AFTERPARTY–19
Track event COVID–19 cases.

Contact

You can reach us with questions or feedback at hello@afterparty19.info

Endorsements

AFTERPARTY–19 has been endorsed by the following organizations!

The Inspiration

AFTERPARTY–19 grew out of experiences we had at the 2023 Convention of the Democratic Socalists of America in Chicago. At the convention, organizers from SCORE and the DSA Disability Working Group fought for the National Resolution DSA Organizing for Pandemic Justice. Immediately after the convention, numerous people tested positive for COVID–19.

After the convention, both DSA staff and organizers from the Disability Working Group began reactive parallel efforts to assess the impact by attempting to count how many people tested positve. We discovered that in the heat of the moment, it was very difficult to set up a contact tracing effort using the limited resources of a staff that was dealing with the convention tear-down and attendees that were exhausted from the convention and traveling. This made it clear that such resources needed pre-positioning. Additionally, there was a scramble for the appropriate way to perform the count. Public announcements on social media and Slack were invaluable. Some people privately reported aggregate numbers to us ("X people from this group are sick or testing positive"), but the aggregates could be overlapping as people belonged to multiple groups.

It's necessary for individuals to be able to confidentially report their COVID–19 status to event organizers. Google Forms are often used for this, but some people do not want to engage with Google's applications (note: AFTERPARTY–19 is a custom application deployed on Google Cloud Platform). AFTERPARTY–19 is a solution to this problem that can scale and be utilized at the touch of a button.

Who Developed AFTERPARTY–19?

William Silversmith (he/him) is an experienced software developer and activist with the Democratic Socialists of America and is on the Steering committee of Socialist COVID-19 Organizing Resistance and Education (SCORE) and formerly the Steering Committees for the DSA Disability Working Group and NEPA Democratic Socialists of America. He has written extensively on the harms of the pandemic.

This is currently an independent project though if it gains traction, it may end up backed by one of the groups he's affiliated with.

You can read his published writings on the pandemic below.

  1. COVID's Hidden Cost: Why Living with the Virus is not an Option—Cosmonaut 2021
  2. We Will Return to Pandemic Protections Within a Year—Cosmonaut 2022
  3. Letter: DSA Organizing for Pandemic Justice: Resolution for the 2023 DSA Convention—Cosmonaut 2023
  4. Xenophobia and Racism Helped SARS2 Break Containment—Z Magazine 2023
  5. Fight for a Better World than 2019: We can Control COVID–19 Despite the Full Spectrum Political Failure—Cosmonaut 2023
  6. Fatal Indecision: The Irrational Left Pandemic Failure in the United States 2020-2023—Dynamic Zero 2024

He is also a co-author of pandemicjustice.wordpress.com/

Follow him on Twitter/X at @matrixmarxist.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Martina Manicastri for helping develop the FIGHT BACK and Safety Tips guide materials. Special thanks to N.S. and the DSA Disability Working Group for helping develop the materials on https://pandemicjustice.wordpress.com/ that provided a basis for our safety guide. Thank you to everyone on the initial signup mailing list and in SCORE that provided helpful feedback!

Last updated October 29, 2024.