Florida, Covid, and Cons…
To think it took this year for me to really get back into writing.
I have been spending alot of time on my computer getting back into personal projects. It’s not like I can use the excuse “When I have time” since I have had alot of time on my hands.
During the course of writing, I have had an influx of personal opinions that I wanted to express online, since I cant express them during my stand up comedy shows (because of reasons that I will get into in a sec).
This year has had a lot going for it with politics, civil unrest in relation to racial issues in America, and Covid-19.
The latter has affected everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, or where you live. I have even been affecting everyone in the geek, nerd, and convention community.
Many potential con goers, organizers, guests, and merchants have had to change their plans for this year with widespread cancelations and postponements.
The last (physical) convention I was able to go to this year as a guest was Tupelo Con in Mississippi. That was on March 7-8, when there were approximately 1000 confirmed diagnosed cases in the US [1].
In March, I and many were hoping for everything with Covid to blow over so we could continue flying our geek flag. I was expecting to maybe miss one or two months of cons, and expected the US to have a significant reduction of pop-culture events.
Man was I wrong.
Covid got worse. Over 200,000 US citizens passed away, and the numbers are still climbing.
This has prompted more cancelations and postponements, much to the chagrin of many, but this was done as a massive effort by those in the community to flatten the curb on our end.
So many events were cancelled worldwide, fancons.con reported full months of no convention activity [2] [3].
I also had to make a decision, that was really a no-brainer. I was declining going to conventions for the remainder of the year (both for work and fun). Hell, if the numbers were still going to rise, I was probably not going to attend any event until mid-2021.
While our efforts to lower the numbers felt like they were in vain, I and many were hoping that we could be an example of what we should be doing.
Oh. I forgot. I live in Florida.
My state has issues (and still does) with Covid-19. We did flatten the curb, vertically. To have a convention or event in our state should be the last thing we should do.
Spoiler Alert: we had two one-day events and two conventions.
Note and disclosure: I will not be saying the names of these events out of professionalism, and to avoid giving them more publicity. Also; I did not attend any of these events because I am not an idiot. I am making my opinions and conclusions based on what I have seen on social media and the many conversations I have had with friends.
The two one-day events were collectors events, where the attendance was minimal based on photos that floated around social media, but social distancing was not enforced.
The two conventions however, seemed to be running in two different directions. One con in North Florida had temperature checks and proper social distancing measures. There seemed to be good distancing in the dealers room and artists alley.
As for the other convention: mask wearing was not enforced. No social distancing. Their main controversial guest even made jokes about this.
To make this matter even worse: this convention was in South Florida. An area in the state that had the worse covid case numbers [4].
I was hoping that this would be the end of it, but again, I live in Florida.
Numbers are still going up, and our state government has decided to enter “Phase 3” of reopening FL.
Phase 3 means restaurants, bars, salons, and other businesses will be allowed to reopen under full capacity. This includes theme parks and large sporting events can resume, but limited capacity is recommended. [5]
This worries me.
After the fiasco of one South Florida con, I believe that this could set a dangerous precedent for other events in the state.
The order has nothing written anywhere about events in general that would fall under the classification of a convention. If one convention threw caution to the wind during the pandemic, will this mean other events will as well?
Are other events going to open with a false sense of security because we are in “phase 3”?
In my honest opinion: we need to keep conventions closed in Florida (and possibly across the US) for the remainder of 2020.
Some of you are thinking that I might be overthinking this.
Yes I am. Why aren't you?
For some of you, conventions is where you make some of, or all of your income. We need cons to reopen.
I understand that as well. I also make money with stage appearances, hosting game shows, and selling merch.
In spite of that, I believe that we need to wait.
The numbers are still going up, and until those numbers start to go back down, I’m gonna keep playing video games and get ready for my first child.
Oh yeah! The only good news for me this year!
I’m having a baby girl[6]!
SOURCES:
[1] Taylor, Adam; Armus, Teo (March 11, 2020). "Live updates: As U.S. coronavirus cases top 1,000, mixed signs of recovery in China, South Korea". The Washington Post.
[2]Delahanty,Patrick (April 9, 2020) "April 2020 Is the First Conventionless Month in Over 40 Years". Fancons.com
[3]Delahanty,Patrick (May 27, 2020) "It Took Longer, but May 2020 Is the Second Conventionless Month Since 1974" Fancons.com
[4] https://news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-US&mid=%2Fm%2F0jhy9&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen
[6] My wife.