(Photo courtesy of The Maryland Health Department)

When travel between Europe and the US is banned, and the NBA cancels its season, you know things are getting serious…

And now the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) has announced that they’ve pulled the plug on its legislative conference that was scheduled for March 29 to April 1 in Washington, DC.

This from the organization….

NBWA has been closely monitoring the situation around COVID-19 as it relates to the NBWA Legislative Conference with the health, safety and well-being of our members top of mind.

“Developments over the past several days have made hosting this year’s conference a significant challenge. These include exposure and self-quarantine of members of Congress, meeting cancellations, travel restrictions, flight reductions and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and other health agencies as well as a health advisory from the Washington, D.C. Health Department urging that non-essential gatherings like conferences be canceled. For these reasons, we have made the difficult decision to cancel our Legislative Conference.”

“We are grateful to so many of our members who made plans to attend this year’s Legislative Conference. We look forward to seeing them again October 4 – 7, 2020, in Orlando for our Annual Convention and next year in Washington for our 2021 Legislative Conference.”

Earlier this week SIBA (think the Brewers Association but in England) went forward with BeerX UK the United Kingdom’s  largest independent craft brewing trade show (think the Craft Brewers Conference with a British accent)  in Liverpool in spite of COVID-19 health concerns.

Messe Düsseldorf has cancelled ProWein, Europe’s largest wine industry trade show held annually in Düsseldorf, Germany, over coronavirus concerns.

Even though the Craft Brewers Conference, the world’s biggest beer industry convention which is being held on April 19^th-22 in San Antonio, Texas this year is still a go…the Brewers Association continues to closely monitor the developments of the COVID-19 outbreak and is in close and regular contact with the City of San Antonio.

So that too might change…

But when all flights to Europe are cancelled, SXSW shuts down and the NBA halts its season, you know that all bets are off…

With the stock market continuing to plummet over global pandemic fears it’s becoming inescapable that Covid-19 will elicit a significant worldwide economic and personal toll.

Unfortunately lives and livelihoods will be lost well beyond the brewing industry, and we can only hope that it all passes soon.

Stay safe everybody…this thing is no joke.