Health and Safety Updates
NEW PROTOCOLS IN PLACE BEFORE YOUR NEXT PERFORMANCE
As we start the new year, we would like to thank you for helping us keep our fellow patrons, employees, and artists safe during our Centennial Season. Our collective efforts allowed this landmark season to take place without delay or cancellations.
After discussing our current health and safety protocols with our advisory group of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) doctors led by epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford, we have decided to adjust our Covid policies.
Effective February 1, 2023, proof of Covid-19 vaccination and masking is no longer required to attend San Francisco Opera performances in the War Memorial Opera House or Wilsey Center.
We continue to encourage patrons to wear a mask when attending a performance to protect themselves. San Francisco Opera will have masks available upon request.
In addition, drinks will now be allowed in the theater during performances.
If you have questions about this change, please visit sfopera.com/visit/safety or call the Box Office at (415) 864-3330.
- The NY Times reports that the seven-day rolling average is 54,000 new cases in the US.
- Worldwide, there were around 278,000 new cases.
- About 482 people died in the US. That's a new 9/11 every 6.2 days.
6 comments:
At the performance organization that I'm responsible for, we have also recently dropped the vaccination requirement. Nearly every org that had it (including SFO, I'm pretty sure) required only the original series of vaccinations that were developed in early 2021. Without additional boosters, they now confer almost no protection. I've seen only one or two organizations anywhere that actually required current boosters (which clearly do confer protection). We also surveyed our audience (which is probably the best-vaccinated population in the US), and they were okay with us dropping that requirement. Vax checking is also expensive; the operator of our concert hall (Marin County) was paying for the personnel that checked vaccination cards, until they dropped the requirement about a year ago; since then (since we chose to keep the requirement, until now) we've had to bear that expense. That's a hard swallow for an organization that's already dealing with smaller audiences than we had pre-pandemic, and in a high-inflation environment. This has nothing to do with not taking the pandemic seriously, or with not believing in the power and goodness of Covid vaccines -- the devils are in the details.
Partly because of those audience surveys, and also because we believe masks do confer both protection and comfort, we (unlike SFO's new policy) have so far kept the masking requirement in place. It's extremely polarizing, though; there's a price to pay no matter what an organization chooses. Some people won't come unless everyone's masked, and some people won't come if they're required to be masked.
Thanks, Tod. That all makes a lot of sense, and highlights the difficult position that arts organizations are in because of poor public policy. Sam Bergman, a violist in the Minnesota Orch. who is extremely familiar with the issues, has commented about them on Twitter.
Last week we went to San Francisco Symphony for the first time this season and attendance looked up at least 50% from the previous season. This wasn't some super-popular program with big names. It was the first time attendance appeared to be back to pre-pandemic levels, and not requiring masks seems an important part of that. For SFS it appears the first of Tod's two populations is much smaller than the second, but audiences for other groups may be different.
I'm uncomfortable with the notion that public health is a matter you vote on. More people want to come without masks than want everyone to wear masks, so you drop the mask requirement. THE VIRUS DOESN'T CARE.
Thank you for commenting on this Lisa. I phoned the SFS when I found out they were dropping their masking requirement to say that as a 73-year-old woman, I would no longer be coming to live performances and that they were throwing their core demographic under the bus. This attitude is coming from the top, from Biden and his chosen despicable CDC Director Rochelle Walensky who have chosen to gaslight the American people to serve their corporate masters. Mass death and mass disability (Long Covid and organ damage) are just fine with them.
Thank you, Maria.
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