Mask up: echoes of early 2020 as I travel to FOSDEM

Later this week, I'm going to see a lot of people I care deeply about and a lot of people who have the connections and resources to make a huge difference for the Matrix.org Foundation, the nonprofit I lead. For that, I am genuinely excited.

Unfortunately, my excitement is buried under a great deal of apprehension.

Because I'm going to FOSDEM, currently the largest grassroots conference in the world for people who care about open source and software freedom. The last time I went to FOSDEM was in 2020, which I remember as much for the firefighting I was doing as OSI's Vice President as I do for the hushed conversations about this new virus that was emerging.

Little did I know that was the last in-person conference I would go to for quite some time. Because as in-person events returned and we exited the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, many events rolled back their Health & Safety policies, leaving participants vulnerable to unnecessary harm. It was against this backdrop that I authored the Public Health Pledge and volunteered my time to help event organizers run safer and more inclusive events. "We have Codes of Conduct that we layer on top of local laws and regulations, why wouldn't we keep Health & Safety as an additional layer, too?" Or so I reasoned.

It was on that basis that I've avoided returning to FOSDEM. FOSDEM, an event that was slow to adopt a Code of Conduct, is also infamous for crowding too many people into rooms and sending people home with conflu. I didn't want to subject myself to those risks.

So, returning to FOSDEM feels like admitting defeat. And it's risky.

Anybody else notice that we had four serious and distinct viruses circulating widely in North America and Europe this winter? (Flu, RSV, norovirus, and COVID.)

But whereas I had the choice to opt out before, I no longer have that choice. No one is forcing me to go, but my risk profile has changed. Regime change in the US, a hostile job market, and a nonprofit whose mission – and whose staffers' salaries – can only be sustained if I pull out all the stops to raise funds. The near term risk of unemployment in the US is a threat to my family that I have to address head on.

How I'm protecting myself at FOSDEM

I'm not giving up, though. I still want to protect my health. As a neurospicy person with physical disabilities, I know that I'm only one post acute syndrome away from long term disability. That'd be bad news for me and my family.

Here's what I'll be doing to protect myself:

• Wearing a mask whenever I'm indoors and not actively eating or drinking; N95-or-similar masks when inside for short periods, and my elastomeric Flo Mask the rest of the time.
• Generous use of my go-to antiviral nasal spray throughout each day.
• Using a combo COVID/flu rapid antigen test every morning.
• Carrying my handy dandy CO2 meter to help me make informed decisions.
• And trying my damnedest to minimize how much I eat or drink while indoors.

And, of course, I'm also current on my vaccines. I got my latest COVID booster in September, so I'd have strong protection through the winter holidays. I'm outside of the 3 month window during which COVID vaccines provide strong protection against breakthrough infections, but it'll still be helpful in blunting the worst of it.

What does this mean for the Public Health Pledge?

I don't know. This is a question that deserves more time and energy than I have to give it right now. I have mixed feelings. It's not over, but clearly change is needed – and probably new energy.

Unfortunately the people who care the most are also the people who tend to have the least to give, a challenge all too familiar among the civically engaged.

And with the new administration in the US? What battles do I pick?

We shall see. As I wrote two years ago, the foreseeable future includes more pandemics, and indeed avian flu is tick tick ticking along in a way it never has before...