latest in event cancellation

[Thomas Lord]

   MIT has temporarily required that all campus events with 150 or more in
   attendance be cancelled, postponed, or "virtualized".

   If I were among the libreplanet organizers, I would be trying to
   persuade my fellow organizers that they should not proceed as currently
   planned.

   Related:  Stanford has ordered that in-person classes not be held
   through the rest of the academic quarter.   Columbia has canceled
   classes for a week and then will resume them in virtual form.

   San Francisco has ordered that no "inessential" events with more than
   50 in attendance be held in any city-owned property and expressed that
   this is meant to be a model for all private venue operators in the
   city.  This is a very serious step that implies, for example, movie
   theaters and nightclubs ought to shut down if they want to voluntarily
   comply.    Emergency legislation is being pushed through to, among
   other things, put a moratorium on evictions for tenants directly and
   indirectly impacted by the virus.  So for example, with hotel
   attendance far down, many workers will struggle to pay rent and bills
   and thus risk eviction.

   Epidemiologists are projecting that on our current trajectory, the
   capacity of acute care medical facilities will be overwhelmed within
   the next few months.  In San Francisco, for example, one major hospital
   has been rehearsing how to put up acute care medical quonset-style
   tents in its parking lots.
   The way we can lesson the society wide impacts of the epidemic include
   a period of social distancing in addition to all the handwashing and so
   on.

   -t