What’s the word Fauci?
In a recent interview, Dr. Fauci sat down with Maurine D. Knighton, Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, to discuss when live shows would be back in action, along with other aspects of the virus in relation to the performing arts.
Live music has been virtually canceled for almost a year now, with various “socially distant” shows taking place here and there, but the thought has been that Fall 2021 would be when things start to get back to normal. Even Eric Church said that he was “confident” that he would be touring again this fall.
So what’s the actual timetable? According to Fauci, it all comes down to the vaccines and getting “70 to 85%” of the population vaccinated. That’s when herd immunity would allow for live shows top operate at full, or near-full, capacity.
“We need to vaccinate between 70 and 85% of the population… If everything goes right, this is will occur some time in the fall of 2021, 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.”
And even then, safety measures such as masks, distancing where possible and sanitization should still be in place according to Fauci, especially in places without adequate ventilation.
The concert industry lost $9.7 billion dollars in ticket sales last year, and another $30 billion in sponsorships, concessions, merchandise, and more, so hopefully we get this going sooner, rather than later. I’m not sure how much longer many of our venues can hold out…
