It’s the last day of the Java One conference, which has been pretty darn good, and I get this email from the organizers:
The JavaOne conference team has been notified by the San Francisco Department of Public Health about an identified outbreak of a virus in the San Francisco area. Testing is still underway to identify the specific virus in question, but they believe it to be the Norovirus, a common cause of the “stomach flu”, which can cause temporary flu-like symptoms for up to 48 hours. Part of the San Francisco area impacted includes the Moscone Center, the site of the JavaOne conference which is being held this week. We are working with the appropriate San Francisco Department of Public Health and Moscone representatives to mitigate the impact this will have on the conference and steps are being taken overnight to disinfect the facility. We have not received any indication that the show should end early, so will have the full schedule of events on Friday as planned. We hope to see you then.
Please see the attached notification from the Department of Public Health.
Uhh, yeah. Norovirus, to quote the Wikipedia, “causes approximately 90% of epidemic non-bacterial outbreaks of gastroenteritis around the world,[1][2] and is responsible for 50% of all foodborne outbreaks of gastroenteritis in the US.[3] Norovirus affects people of all ages. The viruses are transmitted by faecally contaminated food or water and by person-to-person contact.[4]”
(You may remember noroviruses from several on board cruise ships. It sounded pretty hellish at the time.)
What’s more, “After infection, immunity to norovirus is not complete nor long-lasting.” (Wikipedia again)
There’s more info at the SF department of public health page; that’s where I got the picture.
After pondering a bit, I decided that the two sessions that I had left weren’t reason enough to run the risks, and hopped a flight home a day early. United wanted a mint to return early (boo!), and the Serrano Hotel charged me a hundred bucks to check out early (double boo, you loser bastards!), but SWA came through with a total fare of 145.
Other than that, the conference was most excellent. And I’m healthy, and home.
Update 5/10: Story from SFGate is here, says ‘about 70 people’ got sick.