The only thing bigger than deepfakes and nation states at RSA Conference this year was coronavirus. It remained, and grew, on our collective minds as the week progressed — but was it already on our hands? Security professionals tend to be at least a moderately paranoid bunch, and adding a real virus to the usual digital viruses at the annual trade show definitely upped the paranoia this year.

After GSMA cancelled its annual MWC Barcelona event, which was supposed to happen the same week, many expected RSA Conference organizers to follow suit. Instead, they assured us that they were “continuing to monitor and assess new developments” related to coronavirus, and “taking proactive steps” like hand sanitizer stations throughout Moscone Center and electro-static sprayers to disinfect high-traffic areas.

Some major companies including IBM, AT&T, and Verizon dropped out in the days leading up to the trade show. I’m betting some other companies were second guessing their decision to attend as the week wore on. I know I was. Although I did take comfort knowing that at least I drove to San Francisco and didn’t have to go to the airport or travel by plane to leave. If things got really bad, I could just jump in my truck and head home.

On Feb. 20, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she looked forward to welcoming the conference’s 43,000 attendees. “We want to assure you that San Francisco is open for business and events are proceeding as planned,” she said. “Risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 in San Francisco is low, as the virus is not circulating in our community.”

And then, five days later as the opening keynotes were underway, Breed’s office declared a state of emergency to proactively prepare for an outbreak and “protect San Franciscans from harm.” That didn’t help settle anyone’s fears. And, quite honestly, it made both the city and the conference organizers look like money-grubbing bastards all too willing to stand by and let attendees pay $600 a night for two-star hotel rooms and attend a conference where they may be exposed to a deadly disease.

We all dutifully squeezed Purell into our hands after opening doors or touching an escalator railing. I watched one woman scrub her hands with soap and water for four minutes as if she were about to perform surgery. But what about all the meetings that took place in nearby hotels — who touched the floor buttons in the elevators and how often were those wiped down with sanitizer? And how about the bars we all leaned on while waiting for drinks at after-hours parties? Hopefully the spilled alcohol killed those germs.

Don’t touch your mouth or your eyes. Oh, no, I just removed my glasses to rub my eyes!

Some speakers like McAfee CTO Steve Grobman directly referenced the coronavirus in keynotes, while RSA President Rohit Ghai told a cautionary tale about Typhoid Mary — “an excellent cook who did not wash her hands.” And the virus came up in every discussion I had all week, from interviews with security vendor executives to more casual interactions in the press working room and at restaurants and bars. It always started with the awkward do-we-shake-hands-or-not initial greeting. Then the talk usually progressed to the stark reality that people are dying from this, we don’t know how it spreads, and even in an industry that sees its day job as saving the world from the baddies, some things really are a matter of life and death. People’s health and safety matters more than tech trade shows.

By the end of RSA I no longer felt safe traveling to upcoming events, like the OCP Summit in San Jose, which was slated to happen this week. Late Friday, the Open Compute Project Foundation decided to cancel in light of new cases reported in Santa Clara County, California. A slew of other big companies including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are also canceling their events or moving them online. At this point, with the World Health Organization upping its risk assessment of COVID-19 spreading, and still so many unknowns about the disease, it seems greedy and dangerous for others not to follow suit.

In light of the event cancellations, I’ve heard people bemoaning the death of the trade show, but I think it’s too early to call. While human health and safety definitely trump technology events, and I applaud the organizations that have taken a proactive approach and either cancelled or “reimagined” their annual gatherings, I don’t expect to see everything moving to a digital-first future. Yes, we can livestream keynotes and meet face-to-face via Zoom and WebEx. But we also lose something in the screens.

In-person meetings with real eye contact — and without distractions — foster a sense of realness and connection, and they don’t have the same scripted feel that even video conferencing tends to convey. My favorite part of these events happens when we veer off-topic from pre-planned interview questions and organic, interesting discussions ensue. I’ll miss those experiences over the next few months (or longer). I also believe they’ll happen again.