Le 2025-07-18 23:39, micah anderson a écrit :
You erroneously conflate solitary confinement with self-isolation in order to conclude that the effects are the same between then two.
This is not the point I was trying to make. I presented evidence that self-isolation is harmful, even in our case. Humans are very social animals and ostracism hurts whatever the reason (having good reasons to stay away may help to cope with this, but still). I took solitary confinement as an example of isolation pushed to the extreme. And indeed penitentiary administrations are known to add some extra unpleasantness to the punishment (which is not always a deserved one, sometimes prisoners are taken there to “protect” them from other prisoners — or themselves). But the loss of social activity is what hurts the most.
While both involve isolation, solitary confinement is far more extreme, restrictive, and psychologically harmful. COVID self-isolation is a health strategy — inconvenient and sometimes can be emotionally difficult, especially if it is over extended periods of time (which Debconf is not), but it's fundamentally different in terms of freedom, dignity, and support.
Well, I've seen, heard and felt first-hand evidence of how painful it was for some of us “covidés”, including myself. There was not only isolation going on here, but rejection as well. Among other things, the lack of COVID “heroes” volunteers caused me to skip 3 breakfasts, and be unsure about other meals, sometimes until the last minute.
So yeah, not the same. Sure some people during Covid, who were isolated for significant periods of time had mental health degradation, Debconf is not that significant of time
To me this sounds very much like you explaining us how we should have felt about this.
and not self-isolating increases the risk of every single other attendee having actual health degradation,
There is, indeed, marginally (as in: not that much) less risk with keeping COVID-positive people away. But your (and my) risk could also be made much lower by not travelling and attending DebConf at all.
-- Julien Plissonneau Duquène