Repost: Coronavirus forces ASCO, cancer research’s top meeting, to move online

For the first time since 2010, the American Society of Clinical Oncology will not hold its annual conference in Chicago’s McCormick Place, announcing Tuesday it will move the meeting online in the latest sign the business impact of the coronavirus will extend for months.
“As public health safety measures related to COVID-19 extend, the ASCO Board has concluded that the Annual Meeting, scheduled for May 29-June 2 in Chicago, cannot occur in person as planned,” the group said in a Mar. 24 statement.
With at least 16 states, including Illinois, now asking their residents to shelter in place, the chances of ASCO holding a meeting that regularly draws tens of thousands of doctors, scientists and researchers as planned was remote. Its cancellation is the latest in a lengthening list of medical meetings to be called of as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. […]