Covid-19: Medical conferences around the world are cancelled after US cases are linked to Massachusetts meeting
14/03/2020
Medical conferences around the world have been cancelled because of fears about Covid-19 after a meeting in Massachusetts was linked to 70 suspected cases.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced earlier this month that 15 suspected cases of Covid-19 in the state had a direct connection to a meeting of staff from the biotech company Biogen, held in Boston in late February.
Two days later the Massachusetts state governor, Charlie Baker, declared a state of emergency. Massachusetts currently has six confirmed cases of covid-19 and 89 suspected cases.
In the US numerous meetings have also been cancelled, including the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American College of Physicians’ internal medicine meeting 2020.
The National Institutes of Health has called for all large meetings and symposiums that are not “mission critical” and are scheduled to be held at its facilities or organised by it to be held virtually, postponed, or cancelled (from BMJ News).