For months now, a day has rarely passed without someone asking me if I think there's a chance of a Comic-Con International 2021. Here is an absolutely accurate answer: No one knows. I don't mean no one outside the convention committee. I mean "no one" as in "no one."
Even if one assumes the various vaccines will be rolled out in a timely manner and with the best-possible rate of warding off the dread disease…
Even if one assumes that most anti-vaxxers who think "It could harm me" will then think, "Then again, getting the virus could also harm me" and decide the odds are better with the shots than without…
Even if the rates at which people get the disease and people die from the disease plunge…
…no one can say if there'll be a Comic-Con next July.
It's not just a matter of the convention committee deciding it's safe. It's not even a matter of health officials giving it a green light. It involves literally hundreds of factors that have to come together…
Like when will the convention center be ready for Comic-Con or any convention? San Diego's main campaign against the coronavirus is centered in that building where in a normal year, cosplayers cosplay, I host panels and everyone is front of you in the line for the restroom of your choice. It's now a major testing center and it's currently "home" to 830 otherwise-homeless human beings. Much remodeling has been done to house them. Before there can be Comic-Con, those people need to be relocated, the convention center has to be turned back into a convention center and a lot of Lysoling needs to be done.
Or like when will the city be ready for Comic-Con? A lot of hotels have closed for the duration. Some may not reopen at all. Some may take a long time to reopen. Same with restaurants and other vital services. The convention committee cannot just throw a switch and have a fully-functional San Diego suddenly appear where one used to be.
I am not trying to bring you to despair. I'm just trying to get you to not think there's an answer to the question; to stop wondering, "If they move it to August, will that be okay? How about September?" No one knows.
And besides, Comic-Con, though I love it dearly, is not a necessity. Getting lives functioning again is. Getting kids back to school and people back to work is. Rebuilding the economy is. I'll bet you can name fifty more. I'm optimistic this will happen and I hope a lot of it will happen before I get to host "Quick Draw!" again. And yes, I know Comic-Con will do a lot for the economy of San Diego and for the exhibitors and vendors.
But let's stop thinking this kind of thing is predictable. Because it isn't. No one knows.