Of the approximately 1,800 people who attended the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in late April, 181 reported that they became infected with Covid. While most of the attendees, who are disease detectives, say that they had been vaccinated, only 30% wore a mask.
From The Washington Post:
The CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service officers and alumni — the disease detectives deployed to identify and fight outbreaks — met April 24-27 at an Atlanta hotel. The conference drew 1,800 in-person attendees, the first in-person Epidemic Intelligence Service gathering in four years. Like many conferences, it was crowded, with much face-to-face contact, many events held in small rooms and lots of socializing, according to attendees. About 70 percent of participants who responded to a CDC surveysaid they did not wear masks at the event.
The outbreak of covid-19 cases at the conference underscores the persistence of an evolving and highly infectious virus.
Another CDC global health meeting is scheduled for the same hotel in early June; about 300 to 400 people are expected to attend in person, said one CDC employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.
I still wear a mask in crowded public places but I hardly see anyone else wearing them. I already got sick with Covid once, and I hated it, so wearing a mask is a small inconvenience for me.
