Covid-19: Dr. Anthony Fauci says US concert venues could reopen by Autumn 2021

Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the leading members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and soon-to-be Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden, has stated that concert venues in the US could reopen by "some time in the fall of 2021".

Dr. Fauci made the comments during a virtual conference hosted by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals on Saturday, according to The New York Times. He estimated that herd immunity in the US could be achieved when between 70-85% of the population had been vaccinated.

"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," he said. "I think you can then start getting back to almost full capacity of seating. We’ll be back in the theatres — performers will be performing, audiences will be enjoying it. It will happen."

It's expected that concert attendees will be required to wear face masks, and only venues with suitable ventilation would be safe to open – with Dr. Fauci citing a recent German study.

In the US, over 25 million total doses of the vaccine have been distributed, with nearly 9 million people having received the first dose. In Ireland, meanwhile, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly noted that "we are planning on 1.4 million doses in total" by the end of the quarter, of which 600,000 would be the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – according to The Irish Times.

However, experts at the World Health Organisation (WHO) have stated that mass vaccinations will not bring about herd immunity in 2021.

“Even as vaccines start protecting the most vulnerable, we’re not going to achieve any levels of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021,” the WHO's Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said. “Even if it happens in a couple of pockets, in a few countries, it’s not going to protect people across the world.”