Health Expert Says Concerts Will Return in "Fall 2021 at the Earliest"

It’s been roughly a month since the United States initiated its coronavirus quarantine, leading to nearly every major social gathering from sporting events to concerts and festivals being delayed or completely shutdown. Though people and organizations are seemingly rescheduling things for fall, some Health experts are sharing estimates that we won’t be able to start going to any of these events until fall of next year.

A story that featured in The New York Times Magazine this weekend, Center For American Progress oncologist and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, who is also the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and the chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, says that smaller gatherings will return sooner than later, but large communal gatherings may not return for a long, long time:

Restarting the economy has to be done in stages, and it does have to start with more physical distancing at a work site that allows people who are at lower risk to come back. Certain kinds of construction, or manufacturing or offices, in which you can maintain six-foot distances are more reasonable to start sooner. Larger gatherings — conferences, concerts, sporting events — when people say they’re going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think that’s a plausible possibility. I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically, we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest.

This will undoubtedly cause mass ramifications on the live-music industry, which is unlikely to stay afloat during a 16-month shutdown.

For more related news, the NBA is currently discussing a 25-day return-to-basketball plan.