The annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association scheduled for next month in San Francisco has been cancelled and will now take place virtually because of the spread of the novel coronavirus, leaders of the group announced Friday.
California is one of the states with the highest number of confirmed cases of the virus in the United States. The governor has declared a state of emergency, as has the mayor of San Francisco.
In a lengthy statement, AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine and AERA President Vanessa Siddle Walker said: “Sadly, the pernicious presence and spread of the coronavirus internationally, including in recent weeks and days in the United States, makes it both impossible to hold a meeting that would even approximate the value of our annual place-based gathering and irresponsible to encourage, expect, or stand silent when attendees could be exposed to a communicable disease, affect Bay area workers or residents, and return to their homes transmitting an illness to family and friends even before it manifests itself.”
The annual gathering of education researchers typically draws upwards of 20,000 attendees.
Other major education-related conferences have also been cancelled because of the coronovirus, including the SXSW EDU event scheduled for next week in Austin, Texas.
Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows CDC’s laboratory test kit for the new coronavirus.—CDC via AP
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