DebConf Health Policy

“DebFlu” / “the DebConf bug” has been a part of DebConf since the beginning. COVID-19 brought a new highly-infectious disease to the conference, but also gave us a higher level of awareness and some of the tools to better deal with these problems.

The aim of this health policy is to allow us to hold DebConf without having to deal with a major disease outbreak or having to send our attendees home sick. We aim to balance the risks with reasonable infection reduction controls and responses. For the best success, each and every attendee has to do their part and behave responsibly towards the rest of our community.

DebConf is a social event we look forward to attending every year, and the frustration of missing out after having travelled far can be very large. We don’t want to impose hurtful isolation or strict rules on anybody, but we must all care of the whole group.

This health policy is an extension of the conference code of conduct, that everyone is expected to follow. Like the rest of the Code of Conduct, it is not a rigid set of rules to be used to kick people out of the conference, but guidelines to follow. If attendees don’t respect the code and their fellow attendees, they can expect to be reminded of the policies. Eventually, if continually ignored, this can and will lead to attendees being asked to leave the event.

The minimum expected behaviour for all of our attendees is:

• Be excellent to each other. Understand that some attendees are more at risk than others, and we don’t all take the same risks in handling infectious disease.

• You SHOULD get vaccinated against at least the most common infectious diseases (COVID, flu) weeks or months before coming to DebConf.

• You SHOULD test for current infectious diseases before starting to travel to DebConf. Recovering at home is much more fun than staying two weeks locked down at the hotel room or travelling while sick.

• If you feel a little unwell or just “down”, you MUST:

• Request a COVID-19 self-test from the front-desk.

• Avoid enclosed spaces with uninfected attendees as much as possible.

• Wear a mask whenever around others and food.

• If you know you are infected with something contagious, you MUST:

• Let the organization know: Email im-sick@debconf.org

• Avoid enclosed conference spaces, and instead attend talks remotely.

• Request isolated accommodation.

• You MUST only smoke in the designated smoking areas. The conference spaces are smoke-free.

The conference organisers will:

• Strongly recommend vaccines for infectious diseases before attending debconf (covid, flu, etc.)

• Aim to have venues with good ventilation (natural, or filtered)

• Aim to provide a convenient, comfortable smoking area fairly close to the venue. Ideally with hacking space, within wifi coverage, while still avoiding to bring smoke to the venue

• Recommend wearing a mask in enclosed places if you think you may be ill, or have a higher risk profile than average)

• Provide adequate N95 and surgical masks at the front desk.

• Provide open spaces for attendees with infectious diseases to socialize

• Provide adequate tests for current infectious diseases (at least COVID)

• Make events that are part of the conference accessible to people who need to keep a distance from the main attendee body, on a best-effort basis and considering the nature of each such event.

• Make isolated accommodation available (on-site, where possible) for attendees who need to self-isolate.

• Notify the hotel/venue know which rooms have infectious attendees in them, so they can protect their staff.

• If we offer our meals in a buffet-like setting, make it possible for sick attendees to serve themselves on meals by setting up a separate food station. If that’s not possible, make it possible for them to look at the food and state their preferences so that somebody serves them as they want

• Cover your travel bursary, if you need to cancel attendance due to an infectious disease. And the (reasonable) cost of an early return for the same reasons.

• Refund your conference-organized expenses if you have to cancel attendance due to an infectious disease.