Hi All,

This is turning into such a fruitful exchange that I thought I would insert a copy of an email that I originally wrote to Christine Appleberry and Sue Songer last week when they wrote to me from Portland while addressing their own dance community’s questions.

Dear Christine and Sue,

Big sigh.   This has been such a hard 18 months for all of us and it is difficult to take on board the fact that it simply isn’t over yet, despite how diligent so many of us have been in following all of the public health guidelines, including getting vaccinated.

The reason that Multnomah County can find itself in the seemingly paradoxical position of having both high rates of vaccination AND high rates of infection is due entirely to the delta variant, which has been determined to be as contagious as chickenpox. 

“As contagious as chickenpox” means that if one person has the Delta variant up to 90% of the people who come into close contact with that person will also become infected. 

WHAT DOES “CLOSE CONTACT” MEAN?

1. Being close enough to breathe in the air that someone else is breathing out.
• For contra dancers that means the danger will always be highest during swings, right shoulder rounds, hay for four in tight quarters, balance toward your partner/neighbor, etc.
• It also means that the cone of danger will get bigger and bigger the harder an infected person is breathing out and/or an uninfected person is breathing in. 
• When dancers are breathing hard, and depending on direction of airflow, the danger posed by an infected dancer could extend to the people in the next hands four or, for at least a couple of minutes, to any dancers coming up and down the line who cross into the airspace that dancer just occupied.
• To more easily visualize this, imagine contradancing with various rates of vigor in a room cold for enough to see their breath.  
2. Touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with something someone else breathed / coughed / sneezed on a moment ago.
• For contra dancers that means touching your own face after holding hands, even briefly, with an infected person who has recently had their hand near their face when they coughed, sneezed, cleared their throat, muffled a yelp of delight, sang along with the band, or did anything else that put that hand in contact with whatever was emanating from their mouth and nose.
• Note: COVID is a respiratory disease so a contra dancer is not at risk for anything beyond getting grossed out by touching someone else’s sweat-soaked back or shirt

AM I AT RISK FOR BEING PART OF THE 90% EVEN IF I AM FULLY VACCINATED?

Yes. Because although the current crop of vaccines seem to be quite good at keeping fully vaccinated people from getting sick, ending up in the hospital, and dying from all the currently known types of SARS-CoV-2 (including the delta variant), they are not as good at the very much harder job of keeping a vaccinated person from becoming infected -- and therefore infectious -- in the first place. Particularly from the delta variant. 

BUT ISN’T THERE A WAY TO TELL WHEN PEOPLE ARE CONTAGEOUS?

Not always. Respiratory diseases are famous for making people super infectious while asymptomatic (no sign of illness) or pre-symptomatic (no sign of illness YET).  For example, most people who catch flu, chickenpox, or measles out in the community do so from someone who has no idea that they are even sick yet because they are still pre-symptomatic.

So most fully vaccinated dancers will NOT know that they may be shedding infectious virions of the delta variant up and down the line with each exhaled breath because: a) they don’t feel sick, b) vaccinated people are not routinely tested, and c) everything in their prior personal experience has taught them that vaccinated = uninfected.  

DOES WEARING A MASK HELP?

Yes, a lot! But, in the Delta variant world we have all suddenly found ourselves plunged into, it only helps if everyone -- including vaccinated people -- wear them while in close contact with other people.  And a lot of people find it really difficult to dance hard for more than a short time in masks. 

• Dancers seem to particularly dislike the N95 masks currently being advocated because they have a very close fit (thereby making them safer than standard masks) which makes it more difficult to breathe hard (thereby making them a bummer).  
• A good alternative is to double mask with a “surgical” type mask under a cloth mask.  That combination increases safety while, inexplicably, also making it easier to breathe than through a cloth mask alone and reduces glasses fogging.  Win-Win!

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR MULTNOMAH COUNTY?

Because of the delta variant, Multnomah County has a large population of fully vaccinated people who have become unwitting, asymptomatic transmitters of COVID-19 to everyone around. Causing your COVID cases to surge.  

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR CONTRA DANCING?

Pragmatically, because of the delta variant it will be very difficult to hold a risk-free contra dance right now, even at vaccinated only events as a single vaccinated person who unknowingly has the delta variant could unwittingly pass it on to an entire room full of other vaccinated dancers over the course of the evening, for all of the reasons that I described above and Sue and the epidemiologist she encountered at a CDSS workshop lay out below.  Those newly infected dancers could then unwittingly take it home to their children, grandchildren, non-dancing family members, immunocompromised dinner guests, and anyone else who is unvaccinated, under-vaccinated, or even fully vaccinated.

