Over the weekend, the country's most prominent infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, made a digital appearance at an event hosted by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals.
According to the New York Times, Fauci told a group of professionals in the field of performing arts that given the success of the vaccine rollout program, he sees venues, theaters, and concerts making their return, “some time in the fall of 2021.”
The effectiveness of the vaccine program is ultimately what will determine the timeline of a proper return to live music normalcy. Dr. Fauci explained that the goal is to achieve herd immunity, which in terms of the vaccine would mean that 70-85% of the population would need to have been inoculated.
“If everything goes right, this is will occur some time in the fall of 2021,” Dr. Fauci said, “so that by the time we get to the early to mid-fall, you can have people feeling safe performing onstage as well as people in the audience.”
During the discussion Dr. Fauci also referred back to a German study that closely examined the low transmission rate at an indoor event of some 1,200 guests. The caveat to this particular experiment was that the venue had proper hygiene protocol in place and had more than adequate ventilation. Dr. Fauci encouraged the participants in the conference to take a closer look at what the Germans were doing.
As for the realistic return of live music. Provided everything goes according to this timeline, Dr. Fauci still asserts that wearing a mask is here to stay for quite some time. He also advocated for potentially implementing proof of a negative Covid-19 test in exchange for admission into an event.
Dr. Fauci punctuated his time with a bit of optimism during a time when the forecast has been nothing but pessimistic. “We’ll be back in the theaters — performers will be performing, audiences will be enjoying it,” Dr Fauci said. “It will happen.”
