I haven't seen any discussion here of the actual virus risks in these large gatherings, so I thought I'd bring up the question. I admit I haven't read too much about this particular virus, but my belief is that the average demo day attendee is much more likely to die in a car accident on their way to the event, than from a virus caught at the event itself.
I'm personally doing plenty of traveling this month, taking advantage of discounted flights and hotels while lots of people rebook.
A single person can do whatever and no one gives a F.
As to the health authorities - they are acting responsibly.
It is in the best of interest to delay, manage and contain the virus spread, even though it's probably impossible to stop, because no country is in such surplus of medical resources to be able to admit hundreds of thousands of patients with severe respiratory issues. And the collapse of some local medical systems will incur mass hysteria which will make managing the crisis really difficult. So distributing the infections is really, really important, and will save many lives.
The risk isn't the virus itself. It's our social structures breaking down: grocery stores, public transit, hospitals. If 1M people catch the virus, who will care for them?
R0 is the number of people infected on average by each case of coronavirus. These measures are designed to get R0 as low as possible, since that will greatly reduce the spread.
The risk isn't attendees dying, the risk is spreading a disease faster that we don't have the medical capacity (as a country) to handle. It's roughly like getting a vaccine, slowing the spread will help vulnerable people.
And ongoing risk of an endemic new virus even after a vaccine is developed. Even though we have flu vaccine, it still takes its toll every year and is probably here to stay.
I'm personally doing plenty of traveling this month, taking advantage of discounted flights and hotels while lots of people rebook.
Am I mistaken? What do you guys think?