BUT WHAT IF WE ASKED FOR PROOF OF NEGATIVE TEST RESULTS AT THE DOOR?

Testing is super helpful in identifying infectious people but it is not completely protective for Dance because it’s all about the timing. A negative test result from 24 hours ago just means a person’s test results were negative 24 hours ago. It DOESN’T mean they didn’t get infected 23 hours ago or prove that they weren’t infected up to several days ago but had not yet mounted a measurable response by the time the test was conducted.  In both scenarios, a person with a negative test result from 24 hours ago may very well still be infected and at risk for passing their infection on to all of their partners, neighbors, shadows, and trail buddies without even knowing it.

·     Some dances are paying for test kits to do on-site testing.  That will eliminate the “got infected 23 hours ago” possibility but not the “got infected too recently to mount a measurable test response” possibility.

WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO HAD COVID AND ARE OVER IT NOW? CAN THEY SAFELY DANCE / PLAY / CALL?

The jury is still out on that.  There have been reports from the beginning of the pandemic of people becoming sick more than once, but it seemed to be rare. Delta is so new that the data are still limited on whether people who have had Covid are any more or less susceptible to becoming asymptomatically infected -- and infectious -- if they run into the delta variant.  Given how rapidly the delta variant is surging there should start being epidemiological reports about that reasonably soon though. Stay tuned.

IS ENGLISH SAFER THAN CONTRA FOR DANCERS?

Yes, it is safer (albeit not actually safe) for all the reasons Sue lays out below. 

IS ENGLISH SAFER THAN CONTRA FOR MUSICIANS, CALLERS, AND SOUND?

No.  Particularly in the case of flute or clarinet players and anyone else who can’t realistically wear a mask while playing/calling.  In addition, I have also been hearing from musicians, callers, and sound techs that it is hard on their mental health when they start feeling trapped in place by lines of dancers or people out at the top who stray closer and closer to them and that they experience schizophrenic moments of joy mixed with panic when dancers start cheering (read: exhaling hard) in their direction after a dance, particularly if the dancers are also crowding around them while vocally expressing their enthusiastic appreciation. 

That’s it for now. Let me know if this is sufficient for y’all to start thinking through your next steps or if you would like to also talk on the phone.

Hands Four [properly sanitized of course] ☺

-Kimbi 

(in my day job role as Assistant Professor (Behavioral, Social and Health Education Science), Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University and Director/Goddess, Vaccine Dinner Club (a 4,300+ member science organization focusing on vaccine science)

P.S. For anyone interested in hearing more about Covid vaccine efficacy, variants, and boosters, the Vaccine Dinner Club (VDC) is having an online presentation on Wednesday, September 1 -- see here for more details and registration



Hi Liz and All,

 

The Bloomington Old Time Music and Dance Group (Indiana) has been holding a weekly contra dance outdoors on Wednesday nights since the beginning of June (11 dances so far). To date it has gone very well and our members have been very grateful for both the safety measures we have taken as well as the opportunity to gather and hear live music and dance again. That said, with the changing news of transmissibility of the Delta variant even among those who are vaccinated, our board is now having continuous discussions of whether we should stop holding the dance or modify procedures. None in attendance have come down with Covid to our knowledge (and given our community dynamics and knowledge of each other, we are likely to have known).

 

Here is how we have run our dance since the beginning of June:

 

