Tips for a Covid-Free Champs Experience

Competition Championship Event
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With a lot of people traveling in from around the world for Champs, trying to keep ourselves and each other safe becomes even more important. I’m going to share my tips and tricks for best practices and how to stay safe. Obviously everyone’s risk tolerance is different, and you don’t have to follow all my suggestions, but if you’re looking for some best practices I figured I’d share. NOTE: these also work to protect against other Airborne diseases.

I have been following them all for 5 off-seasons, 1 FLL event, and 6 on-season events, some of which had confirmed positives and I have not gotten Covid (confirmed by weekly surveillance testing), or any other bugs (no robo-flu!) and neither has anyone in my immediate family. I’m also at increased risk for Covid, so I’ve done my research. Knowledgeable people feel free to add on.

First and foremost, if you can get tested before you go, and don’t leave if you feel sick. I know it’d suck to miss champs, but getting other people sick or God forbid getting stuck in Houston due to testing positive would suck more.

Masks: Masks are one of the best ways you can protect yourself. Even though the airline mask mandate was just struck down, if possible I would suggest wearing a mask in the airport and while on the plane. It will help keep you, your team, and the entire community at Worlds safe. N95s or KN-95’s or KF-94s are best. If you can handle the N95s, they are the ones most likely to give you a good seal, but any well fitting respirator will be a big help, especially since masks are not required by others. There are some ways you can self-fit test respirators I’d be happy to share with anyone who asks. If you don’t want to wear a mask your whole flight, or even for any of it, you should at the very least wear them for boarding and unboarding. The ventilation system that makes airplane air so fresh usually does not run during boarding and unboarding, so this will be the riskiest time of your flight. Do not take off your mask to eat or drink while this is happening. Once you are in the air, you can set the vents above your head to be running towards the bottom of your face for maximum airflow. P.S., don’t double mask with respirators. The additional pressure from the second mask actually makes the seal worse and does more harm than good. Double masking with cloth and cloth or cloth and surgical is fine though, but not as good as a single respirator. Eye protection is also important. Covid can enter through your eyes, so wearing safety glasses can help avoid aerosols in your eyes. When going through TSA, you will be asked to take down your mask briefly. When you do this, you should hold your breath while pulling off your mask. Then, when you put it back on, exhale to ensure any particles which got into your mask while it was off are also exhaled.

Vaccines: Obviously it’s a little late now, but being updated on your vaccines can help. Getting boosted is a good idea, or a second booster if eligible. I know I got my second booster a little over 2 weeks ago to ensure I was well protected for the trip. It can help protect against the worst, and more recently vaccinations still provide efficacy against infection.

Hotels: A lot of hotels are now by default not providing housekeeping between days to avoid people in your room. If they don’t do this by default, you can request it to be done. When you first arrive, you should keep your mask on and prop open windows to expel and aerosols from people who may have been in your room prior. Thankfully, many hotels have upgraded ventilation, so you should be fairly safe within your own room

Eating If possible, eat outside whenever possible. Soak up the Houston sun, enjoy it, and the increased air circulation should help keep you and your team safe

General Hygiene Wash you hands often, and just practice good hygiene in general. The Convention Center has upgraded ventilation including HEPA Air Purifiers, and there should be plenty of hand sanitizer around the venue.

I think this is all for now. Let me know if I missed anything. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy, and I can’t wait to see you in Houston!

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Wow okay, I can see I ruffled some feathers. Obviously people have different risk tolerances, but however you feel about Covid, people should have the right to protect themselves and I’m just giving my advice on how I’ve been doing it. I just wanna enjoy robots, and I hope you all do too.

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It was the general hygiene bullet point that some folks objected to

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You presented a well thought out post repeating scientifically proven methods to prevent the spread of infectious disease. Any one who has a problem with it should really reconsider their reasoning and motivation.

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Two of our local teams was hosting a “Mentor Workshop” every other year. At the last one, one of the mentors stated that two of the most difficult things to do for out of town competitions was to get some (many) of the team members to shower regularly and to use deodorant.

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That… doesn’t surprise me. This is why my mom makes sure to buy at least 3 team shirts for every year I compete. Mascot costumes became their own issue though…. Speaking of, I should probably wash my cape before worlds.

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Anyone who down thumbed, just curious why you did? This seems like a pretty reasonable post, just curious if you disagree with wearing masks, getting vaccinated, or eating in the nice warm Houston sun.

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…or the general premise of staying safe?

Agree…would love to hear from @Sohaib @Dorsai @joshua9889 @brickleberry on what is objectionable about this post.

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We’re 2+ years into the pandemic, it’s a bit much to be offering up the same advice that we’ve been nonstop bombarded with as ‘tips and tricks’, as though they’re some kind of revelation.

That is all.

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Who hurt you?

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This is the part where you skip reading this thread if you don’t want the info. :slight_smile:

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Agreed, this is old hat by now, we all should be doing it from muscle memory at this point

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Fair enough. A lot of what we’ve been offered is unfortunately safety theater, so I was hoping to provide some proven techniques which actually work. Wiping down your driver station isn’t going to protect you from Covid or any other airborne disease. Wearing a tight fighting respirator will. A lot of people, myself included, haven’t traveled in the past 2 years. I know hearing about how to deal with TSA asking you to pull down your mask, and trying to figure out whether to double mask or not was really helpful for me, and I figured I’d share what I learned. Trust me, I’ve been to a lot of competitions this year. You act like this is all obvious information everyone knows and follows, but if it was I wouldn’t have to post this.

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Don’t put it in the washing machine, BTW. :slight_smile:

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Thanks mom

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Solid post OP, thank you for the reminders, especially with the good dose of positivity.

Something folks should keep in mind as they attend: There will be people there who won’t meet your expectations for safe behavior. Sucks, but that’s just how the world is now. Not everyone is on the same page.

Can you change it? Possibly. Posts like this do help.

But, how do you want to spend your champs? Chasing down every person who doesn’t wear a mask? Stewing angrily in the stands over someone who has a gator around their neck but clearly not covering anything else? Getting stressed over venue policies and their enforcement (or lack thereof)?

Feelings like these aren’t invalid, and are warranted! They stem from issues that folks have with what should be basic courtesies at this point. But the honest state of the world is that they aren’t a foregone assumption in everyone’s mind. We haven’t gotten there in two years, we’re certainly not going to get there in the next 24 hours.

My honest advice: Fight through the sources of stress that are guaranteed to be present this weekend. Make sure to focus on the robots. That’s why you’re there - to see some crazy cool robot action, and be inspired to better yourself. It’s hard to get your travel money’s worth if you let the whole weekend be consumed by anger and frustration at things that, frankly, you don’t actually have control over.

Be safe. Both in how you act, but also in how you think.

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I think it says a lot about a person if they get upset at people who try to keep themselves and others around them safe. Why does that upset you so much?

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For a group of people who plead freedom so often, they sure don’t like the freedom to keep oneself safe. (Or the freedom to tell others how to)

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No one is stopping you from isolating at home, wearing a proper fitting respirator (in fact, you are now allowed to wear the better version with a vent!), or getting boosted. All those things should keep you protected from the unwashed masses.

But dang, you’ve got a “1984” definition of freedom going.

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BINGO!

I got Bingo! Where do I turn in my card?

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