Apparently con crud cut a wide swath through the nerdlebrity contingent at this year’s show.
However, one negative note to come out of the event’s conclusion is the rampant outbreak of an illness. Some celebrities even publicly mentioned coming down with the communicable bug, such as long-time MythBuster’s figure Kari Byron stating that she needed a break due to coming down with “the Comic Con cold.” Wil Wheaton, of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Big Bang Theory fame, even amusingly dubbed the illness “ConSARS.”
While the consequences of sharing a bottle of Kristal in the Green Room have to be dealt with, we can only be glad that our nerdlebrity heroes soldiered on in the face of illness.
5 Comments on SDCC 12: ConSARS ravages nerdlebrity ranks, last added: 7/19/2012
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When I travel, I pop 500mg tablets of Vitamin C at least once a day. If symptoms start to develop (sneezing, throat), then I pop them more frequently.
If the recirculated air on an airplane doesn’t infect you, then the general mass of humanity at a con will.
Of course, at least one convention has been hit with a serious outbreak: Philadelphia, 1976, 34 deaths. So, with hope, that “ConSARS” remark won’t become a tasteless joke in retrospect…
I noticed I was sneezing a LOT during Comic-Con, walking the floor, and lots of people around me were, too. Now, a few days away from it, I have no symptoms. I wonder if the air ducts were crammed with dust or something?
Thanks for picking this up from my article, but I’m surprised you left out the part where Patient Zero was identified as former Playmate model Sara Underwood: http://twitter.com/SaraUnderwood/status/223075804320509952
I wonder if this happens at other cons, when you have that many people together I can see it also happening. I’m bother that it seems to pick on the fact that it’s geeks when it might have been brought in to the con by a playmate model in the first place.
“Con Crud” happens at almost any convention. The large number of vectors in a confined space (with recirculated air), with stress and lack of sleep, helps to encourage infections.
It got noticed at CCI because celebrities who tweet were involved.
The term “con crud” has been in use since at least 2002. It was only with the recent bird flu scare that public spaces such as airports and convention centers began to install free hand sanitizer dispensers. (Tip: want to save time? Use the hand sanitizers located outside restrooms for a quick and ecological alternative to washing your hands.)