Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum
Fear of Global Visitors
RECEIVED Sun., March 1, 2020
Dear Editor,
Let’s Make Austin a Coronavirus Epicenter!
With a highly transmissible worldwide potential pandemic, in which travel is a primary enabling factor, let’s go forward with South by Southwest flying tens of thousands of global visitors to Austin to ensure the best possible chance of creating a toxic epicenter here. Certainly none of the attendees could possibly be carriers of this disease.
SXSW information advises to wash our hands and take precautions. Are they serious? Instead of not bringing it here, we will bring it here and then engage in prevention?
We will put innumerable global visitors into our restaurants, hotels, transit system, retail establishments and elsewhere so the show can go on. Not to forget the mass gatherings of crowds that make up the heart of SXSW, the concerts and shows. These attendees can always wash their hands afterward.
Financial considerations for cancellation would be enormous. I have sympathy for the organizers. What are the financial considerations if coronavirus spreads through our community and forces closure of businesses, schools, and other organizations? We can look across the Atlantic to see. But instead we bring it here. Has anyone looked at the greater long-term good for the community? Austin City Council? Mr. Mayor?
What are legal ramifications of proceeding with the knowledge of this possible result? The global planning is to keep the potential for infection at bay rather than bringing it to our doorsteps.
What was the determining rationale for going forward? How were the competing interests balanced? What input was given from the city of Austin? Ultimately our city government will be accountable also. These questions will surely be asked both formally and informally in the weeks and months following SXSW.
Let’s Make Austin a Coronavirus Epicenter!
With a highly transmissible worldwide potential pandemic, in which travel is a primary enabling factor, let’s go forward with South by Southwest flying tens of thousands of global visitors to Austin to ensure the best possible chance of creating a toxic epicenter here. Certainly none of the attendees could possibly be carriers of this disease.
SXSW information advises to wash our hands and take precautions. Are they serious? Instead of not bringing it here, we will bring it here and then engage in prevention?
We will put innumerable global visitors into our restaurants, hotels, transit system, retail establishments and elsewhere so the show can go on. Not to forget the mass gatherings of crowds that make up the heart of SXSW, the concerts and shows. These attendees can always wash their hands afterward.
Financial considerations for cancellation would be enormous. I have sympathy for the organizers. What are the financial considerations if coronavirus spreads through our community and forces closure of businesses, schools, and other organizations? We can look across the Atlantic to see. But instead we bring it here. Has anyone looked at the greater long-term good for the community? Austin City Council? Mr. Mayor?
What are legal ramifications of proceeding with the knowledge of this possible result? The global planning is to keep the potential for infection at bay rather than bringing it to our doorsteps.
What was the determining rationale for going forward? How were the competing interests balanced? What input was given from the city of Austin? Ultimately our city government will be accountable also. These questions will surely be asked both formally and informally in the weeks and months following SXSW.
William Schieffelin
