The International Housewares Association, as part of its program for enhanced safety during The Inspired Home Show 2022, reported new data projecting the COVID transmission rate during the show in early March will be well below recommended safe travel and gathering thresholds.
IHA and Epistemix, which develops simulations to model the spread of diseases and inform policy, released updated data that projects the risk of COVID transmission at a rate of less than 0.1% of total attendance during The Inspired Home Show, March 5-7, 2022. This projection places The Inspired Home Show below the Center for Disease Control (CDC) threshold for safe travel and gathering.
IHA and Epistemix are working together to develop appropriate mitigation strategies to improve and ensure the safety of The Inspired Home Show.
Epistemix’s latest projections for the low virus transmissibility rate during the show, consider, among many factors, including McCormick Place’s GBAC certification, use of hospital-grade sanitation and increased airflow filtration; The Inspired Home Show masking, testing and vaccination protocols.
The robust program of safety measures that Chicago requires, along with what McCormick Place and IHA will have in place means a reduction in transmissibility by 4X compared to other typical activities in Chicago public spaces.
-Dr. Lindsey Reiser, Managing Director of Professional Services, Epistemix
Epistemix reported its data has proven to be 95% accurate when forecasting for past events.
“After two years without a major home + housewares industry trade show, both retailers and suppliers are craving in-person product discovery and interaction,” said Derek Miller, president and CEO of the International Housewares Association. “To ensure success and meet the expectations of our attendees, IHA has worked with Epistemix, a firm of epidemiologists and computational modeling experts to help us develop policies and protocols to protect our guests and staff.”
“Creating a controlled environment is crucial for conferences like The Inspired Home Show,” said Dr. Lindsey Reiser, managing director of Epistemix Professional Services. “The robust program of safety measures that Chicago requires, along with what McCormick Place and IHA will have in place means a reduction in transmissibility by 4X compared to other typical activities in Chicago public spaces.”
Covid-related statistics in Chicago continue to improve, and this trend is expected to continue into February and March, according to local health officials. On January 19, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady noted that the average number of cases per day had dropped by more than 50% since early January. Arwady announced “I am very, very pleased to say that we have formally passed the Omicron peak here in the city of Chicago…this is not just an artifact of testing. This is in fact, a true peak.”
