Dr. Anthony Fauci Says Widespread Use Of Vaccine Could Reopen Broadway By 2021

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has revealed that the widespread use of an effective COVID-19 vaccine could be instrumental in the reopening of Broadway by early next fall.

Speaking in an interview with NBC New York, the 79-year-old medical expert opened up about how a successful vaccination program could help for the return of live entertainment, especially Broadway. While responding to the question of when Broadway might reopen its doors to the general public, Fauci said that the entire country could get back to normal if they get vaccinated in the spring.

However, he made it clear that the entire timeline is dependent on the public’s willingness to get vaccinated for the life-threatening disease, both within New York and across the nation.

“I think that will be completely dependent on the uptake of vaccines by the people of the country and specifically the people of New York . We’ve got to make sure that people get vaccinated,” Fauci said during the interview.

Fauci also revealed that normalcy would only return if “75-85 percent of people” get vaccinated when it is approved and available for use. He noted that people with “underlying conditions” will be given a high priority in the country’s vaccination program.

“So if 75-85 percent of the people in the country get vaccinated as the vaccine becomes available. The general public – not speaking of the people of the highest priority who have underlying conditions but the broad general public, young men and women 20-30 years old with no underlying conditions – will have vaccine available in April, maybe sooner,” Fauci to NBC New York.

“If they get vaccinated through April, May and June, and we really do a full-court press to get everybody vaccinated, you can get back to normal or at least approaching close to normal as you get into the late summer and early fall ,” he continued.

In October, it was announced that the ticket sales for all the Broadway shows in New York City were suspended until May 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The return of Broadway would also be a boost to NYC’s economy.

According to a recent report, Broadway theaters contributed over $14.7 billion to the economy of New York City. The same report also found that Broadway supported almost 96,000 jobs in the city.

As far as the virus is concerned, New York is the fifth-worst affected state in the United States with 703,431 infections. Meanwhile, it is the only state to witness more than 34,000 deaths due to the deadly disease.