AMERICAN THEATRE: Theatre Washington and Limelight Insights by Shugoll have released the results of an online survey about theatre mask and vaccination requirements. Based on responses from 2,128 D.C. area theatregoers from March 14-17, significantly more audience members responded negatively than positively about ending these requirements in theatres.
3 comments:
Really interesting numbers to see here. I think that Theatre Washington is right to continue the mask and vaccination mandates. The fact that people are so divisive over the mask mandates is really interesting to me, and seeing the almost even split signals to me that people are being cautiously optimistic about it. The vaccine mandate, however, is less shocking. With so many being opposed to removing the vaccine mandate, I'd have to agree with them. I think vaccine mandates need to continue until at least the end of the year for all major events.
Personally, with mask wearing becoming optional in most situations at CMU, my opinion is that while mask wearing should remain optional and encouraged, vaccine mandates 100% need to stay for us to enjoy that freedom. With mask wearing, I feel safer knowing that everyone around me is vaxxed and boosted, and so now in most scenarios I only wear a mask in scenarios where required or to make others more comfortable (which includes most of my classes). While we're slowly climbing back to a point of normalcy, I still think we need to tread carefully, take things slow, and remain cautiously optimistic while being prepared to slide back if need be.
Let's be real, at this stage of the game, why are we even considering dropping masks and vaccine requirements? The pandemic has really been winding down slowly but it is starting to wind down significantly. Why risk contributing to amplifying case numbers when we are closer to an end for this thing than we have been in a long time? I really am optimistic that by the end of the year things will more or less have stabilized as far as case numbers and being able to safely commune with others and even go without masks in public spaces.
But we need to chill out with constantly rolling this stuff back the moment the sunrays start to show through the clouds. If we just let the vaccines and humans factor engineering to reduce exposures do it's thing, we will be able to get on with our existence. It annoys me to still see this as a thing that is being discussed.
I'm honestly a bit surprised by these statistics, but not because I'm opposed to them at all. It just has seemed to me like the majority of people are just waiting for all of this to end, tired of wearing masks, and tired of mandates and requirements. It was actually quite refreshing to see that isn't the case. Personally, I don't see COVID going away any time soon, and maybe ever. In all likelihood, based on our failures to contain COVID early on and the struggle it was to get even the percentage of the population that is vaccinated to that point, COVID will be around for the long haul, and will ultimately be something we have to live with. However, that doesn't mean that we should just accept that, get rid of all of our requirements and mandates, and accept getting sick. That can and will lead to even more deaths, and even more suffering. The roll back needs to be done responsibily, and with the understanding that there is no one perfect solution for everyone.
Post a Comment