Dr. Robert Lahita is trying to answer all of our questions about the grand opening of cinemas this August.
Photo: Alain Benainous / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
This piece has been updated with new information regarding national plans to reopen movie theaters this summer.
When we last checked with our public health expert about the safety of returning to theaters in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, his outlook was bleak: “It’s like Russian roulette,” he said. “You never know.”
That was a June. The major theater chains planned to reopen next month, in time to lure moviegoers back with the double-whammy releases of Mulan en Tenet, then scheduled for opening in late July. But those plans were thwarted when COVID-19 spread throughout the country, increasing the death toll. Since then, Disney has moved Mulan to its streaming platform, Warner Bros. reschedule (and reschedule) Tenetits debut date, and cineplexes in many states have remained closed. AMC finally began redistributing its locations Thursday, with Regal and Marcus Theaters next Friday; all hoping to get important screens for TenetThe U.S. outbreak, which is now scheduled to begin Labor Day weekend.
That I came back to Dr. Robert Lahita, president of medicine at St. Joseph’s Health in New Jersey, professor of medicine at New York Medical College, and adjunct professor of medicine at Rutgers, to discuss whether we should run to the office this week.
“We’ve seen 30,000 new cases in the southern states and the Sunbelt,” Lahita told us back in June. ‘It looked like there was a flattened curve, and then all of a sudden we were moving up again. That these guys will open theaters if we have an increase in infections? ”
Concerned about rising rates of infection, Lahita believes basic safety measures – including socially remote reserved seating, frequent screen cleaning and temperature checks at the Cineplex door – will go a long way for those seeking a return to the theater. “There’s always an inherent risk, but I was actually surprised at how in-depth some of the planning is,” Lahita adds to the broad strategies he’s seen.
The first reluctance of the chains to ask for face masks on all guests, however, had concerned Lahita. ‘You should have nuts’ to not wear a mask, he says. ‘You’re with a group of strangers. Unless you are sitting 20 or 30 meters away from the other person, you run the risk of becoming infected. There is no question of that. You know what the air is like in a theater: It’s not very circulating. If you do not wear a mask, you take chances. “
Fortunately, AMC and Regal reversed course, announcing that guests soe be required to wear masks – although their current policies make it possible to remove masks during food and drink concessions.
Lahita works in New York and New Jersey, which are not among the states where the chains will open their doors this week because their directors have explicitly barred movie theaters from reopening. Although New York’s positivity figures have remained below one percent for almost two weeks, and the state and New York City are well into phase four, Governor Andrew Cuomo has kept theatrical doors closed, noting that “on a relative risk scale a movie theater is less essential and poses a high risk.It is community.It is one ventilation system.You sit there for a long period of time.Even if you have 50 percent with one or two seats between you two, this is a risk situation and … cinemas are not so high on the list of essences. “
“It’s not an essential locale,” Lahita agrees. ‘But when people are fed up, they want to go to the theater, that’s their business. And when we enter phase four, it’s phase four! That we can not choose, “he says, adding,” If you are going to do phase four opening of essentially non-essential locations, such as restaurants, gyms, tattoo parlors, and barber shops, I would think that of more would then be at risk of going to a cinema, because of their inherent proximity to strangers. ”
‘That’s comparable to [eating from] a buffet in a restaurant, ”Lahita said back in June. “There’s a change of money, you put your hands on the counter, you wait to get the popcorn and the soda and all that.” While some theaters will use contactless methods for concession transactions, and others will not offer conditioning stations, there is still the problem of masks – and the need to take them off to consume food and drink.
But Lahita notes that as long as theaters maintain less capacity and social distancing measures, with empty rows and empty seats between parties, eating in a theater may not be as dangerous as you think. “The servers have to wear a mask, no question of it,” he says. But if the moviegoer takes her popcorn and soda to her chair and waits until they sit in the uniform-facing chairs to move or remove their mask, they should be fine. “Unless you’re coughing or sneezing by the person behind you, or the kids next to you, I see no major risk.”
Some theaters (especially the Alamo Drafthouse) have made their auditoriums available for private screens in their attempt to jump in revenue, allowing small groups to rent a theater and a selection of movies for a fee (and minimal purchase). of food). Lahita thinks this is a smart option for shaky moviegoers.
