Convention Cancellations

Anime Central 2020 has cancelled, due to the Coronavirus outbreak.  They have announced that their next convention will be May 21-23rd, 2021.

MiniCon in Minneapolis, MN has also cancelled. Their next convention will be held April 2-4, 2021.

Worldcon 78 (CoNZealand) is still planned for July 29 - August 2, 2020. However, they have released a statement that indicates current government restrictions may impact the convention.

No statements have yet been issued for NASFIC 2020 in Columbus, OH.

18 Months

18 Months. Yep, that's what reports are saying now.  18 Months and several waves of Coronavirus ahead.  We're just at the beginning of this outbreak, and it appears things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

When I started this year, I was looking forward to a trip to Japan in September & October, my brother's wedding in July, and a bunch of other things that I had planned or were actively thinking about.  Now I'm worried about whether or not I should set foot outside of the house, given that I have some pre-existing conditions that, while not major, could be a problem if I were to contract Covid-19.  I'm about 90% certain my Japan trip will be cancelled; I think its only a matter of time before I get the notice. Hopefully I'll be able to get my money back, but if things go as bad as some people are predicting theirs a decent chance that money will be gone.  We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm checking myself for symptoms just about every day.  I've had an ongoing cold all Winter, so waking up with a scratchy throat and a stuffed nose hasn't been unusual for me.  Hopefully those symptoms will go away, or at least won't get any worse.  Probably a good time to start an exercise regimen again, as I almost certainly could stand to lose 100 lbs.

So that's about it.  Nothing exciting happening, just trying to get through this.  In the coming days I'll probably post some reviews of things I've been reading and watching, just to pass the time.  At least I appear to be getting back into writing.  Must be all the nervous energy.

ADDENDUM

We're about to start hearing a whole lot about a Japanese flu drug called Avigan, which appears to drastically speed up the recovery of Corvid-19. It doesn't appear to be a cure for those who haven't contracted the disease, but it does appear to greatly help those with early to medium symptoms. If so, it will be a huge step forward in slowing down the spread of the disease.

Imperial College London: Expect 18 Months of Coronavirus Emergency

Some truly frightening predictions have been made in a study by the Imperial College in London, concerning the Coronavirus Pandemic:

"We use the latest estimates of severity to show that policy strategies which aim to mitigate the epidemic might halve deaths and reduce peak healthcare demand by two-thirds, but that this will not be enough to prevent health systems being overwhelmed. More intensive, and socially disruptive interventions will therefore be required to suppress transmission to low levels. It is likely such measures – most notably, large scale social distancing – will need to be in place for many months, perhaps until a vaccine becomes available."

-- Professor Neil Ferguson

COVID-19: Imperial Researchers Model Likely Impact of Public Health Measures

Bottom line, we may be dealing with this not just for a few months, but potentially for a year or more. At least until a vaccine of some kind is developed.

Frankly, I don't know if society can hold out for more than a few weeks in its current "social distancing" mode.  The economy is almost certainly going to collapse, and food distribution could very well become a serious problem.  Never thought I'd see this in my lifetime, but... this is the sort of thing that has the potential to go really bad really fast.