Covid is not really a hot topic anymore. How does SDMB decide it no longer needs this section?
Thank you @Joey_P, I saw the title and was going to link to that thread.
Also, SARS-CoV-2 is still circulating (and is regularly mutating, as viruses do, with the potential for immune escape and/or greater virulence), and COVID-19 is neither the first nor last pandemic humanity will face. For instance:
And we’re still unprepared for a new global pandemic:
Stranger
I’ve contributed to that forum a fair bit, and I kinda like having it all in one place. As mentioned above, COVID is still around, and mutating, and we still get occasional spikes, and vaccinations are still a thing. Discussions about Long COVID will be here for a while. And I wouldn’t be surprised if another big 'un comes along within the next couple of years. That’s just my two cents, won’t lose any sleep over it.
And is there some cost to keeping the QZ, even if it’s not used that often?
There really isn’t any major cost to keeping. If we moved the threads and removed the forum (category) completely, it would clean up the categories drop down by a little, but that seems pretty minor.
However, if and when we do close QZ, I’ve already tagged all the threads and wrote up directions to do mass moves to other forums if that is how we go.
Most of this is covered in the linked to thread.
Plus, for anyone who doesn’t want to see it, they can mute the whole category. That’s what I do, along with a few others.
For me it is a matter of removing clutter. Could you elaborate on how to mute it? What exactly does it achieve? Does it work on the mobile app?
I don’t know about the mobile app, I only do the Dope on a PC. The control for muting Categories is under your Profile, Preferences, Tracking. There is a list near the bottom of that page where you can add Categories that you want to mute.
What it does is this: “You will not be notified of anything about new topics in these categories, and they will not appear on the categories or latest pages.” All of the muted Categories are grouped at the bottom of the main page where Categories are listed – there is a box labeled Muted Categories, with a plus sign that lets you look at them if you ever want to, and of course you can unmute any Category whenever you want to. Don’t forget to click on Save Changes at the bottom of the Tracking page.
Thanks! I can confirm it works exactly the same way on iOS.
Perhaps the Quarantine Zone can be expanded into a Health & Medical Science page. That was the SDMB can still have a place to address COVID-related topics along with other health concerns.
It’s been suggested. 
Colonoscopies chief among them
Seriously, I think this is a great idea. As this board’s population grows older (and is a population that naturally skews older anyway), the number of health-related threads is likely to grow as well. Having a dedicated place for them is a pretty good idea.
Bumping this.
QZ has very little activity. Covid questions seem to more often get asked elsewhere nowadays.
Meanwhile we are dealing with other infectious disease threats, from avian influenza to measles outbreaks, resurgences of pertussis, and with our current administration, including but not limited to RFK Jr, are likely to have more issues coming up.
I don’t think moving all medical stuff to QZ is a good idea, but declaring it as a place for emerging infectious disease threats?
It is time.
That makes sense to me
Do we really need a whole category for “emerging infectious diseases”? It’s not like we have entire categories for “armed conflicts around the world” or any other topic…
Unfortunately the common thread between them is more unifying than it is for armed conflicts. Armed conflicts share themes but they are usually local. Emerging infectious diseases have potential to erupt into global items, and the themes of how to monitor, prepare, and handle them, all share common discussion. IMHO.
It may be a good idea to have a forum for infectious disease threats, given that we have an Administration seemingly devoted to systematically gutting agencies’ ability to deal with these issues (such as canceling a meeting for experts to weigh in on next season’s influenza vaccine, an impending HHS vaccine (read: antivax) panel to tout fantasy vaccine harms etc.
If threads and posts are still few and far between, then I suppose they could be subsumed into other forums.
I’m for this idea.