[FOSDEM] Coronavirus

[Jasper Nuyens]

Dear all,

20 days have passed since Fosdem 2020, and nobody has reported to be
hospitalised with a double pneumonia or as a confirmed COVID19
carrier. Because of this, I think we can be relieved that FOSDEM was
early enough to have missed the pandemic spread of this virus and
nobody got infected at this celebration of Freedom.

I tend to say that one is either too early or is too late to take
preventive measures, luckily it turned out to be too early. I'm so
happy to have been wrong!

As such, I want to apologise for spreading fear about the greatest
OpenSource and Free Software event in the world. It seems that I owe
you a beer - and I will provide that plentiful (as in free) at FOSDEM
2021!

Obviously, there is no positive news about the worldwide spread or
treatment of COVID19 yet, and I wish everybody a good health and
strength to deal with this over the coming months!

May the Source be with you!
Jasper
-- 
Jasper Nuyens
Managing Director, Linux Belgium
http://www.linuxbe.com
Phone: +32 (0)2 747 47 01
Fax: +32 (0)2 747 47 10
GSM: +32 (0)478 978967

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 3:10 PM Jasper Nuyens <jnuyens at linuxbe.com> wrote:
>
> Dear,
>
> Sadly, not all of your questions can be answered fully scientifically
> yet. I guess it's a risk assessment.
>
> As an added fact in Belgium, the normal seasonal flu will reach
> epidemic proportions in a week or 2.
> The initial symptoms of the novel coronavirus pneumonia are similar,
> it will make differentiation by health workers more difficult.
> Travel from China occurs through Brussels airport, and - baffling -
> the government does not perform screening or quarantine measures nor
> informs about it. On this website, you can see the planned arrivals:
> https://www.brusselsairport.be/en/passengers
>
> If one has the seasonal flu; please be responsible to not spread it at
> FOSDEM and complicate matters further.
> If one has had potential contact with people coming from one of the
> affected regions 3 days before the event - even without any symptoms
> or fever - please act responsibly and quarantine yourself; typically
> after 3 days flu-like symptoms develop, after 8 days hospital
> treatment becomes necessary due to breathing difficulty and other
> problems - this is a deadly virus with a high mortality rate (still
> uncertain how much exactly) and with a high strain on the health care
> system (2-3 weeks in ICU with breathing machines are required for a
> significant part of the infected people).
>
> Dust or paint masks rated 'P3' can still be found at some hardware
> stores in Belgium and offer adequate protection in combination with
> goggles. All pharmacies in Belgium are sold out since yesterday. Lower
> rated masks might protect others against your potential carrying of
> disease as less droplets will be spread in the environment and could
> be a good idea - if you manage to get hold of them. Don't forget that
> masks are now mandatory when going outside in the regions in China who
> were in a similar situation than us - Europeans - less than a month
> ago.
>
> Wash hands regularly, do not touch your nose or mouth, use
> chlorine-warter 'javel' to clean potential virus locations (door
> handles and such).
>
> As the virus might be circulating undetected for over 10 days, and
> transmission from one victim to 15 others isn't uncommon - after which
> they become infectious quickly - it cannot be ruled out that the virus
> might be circulating in Brussels in low numbers by the end of this
> week (or even now).
> The exponential growth of confirmed cases in China indicates what
> could happen here - in a short timeframe.
>
> HOWEVER; there have not been any confirmed cases in Belgium yet. And
> from 1 case to 100 cases takes a while - after that,... well, we see
> how it develops in China now. So FOSDEM might be over before things
> get seriously in Belgium with respect to this virus.
>
> Personally, I got the seasonal flue today, but I already decided the
> risk wasn't worth it for me, and I will only give my presentation
> about FreedomEV 2.0 (Tesla Hacking and free software on Electric
> Vehicles) if I can do that remotely (probably not).
> Ultimately it is everybody's own responsibility to decide what to do,
> I kindly ask to properly inform yourself with respect to this matter.
> And I sincerely hope that I am mostly wrong about my assessment.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel_coronavirus_(2019-nCoV)
>
> Greetings,
> Jasper
>
> --
> Jasper Nuyens
> Managing Director, Linux Belgium
> http://www.linuxbe.com
> Phone: +32 (0)2 747 47 01
> Fax: +32 (0)2 747 47 10
> GSM: +32 (0)478 978967
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 1:43 PM hostilius <hostilius at protonmail.ch> wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > Fosdem brings together people from many places all over the world,
> > which is awesome. But the timing of this year's Fosdem is unfortunate.
> >
> > I suggest to discuss the potential effect of the Coronavirus (2019nCov)
> > on Fosdem, and potential measures.
> >
> > The new virus appears to be transmittable from person to person, even by
> > people not showing any symptoms yet (this is different from the SARS
> > 2002 virus).
> >
> > Based on today's reports from Hong Kong university, the virus might have
> > an incubation period around 10 days. Currently 44000 people are
> > estimated to be infected (not yet sick), and that number might double
> > every 6 days.
> >
> > The city of Wuhan (11 million inhabitants) was put under lockdown on
> > Jan 23. However, it is estimated that 5 million people were able to
> > leave the city prior to the lockdown.
> >
> > I think this means, it's currently unknown how successful the quarantine
> > effort is.
> >
> > Another developer conference by a large Telco, that was originally
> > planned to take place mid February in Shenzen (more than 1000 km away
> > from Wuhan), was already canceled.
> >
> > How likely is it that the virus might already be spreading
> > internationally, with the majority of cases still being unnoticed,
> > because of the long incubation period?
> >
> > How likely is it that the virus reaches the Fosdem venue and that many
> > attendees will catch it, thereby putting themselves at risk,
> > and further contributing to a quick international distribution?
> >
> > Kind Regards,
> > a regular Fosdem visitor.
> >
> >
> >
> > Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
> >
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