Novel Coronavirus Updates: Jitterbug Cancelled, a Note from Tea Party, Advice from a Doctor, Jazz Hands!
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The novel coronavirus (aka COVID-19) has had profound impacts on folks all over the world, including in our lindy hop communities. Of course, those in Asia are particularly hard hit, and we continue to wish our friends in China and Korea and elsewhere the best. In Italy as well, all lindy hop dances are cancelled for now, according to Lucie Mazzanti.
In our previous post, we shared some advice from health organizations like the WHO and CDC. Here are some additional updates as of this week:
Advice from a Doctor to Dancers
Dr. Hsu, a physician who practices in both community care and urgent care settings, has a long primer on the novel coronavirus specifically geared toward dancers on the blog “The Dancing Grapevine.” She covers the basics of what the disease is and how it is transmitted. Then she goes into considerations for dance organizers, teachers, and all dancers. Definitely give it a read.
This advise makes a lot of sense to us:
Stay calm, remember your own likely cognitive bias towards dismissing complex, ever-changing information (the COVID-19 cases evolving every day), and try to sit with the inherent uncertainty of this situation. Continue your life – but perform a risk assessment of your situation. Your own risk assessment on whether to participate or host any public activity should depend on the area where you live, its transmission rates, your personal health, your profession, and your regular physical contacts’ health (such as elderly parents, roommates, children, or close friends).
Camp Jitterbug Cancelled
Tonya Morris, the organizer of Camp Jitterbug, announced that unfortunately they are cancelling the dance camp this year. Camp Jitterbug takes place in Seattle, Washington, which as of now is the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the US. As she writes:
It is with a lot of sadness that I have to announce that we have decided to cancel Camp Jitterbug 2020 due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak. The state of Washington, King County and City of Seattle have declared states of emergencies and they don't expect the situation to improve by the time Camp Jitterbug is scheduled. Our local officials are encouraging businesses to cancel events or large gatherings in order to reduce the spread of the virus. We are taking these recommendations seriously and want to prioritize the safety of our community. At this point, it is our social responsibility to cancel the event event though this decision is extremely hard.
A Note from Boston Tea Party
Yesterday Nanette Sulik, the director of the Boston Tea Party swing dance event issued a statement on their decision to continue with the event and the measures they are putting into place. Nanette has a degree in public health and studied epidemiology, so she has some expertise to draw upon. In her post, Nanette details the steps they are taking to make their event as safe for participants as possible. This includes:
Purchasing hospital grade hand sanitizer (70% ETOH), which we mandate MUST be used on entry to all workshops and ballrooms by everyone. Sanitizer will be also available throughout the ballrooms to use between dances.
Stocking up on sanitizer wipes ( hospital grade) and assigning people to wipe down all door knobs, stair railings, tables, bathrooms and other frequently touched surfaces.
Asking anyone with any symptoms to stay home.
Excluding anyone if they appear symptomatic until they can be examined, tested if needed, and cleared.
Playing games and songs to remind everyone to pump sanitizer after every few songs.
Requiring hand sanitizer for competitors to use before they go onto the floor.
Offering full reimbursement to anyone who is traveling from high risk countries as well as anyone who is symptomatic (with medical documentation).
Purchasing water bottles for all weekend attendees in order to minimize cross contamination of cups on tables.
Negotiating with the hotel to have a 'quarantine' room set aside if worst case, someone should become symptomatic to minimize contact with healthy attendees in the event they cannot immediately return home.
You can read the full statement at the bottom of this blog post.
UPDATE 3/12: Nanette announced today on Facebook that Boston Tea Party 2020 was cancelled due to the virus outbreak.
Jazz Hands : the Only Acceptable Lindy Hop Greeting
On a lighter note, the Broadway Beat has this satirical article on how the CDC is advising people to replace handshakes with jazz hands. We couldn’t agree more.
“We urge everyone to stop shaking hands immediately,” said Dr. Ruben Spurkle, a spokesperson for the CDC. “Instead, we suggest greeting people in a manner both more sanitary and, frankly, more fabulous: jazz hands. If we have any hope of saving the world from this crippling disease, by God, it is with sassy, interpretive movement.”
Statement from Nanette Sulik, Boston Tea Party Event Director
I actually have a degree in public health and have studied epidemiology, yet like many of you, I am too struggle to find a balance between sensible precautions and senseless panic.
I apologize in advance that this post is so long... but if anything deserves thoughtful explanation, something impacting our health and well being surely does.
The news media (at least on the east coast) has been filled with opinions and expectations from every kind of expert available. Some days it seems to me that our media, in the absence of the usual winter storm warnings (and dire predictions that send many of us out to stock our pantries), has replaced them with panic over this new virus.
I think it is first of all important for us to step back a moment to sort out what concerns are coming from informed sources, and what sources are sensationalizing the situation for viewership.
We have been evaluating sources of information (and planning our response to the virus at the BTP) since the virus landed on US soil.
BACKGROUND: the COVID 19 VIRUS
Because this organism is so new, experts have different views on how serious it is, how long it may take to spread, how much of a threat it is, and to whom. There are still many things they almost all agree on:
It is almost certainly too late to completely contain the disease. This means we will likely be dealing with the risk of infection for months.
This is why we are told to wash our hands and continue our daily activities... because it is not possible for all of us to stay isolated for that long.
It is expected to become endemic (with us from now on).
Until there is an effective vaccine to protect us, we are all at some risk of contracting it.
Risk increases with age and for those with chronic disease.
About 80% of those exposed will have a very mild course. The remaining 20% (mostly elderly or ill already) will have a more serious course of illness.
