Rather than any virtual computer virus, some techies who attended last week’s packed Bitcoin Conference are battling the real thing.
Several crypto enthusiasts have tweeted that they tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the Miami gathering.
The event — which drew 12,000 people to see everyone from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, take the stage —took place at the Mana Wynwood convention center. There were also a number of bashes surrounding the conference, which appeared to be mostly mask-free and did not have vaccine requirements.
“Everyone I hung out with in Miami got COVID,” tweeted an employee at crypto Web site Block.
“Looks like I’m joining the BTC Covid list,” said another.
“I literally just assumed everyone was vaccinated,” one attendee told us. “If you are smart enough to make the money to afford a $1,500 ticket, and pay the super-high hotel price, you should be able to figure out how to get vaxxed.”
Florida has been notoriously lax when enforcing coronavirus guidelines, with all mandates suspended in May.
Mayor Suarez commented to Page Six, “My office has been made aware of a number of unconfirmed tweets about people contracting COVID-19 during last weekend’s Bitcoin 2021 Conference. Based on public data from hospitals and other watchdogs, we have no reason to believe the conference was a ‘Super Spreader.’”
He added: “At this point, with the information we know, this characterization of the event is not only unfair but also irresponsible — Miami played host to over 50,000 people throughout the weekend while the conference sold 12,000 tickets,” Suarez said. “Here in the city of Miami we take the adherence to CDC and Florida DOH guidelines very seriously as our community navigates the current stage of the pandemic. We’re in constant communication with the health authorities and will continue monitoring this situation and we hope everyone who visited Miami is healthy and doing fine.”
Reps for Bitcoin Magazine, which ran the event, told Vice “Vaccines have been freely available for months in the US, to the extent that anyone who wanted to be vaccinated could do so by the time of the event. Because the vaccine is effective, the US has been able to begin to open back up with live sports, concerts and events.”
The reps also stated, “We provided all attendees with the current recommendations of the CDC and State of Florida and expressed to our audience that those who were high risk or hadn’t been vaccinated should consider waiting until next year. All attendees were offered free masks and hand sanitizer upon entering the event.”