Inbox: Munich Security Conference – Coronavirus Policy #Covid19

February 18, 2020 By in Americans Abroad, MEDical, Org Life, Realities of the FS, State Department, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , ,
We got this recently in our inbox. The Munich Security Conference was Feb 14, 2020 – Feb 16, 2020. Sender A notes that this was written anonymously for fear of retribution:

Although CDC website states, “For the general American public, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus, the immediate health risk from 2019-nCoV is considered low at this time,” there is nothing “general” about the Munich Security Conference [MSC] and its Corornavirus policy. 

Multiple congressional delegations and US senior officials will spend 2-4 days in a small, tightly-packed hotel with over 1,000 people (imagine a small cruise ship) at the Bayerischer Hof – the MSC venue.  All the while, this venue is open to participants coming directly from China and participants who may have recently traveled to China.  Given the prestige around attending MSC, it would be naive to assume that none of the MSC participants downplayed their travels to and around China simply to secure entry into Germany.

If anyone from the USG contracts the coronavirus as a result of attending MSC, will they be eligible for workers compensation? High level USG officials had a choice to attend or not attend MSC (and thereby risk contracting coronavirus); the staff they dragged along not so much.  Will US citizens who attend this conference, including all senators, be tested for coronavirus upon arrival into the US? Or do the rest of us have to hope they don’t inadvertently bring this virus back with them? 

Perhaps it is time for State Department’s Office of Medical Service to publish its so-called assessment of MSC/coronavirus risk.  The one that was passed around to everyone.  To say it utterly failed to take into account the impact of working in close quarters over multiple days in an enclosed space that welcomes participants who have just come from or recently traveled to China is an understatement.  Considering this virus spreads even when a carrier has no symptoms, if a similar event is to take place on US soil, does the State Department plan to hand out travel waivers to all foreign government officials who have just come from or recently traveled to China?