The major means of transmission is through droplets (limited to 3-6 feet in the air, but capable of contaminating surfaces which can be picked up by our hands and transferred to our faces) similar to colds and flu.
Covid 19 may have a slightly higher mortality rate than the flu, but many experts believe that without testing everyone we have underestimated those with mild, almost asymptomatic disease, which if true, means the mortality rate will end up at least somewhat lower than initially predicted.
Until there are many more than a few cases in an area, the risk of transmission is extremely low, even taking into account that Covid 19 has a greater infectivity rate than the flu (due to a longer incubation period). At this time, the flu remains our greatest threat.
THIS ^^^ is our current situation, and although this could change, we will likely be living this way for a while.
The goal is no longer to prevent transmission, it is to slow transmission enough that our medical resources can keep up.
Should transmission accelerate past a certain point, it may become a good strategy to ask people to isolate for a few weeks to lessen the number of new cases and slow the incidence until resources catch up.
We are nowhere near that point at this time and it is difficult to know when (or even if) we will reach that point.
How we manage those infected and their contacts, how thoroughly we test suspected cases, and HOW WELL WE EACH PRACTICE GOOD HAND HYGIENE will all influence how quickly we are all exposed.
Of those three, hygiene is the only one each of us can control... and how well we do this will influence the course of the disease spread overall.
RELATIVE RISK TO DANCERS:
What does this mean for dance events (and any large gatherings of people such as: sports stadiums, churches, schools, concerts, movies, store shopping, large work places, and public transportation)?
Dancers' exposure is a result of two things: close proximity to others, and hand to hand (or contaminated surface) contact.
Stadiums, churches, movies, concerts, schools, public transportation and dancing all share close proximity.
Schools, stores, work, public transportation and dancing share high hand to hand/surface contact.
Dancers spend the same time at an individual dance as one would at a concert, sporting event or movie, and less time than at work or school. A dance weekend is more time than a concert or movie, but still less time than at work or school.
No matter where we go, if it involves contact with others we are at some degree of risk depending on how prevalent the illness is around us.
Where your individual comfort level for exposure risk lies on this continuum depends on many factors: how risk averse you are, who depends on your health for their well being, and what risk factors you have: such as advanced age or chronic disease... to list just a few.
No one should tell you that you are wrong for your decisions just because yours might be different from their decisions, because there really is no right or wrong action here... except ignoring symptoms and placing others at risk knowing you are sick.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BTP ATTENDEES?
Even though dancing is a contact sport, we are a relatively small gathering for just a few days. We can very easily manipulate the environment to decrease the viral load on our points of contact (hands and surfaces) by frequent disinfection and good hand hygiene practices.
OUR PLAN TO MAINTAIN A SAFE ENVIRONMENT DURING THE BTP:
Below is the plan we have in place to safeguard everyone's health to our best ability during the event.
We of course cannot promise it is fail proof, any more than going to work or school, however we have much more control over our dance environment than anyone taking public transportation or even grocery shopping would have.
Most dancers just want to make sure that sensible precautions are being taken care of before attending an event, and we have created a solid plan to mitigate risks as much as is reasonably possible:
We are closely following official responses and recommendations on the virus: as long as public transportation and other public gatherings are considered safe to attend by the health department, we will not cancel the event.
Hand hygiene: our first and best line of defense for all respiratory illnesses. We have purchased a LOT of hospital grade hand sanitizer (70% ETOH), which we mandate MUST be used on entry to all workshops and ballrooms by everyone. Sanitizer will be also available throughout the ballrooms to use between dances.
The greatest risks (unless someone with the virus actually coughs directly in your face) is from contact with dirty hands and surfaces. We have stocked up on sanitizer wipes (also hospital grade) and we will assign people to wiping down all door knobs, stair railings, tables, bathrooms and other frequently touched surfaces. This will be done frequently--- the Marriott has probably never been as clean as it will be that weekend!
We are negotiating with the hotel to change the table linens and clean the bathrooms several times daily if not more frequently.
We also ask that anyone with any symptoms stay home, and we will do what we can to require this. If anyone appears symptomatic they will be excluded until they can be examined, tested if needed, and cleared. If we must ask someone to leave the event, we will reimburse their ticket on a pro-rated basis.
Transmission is mostly about the contact people have through their hands, and that is actually the easiest thing to influence. Right now there are only a few local cases and these seem to have been quarantined quickly.
The Emcee's and DJ's will be playing games and songs reminding everyone to pump sanitizer after every few songs. We will also require hand sanitizer in the hallway for competitors to use before they go onto the floor.
We have very few international attendees (except Canada and currently they are at an even lower case rate than in the US). We are offering full reimbursement to anyone who is traveling from high risk countries as well as anyone who is symptomatic (with medical documentation).
We are purchasing water bottles for all weekend attendees in order to minimize cross contamination of cups on tables.
We are also negotiating with the hotel to have a 'quarantine' room set aside if worst case, someone should become symptomatic to minimize contact with healthy attendees in the event they cannot immediately return home.
As we closely monitor the situation, if it changes significantly, we will do whatever is required to keep our attendees safe. We will rely on the local health department and on people who are knowledgeable about this virus for updates, rather than the media or well intentioned friends, and we hope you will all do the same.
I hope this provides some assurance to you, our attendees. I do understand that it is concerning since we don't yet know exactly how it will progress (or not) in the coming weeks. We share those concerns also.
At this point we do not have cause to do more than what I have outlined above, but we will continue to monitor any changes very closely.
Feel free to check in with us (info@teapartyswings.com) if you have any further concerns or questions... or ideas that might help make the event even safer!
Please practice careful frequent hand washing, stay well and we hope to see you all in two weeks!
-- Nanette
