Essayist Jodie Noel Vinson was finally recovering this summer after three years of “long COVID,” the lingering illness that affects some people after contracting COVID-19, when, despite misgivings, she decided to attend the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in August. Although she knew Bread Loaf’s policy of optional masking and vaccination for participants, she decided the opportunities offered by the prestigious conference outweighed the risks. But her feelings changed after her fourth full day at the conference’s campus at Middlebury College in Vermont, when she learned by e-mail from the organizers that participants had tested positive for the virus, including someone in her workshop. The next day she tested positive herself.
After discovering she had COVID-19, she says, Bread Loaf organizers asked her to leave the conference. With an escalating fever,was offended by the tone of those e-mails as well, calling them dismissive of people who needed care. Vinson believes that masking should have been required, if not at the start of the conference then after Bread Loaf staff learned attendees had tested positive.