• Dance held outdoors in a large open-air pavilion. Plenty of room for people to remain distanced as they like.
• When we started these dances, our community transmission was at the lowest category level according to state of Indiana and CDC guidelines.
• Must be a member of our group to participate. We did allow new members to join. This helps make sure we have contact information for all in attendance, and demonstrates some commitment to our group.
• Each person (including performers) must show proof of vaccination. We keep a list of our members and highlight the names when they show proof for reference in future weeks.
• Every person gets a wristband when they check in. That lets everyone else know their vaccination has been verified by us. Originally, we had two different color wrist bands for those who were ok with regular contra swings, and others who might want to keep more distance while swinging or might not want to do twirls, etc. I know partners should always ask that, but this helped make it more clear, especially as folks encountered neighbors in a line.
• We did not advertise our dance outside of our group. We sent our weekly email to our list and posted on our Facebook page. We did gain a number of new members, but that was through current members bringing friends who joined. This ensured that we knew everyone in attendance. Each person had a personal connection to at least one other and usually multiple other people present. Initially, we wanted to establish our procedures and to create a safe space for our current members to find their comfort level with gathering and dancing again.
• We are a small group in a relatively small community. We have had between 22 and 40 people attend including performers. We have had between 10 and 22 people dancing at any one time. Some people have never felt comfortable dancing in the contra line, but do enjoy listening to the music or dancing by themselves, or even doing the hula hoop to the music! We have emphasized we want everyone to participate at their comfort level and everyone has been very kind and accepting of different people’s comfort levels. Masks have been optional and worn by a few (that is now increasing).
• We have plenty of hand sanitizer bottles out at check-in and on the dance stage.
• Dance is shorter than in pre-Covid times. When we started we made it just an hour. Now it is usually about 80 minutes long with no designated break.
• We had been holding a weekly Zoom dance before this that began in March, 2020 when things shut down with the pandemic. We searched for options to keep the online option open, but could not find an outdoor location where we also had a strong internet signal. Some weeks we are able to allow others to listen in (no video) through a radio broadcast. We had a loyal Zoom following, and were nervous about losing that. But we now have a loyal in-person gathering with some, but not a great deal of overlap with the Zoom audience (mostly organizers/board members).
• Both our Zoom and our in-person audiences have been generous financially where we are able to give 100% of donations received to the performers. We made the in-person dance by donation instead of a set fee, and that has worked well. We have a lower guarantee to the band and caller than we did pre-Covid, but it often works out that the performers get about what they would have for our prior Wednesday night dances even though the playing time is less than before.

 

How that is changing:

Last week we decided to offer two contra lines – one restricted to dancers wearing masks and one where masks were optional. We changed the meaning of the different wrist band colors to signify this. It ended up working quite well. We ended up with 8 dancers in each group. There were some people who initially said they were open to wearing a mask while dancing, but once they tried it, they found they had difficulty breathing, and discovered it would be hard for them to dance with a mask on. The last two weeks we asked people to wear a mask when they check in. This last week, we made masks available for anyone who didn’t come prepared for that. Going forward with having two very small contra lines, we are making sure our callers are aware when they plan their program to account for that.

 

Our Board has been discussing the need to modify procedures via email in recent weeks, and also discussed at our board meeting yesterday. We have a few board members who would like to require masks while dancing or even discontinue holding the dance in person. Others would like to keep things as they are or step back to meeting in person, but with people dancing solo or with their designated partner while staying physically distanced from others. I would say the majority of our dancers come alone, so most do not have partners in their household. Different people have different opinions about whether it is still relatively safe to continue dancing as long as we are outdoors.

 

We have definitely canceled a planned one day dance event in October that was to be held indoors. If we continue with our weekly dance, it will be outdoors throughout September and perhaps into October. None of us on the board would consider an indoor dance at this time. We have begun buying lights and such as it begins to get dark a little earlier. We also moved the start time of our dance up to 7:30 pm to have more daylight (it used to start at 8 pm).

 

Personally, I am feeling much more uneasy about dancing so close with others even though they are vaccinated and we are outdoors. I wore a mask and danced only with others who were masked last week. The week prior I did not join the contra line. I wore a mask and only danced by myself and with one other person who was also masked. I do know people locally who were vaccinated and still got Covid (first outbreak was among local blues musicians). Each case seemed to be indoors, and while they may have initially gotten it from someone who was unvaccinated, there were cases where that vaccinated person went home and passed it on to their vaccinated partner. We now have a mask mandate in our county for indoor venues.

 

We have worked so hard to keep our community together through this. We were very proud to hold a successful weekly dance throughout on Zoom. However, now I doubt we will have the enthusiasm or interest to participate in a Zoom event if we discontinue our in-person dance. It is disheartening. Yet, I believe that if we were just deciding today whether to start back with an in-person dance, our board wouldn’t even consider it given the current numbers and the information about Delta. With having a successful in-person dance running the past 11 weeks, it’s tough to cancel it once again. The dance has brought great joy to those who have participated and has been good for everyone’s spirits.

 

--Mary Jean Regoli (she/her)

Board Member/Treasurer for Bloomington Old Time Music and Dance Group

 

 

Sent from Mail for Windows

 

From: Liz Burkhart via Organizers
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2021 4:43 PM
To: organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
Subject: [Organizers] Seeking news on covid infections from dances with vaccination

 

Hi all, with some dances resuming for the summer, I'd like to hear how that's been for dance communities. Have groups started and then stopped? Is there any news of infections from dance camps or weekends? I know Pinewoods heightened their requirements (from just vaccination to also multiple negative tests + masking for the first few days of American Week), and then cancelled the rest of their camps. 

 

Thanks,
Liz Burkhart (she/her)
Organizer with Lavender Country and Folk Dancers

 

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