V.com weekend vote: Are you ready to attend a live concert yet?

April 3, 2021 at 05:09 PM · One voting option is missing for me. “Yes, I would attend if no any bothering safety protocol would be applied”.

April 3, 2021 at 05:44 PM · I am just waiting for my second vaacine shot, then I'll feel more comfortable. I almost put that I would attend if there were masks and social distancing required, but it seems like that doesn't matter because there are always going to be people that don't follow the rules.

April 3, 2021 at 06:36 PM · I was going to attend a concert of Gil Shaham and Barber... but this virus ruined my life...

April 3, 2021 at 08:04 PM · So my answer may seem odd but I'd play in a live concert because I'm fairly certain that musicians and venue staff would follow any safety protocols put in place however, I don't think I'm ready to attend events as an audience member yet. Make sense?

April 3, 2021 at 08:30 PM · I feel even with these "vaccine passports" that are so widely touted people will commit all kinds of fraud to promote their own agenda. Case in point, I used to work at a retail store. I can't tell you how many people waltzed in carrying their "support" animals with bogus harnesses bought online to fool people. It costs between 15,000 and 25,000 dollars to train a working dog for the disabled. And I'm horribly allergic. It's going to be the same thing with this. Unfortunately, a large portion of people just don't care.

April 3, 2021 at 08:42 PM · Greetings,

this is an interesting and important vote but I think it misses a point. As far as I am aware the vaccine is not 100 % effective so I would have preferred to tick:

Will not attend events because the vaccine is not a guarantee of safety.

Cheers,

Buri

April 3, 2021 at 08:50 PM · I guess I'm going against the tide here but I'm ready to attend an indoor concert if people are spaced properly and at least wear a mask until they sit down in their seat. I have been vaccinated. I'm aware that I could still get sick but then, I could get the flu or a cold and that doesn't stop me from wanting to enjoy live music. Thinking of all the coughing that always happens in an audience, we have to try to get back to some semblance of normal sometime. Plus, I'm really tired of streamed performances. Can't watch one more. Sorry. I'll wear a mask and stay 6 feet from everyone. Please start up live performances.

April 3, 2021 at 10:47 PM · The answer that most nearly fits my situation is "No, I’m just not ready to be back in a group of people yet." But this isn't because of the pandemic. Mainly, it's my schedule that keeps me away. Being a small-business owner, I start my days at 4:30 AM -- and then start to fade around 8:30 PM. So from mid-afternoon till next day, I don't care to be anywhere but home. Then, too, most performances are in the evening, and I'm just not a night person.

Ditto for going to the movies, sporting events, dining out. For me, all these things, just like live concerts, went out the window back in the late 20th century. Still, thanks to modern technology, I can take in a lot of performances, new and vintage, without leaving home -- for a small monthly fee.

April 4, 2021 at 01:26 AM · When I am finished with my vaccination process, I'm definitely ready! But I completely understand Maurice's perspective. I've participated in a few concerts during Covid and the safety measures put in place for the performers have been quite remarkable and very comforting. It's very possible I've been spoiled and it will be a bit of a shock as to what's actually going on in the audience.

April 4, 2021 at 04:12 AM · Restrictions haven't eased much here in Canada but yeah if it's a physically distanced concert with very few people and a masked audience, then sure.

April 4, 2021 at 04:43 AM · I didn’t vote because there was no option that seemed to fit. I’ve been playing in live concerts since February. Reduced orchestra size of not more than 35, no shared stands, six feet distance (ten between winds and strings), masks for all except wind/brass while playing, negative covid test required each week. Audience is masked (including while seated) and distanced. It feels safe enough to me.

April 4, 2021 at 05:29 AM · My situation and preference is the same as Sue's. With all that in place, I think I'd feel safe and I'm looking forward to supporting our local artists.

April 4, 2021 at 04:04 PM · Easter Sunday Greetings! {#13}

I was just shut down by some sort of glitch and not keen, I will quickly say one is quite Leary of writing much except that I do agree more with Maurice than other listed Boxes to check ...

When a Killer Virus Pandemic taking untold millions of Live's globally becomes a 'Trend' of the Non Medical Media, I shut out every suspected tainted "Report".

A grand colleague once stated: "Musicians are the Smartest People in the World!" He has come to be proved right Wise ~

Simply stated, I side with Maurice's Statement and do not feel confident, although fully 2 Shot Pfizer vaccinated, to mix with people unknown to me too soon. Knowing, btw, from Head Dr./Director of a major VA Hospital near D.C., it takes a Full Four Weeks After Shot #2 for the body to fully immunize itself {Pfizer}, I passed the Four Week mark yet still am Top Expert advised to continue wearing a Face Mask; Social Distancing and wiping/spraying Countertops, Doorknobs & Fridge Door/s plus switches, cellphone, computer keyboards, to be very safe. We are now informed there will be a Fourth Surge soon, so to rush it to a Concert Hall as an audience member seems crazy to me. As a performer, if a Violin with Piano Recital for socially apart & for a fully vaccinated intimate audience group, I would agree. But as one smart respondent stated here, one cannot trust some who will tell fibs & get false vaccine cards to attend a concert, game, or Movie plus indoor dining facility not giving a hoot about others ~

Not wishing to preach, it is Easter Sunday, and Great Music is online available as well as one's fiddle + other stringed cousin instruments & TV/Radio FM, so we can take an Easter Sunday Walk in a nice neighborhood and view roses plus nature itself, but for this gal {having had pneumonia a few years prior} one is grateful to Stay In while great Doctor's continue investigating causes of the initial Coronavirus & the very recent frightening Strains/Variants from faraway lands . . .

