Shapiro Won’t Discuss No-Booster CES 2022 Policy Until After the Show

CTA President Gary Shapiro “will be pleased" to discuss, "sometime after CES," why the association's show policy didn’t require COVID-19 booster shots for the fully vaccinated, he emailed Consumer Electronics Daily Tuesday. “Right now my focus is on CES 2022 where we have lots going on and over 2100 exhibitors.” We queried the CTA communications team for months on the rationale for CES 2022's no-booster policy but didn't get a definitive response.

Nearly 36% of the 188 million fully vaccinated U.S. adults have gotten boosters, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Protection Thursday. To the extent that CES 2022 audiences bear any reflection of the fully vaccinated U.S. adult population at large, that would mean that nearly two-thirds of badge holders entering the Las Vegas Convention Center when the show opens Wednesday may not have been boosted.

Despite flags that may have been overlooked or ignored, there has been no change in CTA policy since Aug. 17 when the association announced a full CES 2022 vaccine mandate (see 2108170038), saying no boosters would be required “at this time.” CTA also said then it was weighing whether to accept proof of a positive COVID-19 antibody test as a vaccine alternative, and would share more details on that “later,” but to our knowledge, it never did.

In one such flag, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky reported Nov. 29 that the emergence of the highly transmissive omicron variant “further emphasizes the importance of vaccination, boosters, and prevention efforts needed to protect against COVID-19.”

Clear updated its Health Pass mobile app Nov. 9, enabling users to add COVID-19 booster shots to their proof of vaccination credentials (see 2111090005). CTA is urging CES 2022 audiences to use Health Pass to simplify vaccination verification at badge pickup locations throughout Las Vegas but still won’t require boosters, and until Dec. 17, didn't encourage people to get boosted before leaving home for Las Vegas.

This advice on the importance of boosters appears on the website of Renown Health, northern Nevada’s largest healthcare system: “Getting the COVID-19 booster is the best way to protect yourself from severe illness or death due to COVID-19.” With infection rates rising in Nevada and nationally, says Renown, “the best thing you can do to prevent the continued spread of this deadly virus is to get boosted today.”

Renown CEO Anthony Slomin was quoted in Shapiro’s Christmas Eve LinkedIn essay to vouch for CES 2022's health and safety protocols. CTA, partnering with Las Vegas hotels, convention venues and municipal authorities, “worked diligently to put every contemporary safety practice in place to ensure a healthy and successful in-person meeting this year,” said Slomin, a 2018 appointee of Nev. Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) to the board of the state's Patient Protection Commission. The testimonial didn't mention booster shots.