Can a Conference be Epidemiologically Conscious? A Pilot Study of Implementing COVID-19 Mitigation Measures at an In-Person Conference

Publication date: Jun 30, 2025

Introduction: Public health guidance about respiratory agents often focuses on the county level, overlooking local events that may increase transmission, such as conferences. Objectives: To understand conference-level mitigations, we assessed the use of a COVID Conscious protocol implemented during the 2022 North American Victorian Studies Association conference (Bethlehem, PA; September 28th to October 2nd). Methods: Eleven surveys measured attendees’ mitigation behaviors before, during, and after the conference. The proposed conference mitigation strategy included (for all 258 attendees; 84 completed surveys): provision of N95 masks, access to rapid antigen tests (RATs) and local public health information, and air quality improvement. Results: The proportion of attendees testing was highest in the two days after the conference (85% and 88%) with those reporting symptoms having higher odds of testing (OR: 3.81; 95CI% [1.19, 7.63; p

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