The event was expected to host more than 10,000 attendees.

This weekend was set to be one of the biggest weekends of the year for the American Physical Society (APS), which had one of its largest meetings of the year scheduled to take place in Denver. More than 10,000 attendees were expected to come to Denver, and many traveled from all over the world.

However, due to increasing concerns surrounding the spread of coronavirus, APS decided to cancel the meeting on February 29, which was very short notice. With only about 36 hours until the event, some attendees had already traveled to Denver and found themselves having made the trip for nothing.

An email sent from APS announced the cancellation via an official press release, which cited an "abundance of caution and based on the latest scientific data available regarding the transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)."

Though there are no known cases of the virus in Denver currently, many of those coming to the city for the meeting were traveling from places outside of the U.S. Some of those countries issued a Level 3 Warning regarding coronavirus shortly before the cancellation, which contributed to the decision.

“The health and well-being of our meeting attendees, staff, vendors, and the Denver community are our primary concern,“ said APS President Phil Bucksbaum. “We recognize and sincerely regret that the timing of this decision has significantly inconvenienced many members of our community.”

All registrants to the meeting will receive a full refund of their registration fees, and APS is working with local hotels involved and some U.S. government funding agencies to help lessen the financial hardship. Those who did make it to Denver are asked to make return travel arrangements as soon as possible. 

There was significant research to be presented at the conference, and APS would like to encourage presenters to share their work. Some have already taken to social media channels to do so, with APS announcing that it has a system in place where presenters can upload their work. Those who do are asked to provide a YouTube link, poster, or other resources, and attach those to the abstract. This will allow the physicist's community to view the presentations online.

“At its heart, the March meeting is a significant part of the annual cycle for sharing research, collaborating and networking. Thus, the cancellation of the 2020 meeting due to COVID-19 has left a substantial hole within the broad physics community. We would like to take this opportunity to remind presenters that APS has a system to upload presentations; provide a YouTube link, poster or other resource; and attach it to your abstract. The community then will be able to browse sessions, abstracts and presentations at their convenience.”

For those attendees who had already made it or were en route to Denver, it has created a bit of a debacle, with several choosing to just to stay the week in Denver as they've already paid for hotels and travel costs. Others are calling for a way to host discussions online, and many are concerned about the smaller yet still significant APS meeting set for April 18–21 in Washington, D.C.

And oh, boy. People were not too happy about the cancelation, just take a look at some of the tweets below:

@APSphysics I completely understand this decision taken, but the timing on this is appalling. Our team have just flown half way across the world to learn that this is cancelled on landing. We look forward to receiving information on reimbursement and compensation shortly.

— Dr Ilana Wisby (@IlanaWisby) March 1, 2020

My relaxing Saturday night turned in a chaotic shit storm of travel changes for me and my undergrad students. My guess is that @APSphysics is going to take some serious heat for this but it was likely the right thing to do. That takes courage.

— Matthew Wright (@WrightPhysHop) March 1, 2020

Dear all APS attendees, we are planning to go virtual. Please post the talks that you were expecting to give in video form to Twitter with the hashtag #MarchMeeting2020. Maybe this can also become a thing and we can help those unable to travel and also reduce some carbon output

— Christopher Savoie 佐保井 久理須 (@cjsavoie) March 1, 2020

My relaxing Saturday night turned in a chaotic shit storm of travel changes for me and my undergrad students. My guess is that @APSphysics is going to take some serious heat for this but it was likely the right thing to do. That takes courage.

— Matthew Wright (@WrightPhysHop) March 1, 2020

With over thousands of people in Denver for this, it was a very irresponsible decision. They should have made the decision at least a week in advance. This was going to be our 1st time exhibiting at #apsmarch, it is going to take a lot from them to convince us to ever come back.

— Vacuum Volume, LLC (@VacuumVolume) March 1, 2020

If you are already in Denver, here are some things to try out:
(1) The mountains: ski, snow tubing, rocky mountain NP etc.
(2) Visit local institutes: CU Boulder, CU Denver, UCCS, University of Denver, CSU, NIST, NREL etc.
(3) red rock amphitheater
(4) downtown Denver
...

— Bold Ideas🧢 (@VatUbi) March 1, 2020

@APSMeetings should arrange to still have the conference remotely via @zoom_us. One zoom meeting per session, where the links to the sessions could be emailed out for people who were looking forward to certain talks. Let the people present their science and results! pic.twitter.com/jkdF0Gk7m4

— Dr. Maren Mossman ⚛️ (she/her) (@TheAtomicMommy) March 1, 2020

Dear all APS attendees, we are planning to go virtual. Please post the talks that you were expecting to give in video form to Twitter with the hashtag #MarchMeeting2020. Maybe this can also become a thing and we can help those unable to travel and also reduce some carbon output

— Christopher Savoie 佐保井 久理須 (@cjsavoie) March 1, 2020

Dear all APS attendees, we are planning to go virtual. Please post the talks that you were expecting to give in video form to Twitter with the hashtag #MarchMeeting2020. Maybe this can also become a thing and we can help those unable to travel and also reduce some carbon output

— Christopher Savoie 佐保井 久理須 (@cjsavoie) March 1, 2020

Hey #APSMarch delegates, we're offering a complimentary CityPASS to 3 top Denver attractions so that you can enjoy some culture on us while you're in the #TheMileHighCity! @APSPhysics

Must email conference reg. to [email protected]. For Qs call 303.892.1505, M-F, 9-5 pic.twitter.com/5j2RlHeVaN

— Denver Meetings (@DenverMeetings) March 3, 2020

It's unfortunate that the conference had to be canceled, as it was going to bring a lot of people in the scientific community together and would bring a nice bit of business to Denver. However, we agree with the decision as we want to keep the city as safe as possible from the spread of coronavirus. As we mentioned in an earlier article, the CDC has said the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S in inevitable. 

What do you think about the cancellation? Do you feel it was the right move? Let us know your thoughts about all this in the comments.