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Health Guidelines

The OSG School 2024 at the UW–Madison welcomes participants from around the United States plus India, Mali, and Uganda. This page contains health guidelines for this year’s School. While the focus is in COVID-19, most of these guidelines also apply to preventing the spread of other infectious illnesses (flu, colds, GI viruses, etc.).

It is very important to us that everyone stays safe and healthy throughout the whole School. We will have the best event possible if everyone stays well! There are no hard rules here, just a reminder that we are all in this together.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about these guidelines, please email us at [email protected] or message us on Slack.

Before Traveling to the School

If you tested positive for COVID recently (past 2 weeks or so), please follow CDC guidelines for what to do when sick.

Even if you have no symptoms or known exposure, consider taking a rapid test before traveling to improve the odds that you are not bringing COVID to the event. If you DO test positive before the School, or if you do not feel well enough to travel for any reason, please let us know immediately so we can accommodate (see below for remote participation options).

While in Madison

Wearing a mask is welcome at the School itself when indoors or in other poorly ventilated areas. We can provide a few high-quality KN95 masks for people who would like them and have not brought their own.

We encourage everyone to consider outdoor dining options when reasonable — not just for reducing risk, but also because Madison is beautiful in the summer!

While in Madison, if you feel unwell, stay home or at the hotel. When you can, let School staff know why you are absent — by email or Slack — and if you would like to keep up with exercises and lectures, we will help support you remotely (see below).

If you experience possible symptoms of COVID-19, or test positive for COVID-19, follow CDC guidelines for what to do when sick.

Remote Attendance

If you are in Madison and are sick or quarantined, or if you are not able to travel to Madison, we will do our best to support you via remote attendance. We learned a lot about remote events during the pandemic! We can:

  • Try to stream lectures live over Zoom
  • Post all slides and exercises on the website
  • Be active on Slack and email
  • Conduct one-on-one consultations over Zoom

As long as you feel up to it, we will do our best to support you during the School.