Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2022 Sep 1;114(1):30-38. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2022.05.002. Epub 2022 May 20.
The COVID-19 pandemic largely suspended in-person scientific meetings because of risk of disease spread. In the era of vaccination and social distancing practices, meetings have begun returning to in-person formats. We surveyed attendees and potential attendees of 2 oncology meetings in the United States to identify rates of mixing behavior and the subsequent rate of self-reported COVID-19 infection.
We collected via survey reported social mixing behavior and COVID-19 positivity (within 21 days of meeting conclusion) of actual and potential in-person attendees of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Quality Care Symposium held September 24 to 25, 2021, and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting held October 24 to 27, 2021. Conference speakers and other participants were identified through publicly available meeting materials and targeted via e-mail when possible. Recruitment of additional attendees and potential attendees was also conducted through a sharable link promoted via oncology newsletters and social media. Descriptive statistics alone were performed owing to low COVID-19 event rates.
Response rates from targeted conference participants with publicly available e-mails were 27.4% for the ASCO and 14.3% for the ASTRO meetings. The ASCO survey produced 94 responses (48 in-person attendees). The ASTRO survey produced 370 responses (267 in-person attendees). Across both meetings, 3 of 308 (1.0%) in-person attendees versus 2 of 141 (1.4%) nonattendees tested positive for COVID-19. Low COVID-19 positivity rates were reported among in-person attendees spending more (>20) versus fewer (≤20) hours attending live sessions (2.2% vs 0%) and among indoor social event participants versus nonparticipants (0.8% vs 1.9%). Attendees largely felt comfortable attending additional in-person meetings after experiencing ASCO (87.5%) or ASTRO (91.9%) and felt mask compliance was good or excellent at ASCO (100%) and ASTRO (94.6%) meetings.
In-person meetings do not seem to be contributing to high rates of new COVID-19 infections in the setting of vaccine and social distancing mandates, supporting paths forward for at least partially in-person conferences as COVID-19 becomes endemic.
由于疾病传播的风险，COVID-19 大流行使得大多数现场科学会议暂停。在接种疫苗和保持社交距离的时代，会议已经开始恢复现场形式。我们对美国的两次肿瘤学会议的与会者和潜在与会者进行了调查，以确定混合行为的发生率以及随后自我报告的 COVID-19 感染率。
我们通过调查收集了 2021 年 9 月 24 日至 25 日举行的美国临床肿瘤学会（ASCO）质量关怀研讨会和 2021 年 10 月 24 日至 27 日举行的美国放射肿瘤学会（ASTRO）年会的实际和潜在现场与会者的社交混合行为和 COVID-19 阳性率（在会议结束后 21 天内）。通过公开的会议材料识别会议发言人及其他与会者，并在可能的情况下通过电子邮件进行定向邀请。还通过肿瘤学时事通讯和社交媒体上共享的链接来招募额外的与会者和潜在与会者。由于 COVID-19 事件发生率较低，仅进行了描述性统计分析。
有公开电子邮件的目标会议参与者的回复率为 ASCO 的 27.4%和 ASTRO 的 14.3%。ASCO 调查产生了 94 份回复（48 名现场与会者）。ASTRO 调查产生了 370 份回复（267 名现场与会者）。在这两个会议中，308 名现场与会者中有 3 名（1.0%），而非现场与会者中有 2 名（1.4%）COVID-19 检测呈阳性。在参加现场会议时间超过（>20 小时）与少于（≤20 小时）的现场会议的现场与会者中报告了较低的 COVID-19 阳性率（2.2%对 0%），以及参加室内社交活动的与会者与未参加者相比（0.8%对 1.9%）。与会者在参加 ASCO（87.5%）或 ASTRO（91.9%）会议后，普遍感觉可以参加更多的现场会议，并且他们认为 ASCO（100%）和 ASTRO（94.6%）会议的口罩佩戴情况良好或非常好。
在疫苗和保持社交距离的要求下，现场会议似乎并没有导致新的 COVID-19 感染率升高，这支持了 COVID-19 成为地方病时至少部分现场会议的前进道路。
