#CovidCautious community, I’m tabling at an academic conference next month to spread awareness of both the Public Health Pledge (@phpledge) and #COVID19 precautions as paths toward inclusivity, and I’m trying to think of what would make this table both useful and appealing to passersby. Does anyone have suggestions on what else I can do, in terms of signage, giveaways, activities, etc.?
@ubikaritas@phpledge "How to avoid new allergies later in life" because if post-acute viral infection syndromes include, statistically, an increase in autoimmune disorders, (which can show up as allergies) then avoiding getting covid in the first place, or again, or again and again, would help people avoid getting new allergies.
Context: This is a small organization that holds one to two mini-conferences per year inside larger conferences. Last year, I asked the organization’s all-volunteer officers if they were familiar with the Public Health Pledge (@phpledge) and what we could do to be in line with it, after which they created the Public Health Officer position for me. For various life reasons, the most concrete thing I came up with for next month is tabling. #CovidIsNotOver#COVIDisAirborne
Hmm, do you have any clean air tech that you could show off at the table, and perhaps raffle off to a participant? An air filter or a CO2 monitor? Or collect donations to give masks/air filters to a local school, daycare, or homeless shelter?
@ubikaritas@phpledge
Since it's an academic conference, maybe lean in to the message "are your students falling asleep in lecture bc you and your topic are boring? No! Probably they are falling asleep bc your ventilation is so bad!"
@ubikaritas@phpledge
My tech-oriented suggestions notwithstanding, I think it's really important to center inclusion. But I haven't found a way to do that effectively in my professional circles....
@ubikaritas
Thinking about the inclusion message - maybe you can prompt people to reflect on how many of their students
are immunocompromised or at higher risk bc of other conditions
live with/are in community with people who are at higher risk
already have Long COVID
can't afford to take time off work if/when they get sick
Sadly I'm not aware of a convenient interactive tool where you could look that up by metro area or institution or anything....
Invite people to... well, you don't want to make a list of people who aren't there bc of COVID/lack of inclusion, terrible for privacy. But you could have a poster or a whiteboard or something, and you invite people to choose a sticker or write a message in honor of the people they wish were there at your event, but who aren't there bc of COVID/COVID risk.
I’m currently planning to include printed copies of Hazel Newlevant’s 2024 COVID-19 zine (https://newlevant.com/COVIDzine) as well as materials on reducing transmission from https://bit.ly/lesscovid, but I know that good information alone will be not be enough to draw people in.
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