FoBAB 2021

Fobab is 8 months away. Do we really not think we’ll have an adequately vaccinated portion of the population to safely hold this fest?

 

We should be but being vaccinated is a choice. Unfortunately, like many things, the choice has become politicized along with usual kook anti-vaxxer drivel. Tough to say what the US actually will look like in November. Stinks.

 

If they move the fest out of IL, then yeah

 

Sure and the choice they get is to get the vaccine or risk dying from covid if they catch it at a beer fest.

 

I do not want to argue/discuss any of the rules, or if they should/should not have FOBAB.
All I know is that if get COVID, my wife will find SOME way to correlate it to BEER, so I have to be ULTRA careful!!!!!

 

1. Even if you’re vaccinated, it may be possible to acquire a viral load and transmit to others, even if you yourself aren’t sick. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...ar-mask-after-covid-19-vaccination-180977054/)

2. Death is not the only negative outcome. My coworker’s son (age 17) got it last April. He went from being a starting WR to getting winded walking up 2 flights of stairs. It’s 10 months later and he can’t even jog down the driveway, play basketball, roughhouse with his siblings, etc.

My kids and I have immune-compromised friends that aren’t able to get vaccinated, so not even FOBAB is worth that kind of risk.

 

I hear you but I encourage you to not buy into the underselling of the vaccine. The increasingly remote possibility of transmission is unnecessarily contributing to vaccine reluctance, IMO.

 

Oh, I’m completely on board the vaccine train. If vaccinations were more widespread, I’d have no problem venturing out. It’s because IMHO (a) the reluctance/irresponsibility rate is likely to be high, and (b) the uncertainty surrounding new strains, that I don’t feel safe. I know too many people in the “personal choice, it only affects me” camp that I’m pessimistic about reaching a safe level of communal immunity within the next 12 months. I really hope I’m wrong about that.

 

And sadly those people are screwed if they can’t get a vaccine they are doomed to life in a bubble or have to accept the risks of covid for the next 10 years.

 

The more we learn about the effects of the vaccine though, the better the results look.

The vaccines—especially the synthetic-mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna—are highly effective at preventing infection. But preventing infection is not all they do. Among those infected, they also reduce symptomatic illness. And among those with symptoms, they reduce long-term hospitalization and death to something like zero.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/why-covid-19-cases-are-falling-so-fast/618041/

The benefits of the vaccines are not just in reducing death rates to about 0% but they also significantly reduce the seriousness of infection to such a point that a "bad" case is more akin to getting the common cold. Sure, there will still be extreme outlier cases but the vaccine is really remarkably effective.

There's also this about transmission...

https://www.businessinsider.com/vaccines-reduce-coronavirus-transmission-early-research-2021-2

If you have immune-compromised people that can't get vaccinated then yeah maybe a festival in November wouldn't be for you. I get that.

I see no reason why there can't be a FOBAB in November though. When you get vaccinated you get a vaccine passport. When you check in to FOBAB if they ask for vaccination proof as part of your entry, then I think that's taking enough precaution to hold the festival.

 

This is 100% not happening.

 

Probably not, but it shows how FOBAB can happen and would be safe.

 

They could just repurpose the Chicago Craft Beer Week Passports and when you have accumulated enough vaccine stamps in your passport from visiting local watering holes you could be invited to attend closing festivities.

 

Skip the hard copy proof of vaccination. The FoBAB organizers can just scan the chips that are being implanted in our shoulders along with the vaccines.

 

For a comparison, the Great Taste just released a statement basically saying they were still looking into having the festival even if the chances are slim. It's outdoors unlike FOBAB but it's in August....

FOBAB might have a better chance than some other festivals of happening since the people pouring are volunteers. I was chatting with someone at a local brewery yesterday and they were talking about how they were turning down festivals because they didn't want to send their staff to go pour. This was related to a festival taking place in a barn this spring which I'm beyond shocked is happening (gotta love rural WI).

On the whole there are a lot of parties that all need to think it's acceptable for a festival to happen.

 

Right, but where does it end? Once the vaccine is readily available for months, we should still not have fests?

 

If you want beerfests, encourage those in your family/social circle to take the vaccine when they can. That’s the fastest path back to Fobab, Grrat Taste, etc.

 

Its not about the number of vaccines available its about the number of people being infected.

 

A couple thoughts, first is the 2020 Mix-6 FoBAb was a poor substitute. I understand why they did it and don't blame them a bit, but in retrospect it was in large part a donation to IMBIBE. Part of the attraction of FoBab is choosing beers that sound interesting or that you think you will like, not picking beers randomly. I appreciate the work all the volunteers put in but the value wasn't there.

The second is that the risk of COVID will not be zero in November and won't be zero for a long time. It ought to be a lot less prevalent than it is now but the governments are going to have to decide what is an acceptable level of risk. So far Chicago and Illinois have been pretty risk-averse and I'd expect that to continue.

When it comes to COVID transmission the traditional FoBab does everything wrong - a bunch of people crowded indoors for a prolonged period talking loudly and probably not wearing masks properly. This is purely a guess but I think Chicago will move in a step-wise fashion and a FoBab type of activity will be the last thing they OK. Since these things have to be planned ahead this leaves IMBIBE in a tough spot.