I just can't wrap my head around them implementing dramatic, sweeping service agreements that now asserts that no one with a communicable disease can attend (I assume that includes HIV, hepatitis, herpes, and chronic TB), along with the ever popular 'we can remove you for any reason we choose whether or not it is legal'. I've attended Gen Con for nearly 20 years including 2021, but this is where we part company.
Bye!
My issue is they have a more restrictive policy than last year at the height of the delta outbreak at least in Indianapolis. The con last year ran just fine and was not some super spreader event. The con also is not in a bubble and there are no mask or vaccine mandates in Indy, or the convention center. Even during the delta outbreak the city turned down bringing back the mask mandate. Whats the point of being more restrictive, when the minute attendees leave the building they are in an environment where there are no restrictions, and then go back in forth. Its seem pretty pointless when covid can be spread by vaccinated people and the studies are starting to show unless you have a N95 mask, you are probably not really protected sitting next to someone with covid for 3+ hours.
Again nothing happened after Gencon 2021 so why be more restrictive this year?. Yeah they can always change it but this weekend is the housing reg and people who are not vaxed have to decide if they are willing to gamble their money on it changing, because its not free to cancel your room.
Emailing customer service or asking in a non-sensational manner on the forums for clarification may remove the need for assuming anything.
Any vaccine mandate policy that doesn't take into account immunity from previous infection isn't relying on actual science.
From the CDC website:
"You should get a COVID-19 vaccine even if you already had COVID-19. Getting sick with COVID-19 offers some protection from future illness with COVID-19, sometimes called “natural immunity.” The level of protection people get from having COVID-19 may vary depending on how mild or severe their illness was, the time since their infection, and their age.
...
Emerging evidence shows that getting a COVID-19 vaccine after you recover from COVID-19 infection provides added protection to your immune system. One study showed that, for people who already had COVID-19, those who do not get vaccinated after their recovery are more than 2 times as likely to get COVID-19 again than those who get fully vaccinated after their recovery."
The difficulty with immunity from previous infection is that extent of the infection and the level of immune response is highly variable. One person might get great immunity from it, while another person doesn't get much at all. Vaccines have a controlled dosage, making the immune response more consistent.
In theory, previous infection should count for something, but we don't have a good way to measure the level of protection derived from it by each individual. If we did, we should also be able to figure out the 5-10% or so of people who didn't get a great immune response from the vaccine, which would be very helpful.
So we are back to the back and forth about who is right and who is wrong about vaccinations.
We understand that there are a wide range of views. But debating them here really serves no purpose.
We are locking this post an any further posts on the subject.
Once Gen Con has issued some new information and updates on the policy we will allow some more posts if people have questions that we can answer.
Mike