a great quote, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”