‘If you rent the theater to you and your friends,’ he says, ‘and you have a theater with 300 seats and there are just five of you, wow, that’s like being in a ballpark. You do not have to worry about that. And you know your friends, probably, right? You know who is and is not infected. “
When theater closures have been going on for the past few months, drive-in movie theaters have flourished, offering audiences a way to “go to the movies” while still staying in a safe, socially distant bubble. (Unfortunately, there aren’t that many left over often; most drive-ins were put out of business in the 1970s and ’80s by the very multiplexes that are now locked up.)
“It’s perfectly safe if you do not leave your car,” Lahita said in June. ‘You have to supply your car with food and drink. And you would have to leave the car to go to the bathroom, which obviously exposes you to risks. In the summer you should lower the windows when the engine is running for air conditioning. With windows down, your neighbor could infect you, though that’s unlikely. “
Theaters such as AMC and Cinemark have promised inadequate sanitizer distribution in their buildings, but Lahita warns that hand washing remains necessary. “When you touch something in the toilet, like the sink, the toilet, the urinal, you wipe your hands down and wash your hands after you go to the bathroom,” Lahita adds. “Make sure you wash them thoroughly with soap and water, and everything should be fine.”
In promoting their pending resume, theaters have made much of their “intensified cleaning protocols.” But because surface transmissions are rarely proven, some of this amounts to something The Atlantic OceanDerek Thompson called “hygiene theater”: “risk-reduction rituals that make us to feel safer, but not really much to reduce risk – even if more dangerous activities are still allowed. Do any of these fall into that category?
“Between movies, where they pull around and pick up the trash, I think if they have some spray over aerosolization and spew the seats and stuff, that’s fine.” Lahita says. ‘But you are absolutely right, there is no important evidence that you will pick up the virus by taking it to a church or a chair in the theater at the moment. I do not think this is a realistic concern. We used to worry about it, but we have learned that the virus does not live on these things for long. So between shows, disinfection is the way to go, but I do not think you should run around during the show and spit on everyone. ”
That, as before, Lahita advises disinfecting wipes and removing your immediate seat before committing to a movie – with one update: Back in March, he noticed that plastic seats were much cleaner with wipes – and therefore safer – then their cloth opponents. “The data now show that fabric chairs and plastic seats make no difference,” he explained. ‘Actually, I think there was some data that suggested that cloth seats were actually better than plastic and metal. The virus does not live very long on any of these fomite types of things. You can wipe plastic down, you can not wipe cloth, but cloth is probably not so infected; also is not plastic according to the data I have seen. That that is not a big concern. ”
If you were to discuss the various logistical details of reopening a cinema, you might be asking a bigger question: Are theater owners responsible for reopening their doors, even at limited capacity, if infection is still a risk? Are studios acting responsibly by releasing new films, hoping that patrons will risk their health to see them in theaters?
“That’s a real doozy of a question,” Lahita acknowledged in June, “because you, you know, my criticism and concern right now is that these mass meetings are in Florida, in Arizona, New Mexico, and in California. – people gather on beaches and things without masks and no social distance.Press this? That, I do not want to kill the film industry.But on the other hand, if I were them, I would extend the release of new films to, say, “in the fall, because there could be a resurgence of this virus in September and October, when temperatures change again in the Northeast. So if everyone goes to the movies, it could increase reinfection rates.”
But there are no easy answers, he insists. “I would say 70 percent of the people [infected with COVID-19] are asymptomatic, if they get the disease they are sick but they recover at home. There is that small percentage that is of great concern. We do not know who they are and we have no way of determining who they are, so that’s the scary part. “
As the torn chain of chains begins – with Cuomo indicating that theaters “need to be next” to reopen in New York – many filmmakers will soon be faced with the question of whether it’s worth the risk to health to going back to the multiplex, however bad they might want to look Tenet. But Lahita feels that as long as employees and filmmakers of theaters act responsibly, it can be done.
“We tell her to wear a mask, we stay social distance, you can buy food – but don’t eat the food until you get to the theater,” advises Lahita. “[Family members] can sit next to you because you are with them all the time and you know their health situation. Mar de [other] people in the theater must be at least two rows apart. ”
“Nothing is 100 percent safe,” Lahita adds. ‘But I would say you’re 95 percent safe when you go to the movies [with all of the stated measures in place]. I do not know about live theater, because the seats there are a little closer than in a big movie theater, and that can be a little dizzying. Plus, the people on stage crying, screaming, singing … This may actually be the first time that orchestra sits net a good idea. ”
But if you go without a mask? ‘It’s like Russian roulette. You never know. “
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