Dr. Fauci Thinks Concerts Could Return This Fall

This past weekend, the country's top infectious disease expert said that "if everything goes right," we could potentially be getting live music back — audiences and all — "some time in the fall of 2021," per the New York Times.

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"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," he said at the Association of Performing Arts Professionals' recent conference. However, he also added that it really depends on the effectiveness of the vaccine rollout — i.e. whether we can get 70% to 80% of the population vaccinated by then.

Fauci then went on to say that reopening would likely still require people to wear masks and social distance, before warning that venues would also have to take some additional safety precautions, such as enforcing strict hygiene protocols and ensuring that they have good air filters and ventilation. If they did that though, he said they could probably "start getting back to almost full capacity of seating," per results of a staged indoor concert done by a German study last summer.

"We'll be back in the theaters — performers will be performing, audiences will be enjoying it," he said before adding, "It will happen."

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