EA Dinner Covid Logistics

December 11th, 2021
covid-19, ea
Yesterday we hosted an EA dinner, the first largeish (~22 people) gathering inside our house since before the pandemic. It went well, and it was really good to see people. I wanted to write a bit about what sort of precautions we took for covid.

  • Open window in the main area with a fan pointing out. Windows partly open in other parts of the house, trying to balance the airflow so as much air as possible traveled past the guests. I preheated the house earlier in the day, and during the event had the heat on maximum. It was a bit chilly near the end, but still tolerable.

  • Air purifier cubes in each room.

    In the main area, which isn't a good fit for one, I made a bit of a tunnel above the bookcase.

  • Masks on, except when eating. People were good about this; I didn't see people hanging out with mask off and a plate but not eating.

  • Rapid testing at the door ($7/person). We lined up a volunteer to handle this, because Julia was dealing with hosting and I was watching the kids upstairs. With each test they wrote down the person's name, the time where it needed to be read and their cellphone number. When each test had been sitting for 15 minutes, we texted the person the result. We asked people not to take their mask off to eat until they had their results. If any tests had been positive, we would have informed the group. False positive rate is ~0.05%. We are keeping the cell phone numbers for a few days, so we will be able to text everyone if anyone later notifies us they have it.

  • We told people vaccination was required, though not boosters. We intended to check vaccination cards (accepting photos) at the door, but forgot. If I was organizing something like this a few weeks from now, when there has been more time for people to get boosters, I might require them.

  • We considered requiring masks to be surgical or better (offering free ones) but decided not to. I think this probably would have been worth doing, except that we added several of these precautions after announcing the gathering, and it felt like too much to add another one.

  • Occasional crowd management, encouraging people to move from denser spaces to emptier ones

Referenced in:

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, the EA Forum

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Where I Donated In 2024

All Grants Fund, Rethink, EA Funds Animal Welfare Fund

via Thing of Things January 17, 2025

2024-25 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, travel, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Overall this was a pretty good year. Highlights …

via Victoria Krakovna January 15, 2025

The ugly sides of two approaches to charity

What's neglected by "magnificent" philanthropy, and by Singerian global poverty focus The post The ugly sides of two approaches to charity appeared first on Otherwise.

via Otherwise January 13, 2025

more     (via openring)