It’s still not time for theaters to quit mask and vax requirements

On February 18, 2022, DCTMA released an editorial urging regional theaters to training caution and restraint before lifting recent mask and vaccine requirements for patrons. Even then, as scenario quantities declined from their omicron peak, there was prevalent sentiment for people today to be “done with COVID.”  State and local governments throughout the nation ended up by now ending mitigation steps, a development that has only accelerated in the months considering that.

To DC-spot theaters: Be very careful. Remaining swayed by the momentum of COVID security-measure removing would be a miscalculation. There’s significantly additional at stake below than regularity with federal government direction or the general community temper.

It is fair to say that the conclusion of nearly all DC-space theater firms to install COVID basic safety necessities for performances, commencing final August, was the key to allowing theaters to resume stay performances and persuading audiences to return. In January, that mask/vaccine-documentation policy was extended by means of March. (See the coverage and the checklist of collaborating theaters, coordinated by Theater Washington, below.)

Why is this policy’s continuation crucial? First, to protect the health of everyone who attends or functions in our theaters. Next, and equally vital, to ensure the capability and willingness of audiences to attend live performances. The mask-and-vax policy stays important to the financial wellness and survival of DC-location theaters.

3rd, COVID is significantly from more than. We are observing a lull in infections, not a explanation to declare victory. Overall health authorities are involved that one more COVID surge could be coming. In quite a few European nations, circumstance numbers are climbing owing to a subvariant of omicron identified as BA.2. In the U.S., over-all scenario figures have been dropping, but BA.2 now accounts for a quarter of new instances. And ominously, the BA.2 subvariant is estimated to be 30 to 50 p.c far more contagious than the earlier variation of omicron. Given how viruses behave, and the reservoir of bacterial infections in components of the world with small vaccination rates, BA.2 is not likely to be the final variant we see.

Current CDC guidance regarding mask procedures rests on hospitalization and loss of life quantities — both equally lagging indicators — somewhat than numbers of infections. Bacterial infections can simply be gathering steam for a few to 4 months prior to achieving CDC induce details for switching mask procedures. That would not be excellent for our theaters and audiences.

The existing policy has not deterred people from coming to the theater quite the opposite, there is prevalent guidance for it. Audience degrees have remained powerful in numerous venues.  Persons and groups demanding “personal freedom” to overlook their basic safety and that of some others have not been in proof at theater performances.

A essential level to don’t forget is that theaters are unique. Unlike several other indoor venues, theaters talk to hundreds or even thousands of people today to sit in close proximity for 90 minutes to 3 hrs, an excellent placing for the circulation of an airborne virus, even amid the completely vaccinated. Theater audiences are inclined to skew older so in the absence of vaccine and mask precautions, it is possible that attendance would drop as men and women more prone to severe COVID problems choose to remain house.

Not too long ago, Theatre Washington despatched a study to theater patrons inquiring their views about probable alterations in existing insurance policies. We request that corporations, and personal theaters, not take care of community protection as a acceptance contest. In theater policy as in drugs, very first do no damage. Ending precautions, only to have to re-start out them later on as a new variant or wave emerges, has been a resource of confusion during the pandemic. Theaters would be well suggested to avoid the yo-yo result that is a predictable final result of prematurely ending the existing coverage.

In any re-analysis of COVID plan, the important interests of theaters and theatergoers in safety, in the exclusive atmosphere of dwell theater, should be highly regarded by retaining the needs that have safeguarded all of us as a result of the worst of the pandemic.

SEE ALSO: Will COVID protection protocols survive at nearby theaters? (report by Keith Loria)

(An previously model of his editorial, titled “Now is no time for theaters to quit mask and vax requirements,” was published on February 18, 2022.)