Coronavirus Prompts FCBA to Postpone March Events; FCC Staffer May Isolate Self

The coronavirus is affecting more FCC-related events, with FCBA postponing all of its March gatherings (see 2003090055). An aide to a commissioner may quarantine herself due to possible exposure. For now, NAB's annual show in Las Vegas remains on, it said Monday (see 2003090030).

Erin McGrath, longtime aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, is expected to self-quarantine when she returns to Washington from Italy, officials said. That decision is consistent with federal government guidelines for countries where the virus is prevalent.

Last week, the commission said people who had journeyed within the past two weeks to any country subject to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 level three travel warning can't enter the agency's facilities. Italy was among those countries. See our earlier report here. Other such nations are China, Iran and South Korea, the CDC says.

Industry lawyers told us Monday that so far, their practices have been little affected by the coronavirus. Since many Washington, D.C.- based communications law firms have clients all over, they are used to dealing with them by phone and email rather than in person, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Dan Kirkpatrick.

FCBA marked as postponed some six further events on its website. It had previously delayed a single gathering, Thursday's International Telecom Committee brown bag lunch with wireless and international aides to FCC members. That was put off because of FCC curbs on staff during the outbreak (see 2003060050). As of late last week, the association was planning to go ahead with all other events, its staff said then.

Monday afternoon, FCBA President Josh Turner's email to members cited "the coronavirus outbreak" that's evolving rapidly. He noted the FCC and "a number of our members’ companies and firms have put temporary travel restrictions in place, and in some cases have limited participation in public events." (Read our earlier bulletin about the FCC's policy here.) Events delayed by FCBA include brown-bag lunches on broadband and one on 5.9 GHz (see 2003090059), a happy hour and a privacy symposium to have been held with the American Bar Association communications law forum next week. View our calendar here.

Since "the situation is fluid," FCBA isn't now changing its April and May events, Turner emailed. "We will be closely monitoring the guidance being promulgated" by the CDC and the World Health Organization, "as well as the impact of the policies put in place by our members’ companies, firms, and organizations, as well as the federal government." If "we are going to help reduce the spread of COVID 19, we need to be willing to make small sacrifices like these," Turner concluded his email. "Hopefully this disruption will be short, and we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon."

Prompting FCBA's changes were more members' organizations issuing coronavirus guidance, developments in Italy, and changes in attendance plans for the ongoing satellite show in Washington (see 2003090017), Turner said in an interview. "Our primary objective is just to make sure that we are keeping people safe and our events are not playing a role in further transmission." Some events planned for this month like a happy hour and a mentoring gathering couldn't be done virtually, Turner noted. Other things could have been done remotely, but there wasn't time to make alternative arrangements, he said: "We are going to be evaluating that going forward" if the organization decides to adjust plans beyond this month.

There has been no further word from some regulators, including at the FCC and FTC, about how the virus is affecting their operations. DOJ didn't answer our queries this or last week about whether it will stick with Wednesday's event about vertical transaction guidelines from that department and the FTC. That commission plans its own event March 18. "As the FTC-sponsored workshop takes place a week later, the details have not been finalized," emailed a commission spokesperson. We have pending Freedom of Information Act requests at the FTC and FCC seeking more details on their planning around COVID-19. The FCC didn't comment now.

AT&T joined companies telling employees to limit travel. “To help maintain the ongoing health and safety of our employees and customers, our employees will not be travelling internationally and we are placing limits on domestic travel,” the carrier said in a statement: “We continue to monitor developments and are prepared to take further appropriate steps consistent with” CDC and WHO recommendations.

T-Mobile restricted domestic and international business travel a few weeks ago, officials said now. That includes nonessential travel into and out of the Seattle area, halting international travel to affected countries and requiring employees to temporarily limit and reduce all nonessential U.S. business travel.