After an entire year into the COVID-19 pandemic, factors of pre-pandemic life are coming back. A popular northern California convention has made its comeback this past weekend. SacAnime is typically a semi-annual convention for anime fans and vendors that takes place over a span of three days. It is usually held at Cal Expo in Sacramento, but this year they have decided to switch venues to Roebbelen Event Center in Placer County to accommodate new safety guidelines considering the pandemic. However, the Roebbelen Event Center is currently being used as a COVID-19 vaccination site. For the three days of the event, the vaccination site was shut down to host the 2021 SacAnime Swap Meet. 

The Placer County Health and Human Services Spokesperson, Katie Combs-Prichard, had an email conversation with The Sacramento Bee and explained the plans for the vaccination site and SacAnime. “The clinic has extended its hours this Monday through Wednesday into the evening to maximize the volume of doses administered this week, compensating for the closures,” Combs-Prichard stated. However, it doesn’t seem likely that they can fit as many individuals that need vaccinations into the few extended hours in comparison to the number of shots they can distribute over an entire weekend. 

The SacAnime Twitter responded to the backlash stating, “The clinic never had plans to be open during the scheduled time, and declined our offer to restrict our event space so they could remain open.” Even though the clinic didn’t have plans to open over the weekend, an event with a large number of people attending should not be held in a COVID-19 vaccination site that is still being used. Although the county has approved SacAnime with the new safety guidelines, residents of Placer county are not very happy with this decision to close a vaccination site for a “swap meet”. 

A Facebook user commented on SacAnime’s recent post stating, “They are taking away the largest vaccination center in the county for this.” Another user implied that the organizers of SacAnime are labeling the event as a “swap meet” instead of a “convention” to bypass California’s COVID-19 restrictions. The California guidelines state that all conventions must remain closed in every county. However, swap meets are allowed to operate at 50% of the normal capacity in counties that are in the red tier, which Placer county is classified as. 

Events like a swap meet, conventions or similar gatherings are not defined as essential, therefore they should not be happening at all. There is no way of monitoring who has come in contact with the virus, especially those who are asymptomatic. It would have been beneficial if the event is postponed to a later date, especially if the residents of Placer County feel unsafe with this event happening.

Over the weekend, SacAnime has received a lot of social media traffic. Individuals who attended the event posted pictures where people were gathering in large groups and not social distancing. Individuals also posted pictures without masks on at all even though face masks were required at all times. This continued with news clips being released from CBS13 where attendees passed the camera while wearing their facemasks incorrectly. There were no sanitizing stations provided on the main sales floor where people were seen touching the same items over and over again. The swap meet was held in an indoor event center where ventilation and air purification could not be reassured. The safety guidelines were clearly not reinforced and ignored by SacAnime and those attending the event.

It is completely understandable that people want to have human interaction, they want to see their friends and attend fun events after being isolated for an entire year. However, the pandemic isn’t over yet and events like this are not 100% safe to have when the virus is still so easily transmitted, especially when the guidelines are being ignored by those partaking in the event. The organizers in addition to the Placer County health officials should have either heavily reinforced the guidelines at the event or canceled the event completely.