COVID-19 vaccine entrepreneur Dr Peter Diamandis, who hosted a mostly virtual conference with an in-studio audience last month, was one of the dozens infected at the event.
As he stood on the purple-lit stage of Culver City, California, one of his tech companies, hundreds listened to his views on COVID-19, unaware that 24 of the roughly 80 people present would test positive for coronavirus along with the host.
“I thought creating a COVID ‘immunity bubble’ for a small group in a TV studio setting was possible,” Mr Diamandis recently wrote on his personal website. “I was wrong.”
Dr Diamandis is the co-founder of the COVID-19 vaccine developer Covaxx, who also organised the annual Abundance 360 conference for entrepreneurs, CEOs and others.
Initially, the conference was to take place virtually, however the tech executive said his team was “inundated with requests” for physical participation, resulting in the decision to allow a few people to attend in-person (10 per cent of the usual audience).
Precautions were taken as both attendees and staff were tested for COVID-19 prior to the event, while on-site physicians and immunity-boosting treatments were present.
Masks were not mandatory, something which Dr Diamandis was one of the “biggest failings and one of the most important lessons learnt.”
Dr Diamandis is also the founder of several space companies and Singularity University, a Silicon Valley innovation hub.
