California governor Gavin Newsom has echoed what a public health expert said earlier this week – concerts and music festivals are unlikely to happen anytime soon.
“The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine,” he said at a COVID-19 briefing. Public heath experts believe it could be up to 18 months before there is a vaccine.
“So large-scale events that bring in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of strangers, all together across every conceivable difference, health and otherwise, is not in the cards based upon our current guidelines and current expectations.”
Newsom said even if the COVID-19 situation changed “radically,” staging big music events this summer is “unlikely.”
In California, the 2020 editions of events like Coachella and Stagecoach – both postponed until October – may end up being cancelled.
Bioethicist Zeke Emanuel told The New York Times Magazine he doesn’t understand why promoters are talking about postponing major events to later this year. “I have no idea how they think that’s a plausible possibility,” he said. “Those things will be the last to return.
“Realistically we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest.”