COVID-19 Policy Changes
We updated our COVID-19 Policies on May 28th, 2023. This page explains the reasons for the change. There is also a PDF version available.
What changed?
The vaccination requirements have changed. Previously, the policy was that a recent vaccination or recent booster was required, which for many people would mean two boosters were needed as their first booster would have been administered prior to the date cutoff. The updated policy now requires either a vaccine + one booster or a recent / bivalent vaccine.
Why did the policy change?
We were contacted by multiple international attendees explaining that they were unable to get additional boosters beyond the first in their country. This led us to do additional research, which included finding an expert on COVID vaccination to discuss this with.
We had three options:
- Make exceptions for international attendees,
- not allow attendees from the affected countries, or
- change the policy.
Making exceptions for international attendees would go against our policy of only allowing exemptions for medical reasons. Banning attendees from affected countries, at this point in the pandemic, felt to us to be too strong of an approach that did not come with a significant increase in safety. That left only one remaining option.
Our goal is to make our convention as safe for our attendees as we can reasonably manage. We believe that these changes give the best amount of safety without excluding too many attendees that have the best protection their government allows.
Questions
If you have questions about vaccine requirements, testing requirements, or exemptions, please see our COVID-19 Policies page. If your question is not resolved from the information there, please email vax@goblfc.org. No other inquiries will be responded to at this address.