Nashville

[KitBaum]

As much as I would enjoy celebrating Stata’s 40th anniversary with the Stata community, I will not spend travel funds in a state that refuses to expand Medicaid coverage to its most needy and deserving citizens. Research by me and mycoauthors has estimated the significant impact of the lack of health insurance on the use of prenatal care and maternal mortality. The implications of this political stance in ten US states on children and families are tragic.

Kit Baum
maintainer SSC Archive

[Bruce Weaver]

Let me just add that people who are not American citizens may decide to stay home for other (additional) reasons.

[Clyde Schechter]

Re #2. Although I am not a lawyer, it is my understanding that American citizens' constitutional rights more or less do not apply at the border. American citizens returning from abroad are subject to warrantless detention and interrogation at the border, and searches of their person and possessions (read: smartphone, computer). While this is not currently being done on a large scale, some people the government has identified, typically on the basis of social media activity, as oppositional have been subjected to this.

[Dave Airey]

With respect, I did not realize this was a forum for politics. Let me just say that I lived in Nashville for over a decade and it's a fine place for a conference.

[Maarten Buis]

Dave is right that this is a forum to discuss Stata and statistics. I think nobody is doubting that the fast majority of the people in Nashville are lovely people regardless of their political (or sexual, or any other type of) orientation, and that the city, and especially the conference, is worth visiting.

However, Bruce made a valid point. Discussing whether it is safe to (enter the USA to) visit a Stata conference does seem to be a valid topic for this list. I understand that that is extremely frustrating for people working hard to make this conference a success, but this fear exists outside the USA and it is not going to go away if we ban discussing it here.

I won't be coming, but that is just due to not being able to make this work with family and work obligations. However, if that wasn't a problem, the safety concern would definitely give me pause and would make me do some risk-benefit computations (using Stata, of course). I don't know if it would prevent me from coming, but it would certainly make it a less easy decision.

[Dave Airey]

Certainly, international travel safety is always a concern and should be given a clear eyed assessment, agreed. I read one article in Science on 'scientists rethinking international US conference attendance' that portrayed a lot of fear, mostly again around politics and increased border security by the current administration. I was once detained at the border years ago for hours when coming back into the US from field work in Hungary, but I had specimens with me and expected detention. Still, Nashville's a great place...once you get there.