In his televised address on April 13, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced to extend confinement to May 11th. From this day, a new step will start with the gradual reopening of daycares, schools and high schools. Yet, the President has said “places gathering public, restaurants, cafés and hotels, movie theaters, theaters, venues and museums will remain closed at this point” adding that “big festivals and events with a large public will not be allowed until mid-July”. Consequences? The hotel trade is very worried as for the future of the field and festivals taking place this summer in France are cancelling their editions the ones after the others.
And what if this ban of big gatherings was to be extended? If concerts, shows, conferences and sport events – attracting a lot of people – were to not come back before… Fall 2021? This is what recommend several specialist doctors.
In an interview for the New York Times and reported by Consequence of Sound, American doctor Zeke Emanuel, director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and special advisor for the World Health Organization director general, says “You can’t just flip a switch and open the whole of society up. It’s just not going to work. It’s too much. The virus will definitely flare back to the worst levels.”
He also says, “restarting the economy has to be done in stages” and events gathering a lot of people are part of the “last stage” of this long process.
“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.”
While waiting for a vaccine to be found, many specialists fear a new contamination wave.
If this recommendation is first and foremost involving American citizens, what about Europe? This recommendation is highly shared by other experts such as Gerald Haug, president of the very reputed German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
According to him, blocking the access to stadiums and arenas for eighteen more months “would certainly be very wise” before adding “as to whether it will last a year-and-a-half, we have to wait and see — there are also more optimistic assessments of the situation”, he said in an interview aired on April 13 on ARD. “But it will certainly last several months more, it could go up to a year-and-a-half”. I, Germany, this Academy recommends phasing out “by step”.