If playing with known colleagues as Mary Ellen Goree, then it's Okay, but for awhile, I choose better Safe than more Sorry ~

A Word ~ Fact: Takes Full 4 Weeks After Shot #2 to be fully immunized = Max protection 95% & duration yet unknown ...

~ Sending Easter Greetings to All ~

.......... Elisabeth Matesky .........

April 4, 2021 at 08:05 PM · There is also getting there and back on public transport, I am not traveling by train for some time

April 4, 2021 at 08:24 PM · As soon as I'm vaccinated and feel confident that I'm neither propagating nor in serious danger of contracting the virus (which CDC seems to think is strongly likely, at least for Moderna/Pfizer), I'll happily attend a concert. What I miss most is playing with other people indoors. We'll start that again as soon as we're all vaxxed, at which point we will dispense with masks around other vaxxed people. (I think for the sake of politeness we might end up continuing to mask in public until/unless CDC confirms that vaccinated folks truly aren't contagious and the rules around us change.)

April 4, 2021 at 10:02 PM · Not yet. It is far too soon for anything like indoor concerts. While it is great that 16.9% of the population are vaccinated, there is still another 83.1% who are completely vulnerable to the virus. Correct me if I'm wrong, but every time people are told they can be in groups, two or three weeks later, we have another deadly surge. 83.1% unvaccinated people is a huge percentage of the population, and nowhere near safe numbers to be playing dice with crowds. Until those two numbers are reversed, I'm going to continue avoiding contact with others, wear a mask when in public, and avoid group gatherings. Sadly, it's going to take a while, but let's not exacerbate the problem by being overeager for indoor concerts. Patience, patience, patience.

April 5, 2021 at 12:26 AM · I'm now half-vaccinated (got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday) but I'm not planning to attend indoor concerts any time soon, in light of new variants still emerging and less than 30% of my city's population having received a first dose. I assume the vaccine is partial protection against all variants, so will be more confident that there is at herd immunity if the great majority of people around me (80% or more) are vaccinated. I might also consider attending an indoor concert if all attendees were required to show either a recent negative test or full vaccination; even then I would want to see masks and distancing for now, because testing does not catch very recent infections and people can still be exposed after being tested.

I understand that my orchestra is planning to reconvene and play at least one outdoor concert in late spring or early summer if we can find a suitable venue, with strings spaced six feet apart and winds/brass nine feet apart. I'm perfectly happy with that.

April 5, 2021 at 05:29 AM · I voted yes. I have been doing outside events all along. Singers and Dancers will need to wait a little longer; they project farther than 6 ft. and inhale deeper. The air-space and ventilation in most theaters will be better than indoor restaurants. The safety of air travel is impressive; 100 people in a small space with masks and superior air exchange and filtration. I am waiting for the J & J one-dose vaccine to be available in my town. Actually I would prefer the Novavax version, because the current three are a new genetic technology with unknown future consequences. After a full year of this, I think that an Israeli Public Health Officer had the right idea at the beginning, but was shouted down.: Quarantine the infected, not the healthy. Let the elderly and medically vulnerable voluntarily self-isolate. Let the young continue to work. As a group they will get infected, recover and develop the "herd immunity". For the younger half of the population, prevention and treatment may be safer than vaccination;--Take Vitamin D, the evidence is in. Allow the MDs to run experiments with things like Quinine and Ivermectin. Consider what other countries have done right, like in VietNam, with the use of outside air, sunlight and mouthwash(!). The main benefit of masks is to block the force of coughs and sneezes of the infected. Another factor that has not been followed in the popular press is the threshold of infection. Suppose that you are walking on the sidewalk, without a mask, pass by an infected person, inhale say, 10 viruses. If the threshold is 100, then you get a sub-clinical, non-symptomatic infection,natural immunity, which is superior, and safer, than the artificial immunity. Vaccines are not 100 % effective, but was is impressive and of equal importance is that for the minority of the vaccinated that do get infected they do Not develop serious symptoms, require hospitalization, do Not die.

-Fully expecting a rebuttal from those with superior credentials to mine.

JQ (retired med. lab. tech.)

April 8, 2021 at 07:01 PM · Buri wrote: "this is an interesting and important vote but I think it misses a point. As far as I am aware the vaccine is not 100 % effective."

Actually, no vaccine is 100% effective - if by 'effective' you mean will prevent any evidence of infection. When they give a stat like 90%effective this means (unless specified) that 10% will show some symptoms if exposed to the virus. What the number does not reflect is the probability of SERIOUS disease, hospitalization or of death. Against the latter, all the vaccines seem to be ~100 % effective.

As far as I am aware, we do not know if there way be long-term effects of post-innoculation Covid so that remains a concern. However, if the statistics predicted 100% protection against lasting or severe illness might you change your mind Buri?