Jason Snell:

Facebook, Microsoft, and Google have now cancelled major conferences in the face of the spread of the coronavirus. Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, usually takes place in early June—and all eyes will now turn to Apple to see how the company will respond.

And:

Perhaps the best reason to cancel conferences is not to stop the spread of the virus, but to slow its spread, because our existing health infrastructure will be under intense pressure, and if a huge spike of patients happens, the hospitals will be overwhelmed.

From the Google I/O cancellation announcement:

Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre.

All guests who have purchased tickets to I/O 2020 will receive a full refund by March 13, 2020. If you don’t see the credit on your statement by then, please reach out to [email protected]. Guests who have registered for I/O 2020 will not need to enter next year’s drawing and will be automatically granted the option of purchasing an I/O 2021 ticket.

This seems a reasonable policy. The risk of public exposure, of Google high level management, marketing, and engineering team exposure, way too high. Prudent caution.

Will Apple follow this lead? Google I/O was originally scheduled for May 12-14. Apple’s WWDC would normally occur about a month after that, which gives Apple some time to formulate their approach to this problem.

Do they cancel altogether? Produce the first-ever remote WWDC? One thing I can’t imagine is WWDC going on in the normal way, in person and as scheduled.

Coronavirus is throwing a monkey wrench into everything.