{"id":10021,"date":"2021-03-07T16:53:50","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T21:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=10021"},"modified":"2021-03-08T05:41:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T10:41:20","slug":"exactly-one-year-ago-a-memorable-dinner-before-a-memorable-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/exactly-one-year-ago-a-memorable-dinner-before-a-memorable-year\/2021\/03\/07\/","title":{"rendered":"Exactly One Year Ago, a Memorable Dinner Before a Memorable Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Feb 23, 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

On March 7, 2020, right before CROI <\/a>here in Boston, a bunch of us ID types planned to get together for a pre-conference dinner. A mixture of Bostonians and out-of-towners who hadn’t seen each other for a while. A chance to catch up before our busiest (and most important) scientific meeting.<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/p>\n

One person landed in Boston, and promptly got the next flight back to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Another canceled his flight and never left home. A shame, too, since he was bringing his new partner (whom I still haven’t met). I hear she’s really fun and interesting.<\/p>\n

One had to stay home due to a no-travel ruling issued for all his faculty. (Those edicts had not yet come from Harvard, but would a week later.)<\/p>\n

A fourth had arrived early for the conference, but was so busy setting up the now “virtual” CROI that dinner for her was out of the question.<\/p>\n

And of course, attendees from Europe (especially) already had pulled out of the conference en masse.<\/p>\n

You get the idea.<\/p>\n

Our numbers for dinner were substantially down, but we still assembled with (mostly) locals. Indoors. Windows closed. It’s winter here in early March. Plenty of hand-washing and, befitting the fomite-centric perspective at the time about SARS-CoV-2 transmission, extra use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer — something I’d never purchased before.<\/p>\n

That evening was filled with lots of discussion about the Biogen conference<\/a>. About China, Italy, Spain, and Iran, and what was undoubtedly coming our way soon. About our frustration with the lack of COVID-19 testing<\/a> — we ID doctors spent all of February complaining about that, with no answers coming from anywhere. Just painful silence.<\/p>\n

And, yes, lots<\/em> of anxiety.<\/p>\n

Now, as CROI starts up again<\/a> — virtually, of course — I think back to that night. A dinner indoors with friends and colleagues, possible a year ago today but unimaginable since, could now again happen in our (fully vaccinated) future.<\/p>\n

Not saying I know when<\/em> it will happen — just that it could. <\/em>Hope.<\/p>\n

Wow, it’s been a memorable year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 7, 2020, right before CROI here in Boston, a bunch of us ID types planned to get together for a pre-conference dinner. A mixture of Bostonians and out-of-towners who hadn’t seen each other for a while. A chance to catch up before our busiest (and most important) scientific meeting. What happened? One person […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[4601],"class_list":["post-10021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-infectious-diseases","tag-covid-19"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}