While being stuck at home for months, people are getting antsy to go back out into the world and return to a normal life. One activity that is widely missed is going to the movie theater.
At the beginning of the discovery and spread of Covid-19, theaters and other public places shut down. In a few months, however, they were able to re-open, creating a breeding ground for Covid-19 by impatient people who needed to get their movie theater kick.
Movie theaters have been cramming people together for decades. Our only problems then were neighbors on their phones, talking, or loud chewing. Now, a new concern is that our neighbor can spread a virus to us just by breathing.
It is hard to maintain a 6 foot distance from another person while in a movie theater. Even if they block off a couple seats to the right and left of you, there will still be people in front and behind you.
Furthermore, since guests will be eating the food they purchased, their masks will be off, allowing for any germs they cough, sneeze, or even expel through talking to be able to spread across longer distances. Ventilation could also recirculate potentially virus-filled air which can travel across the entire building.
Some businesses check temperatures upon entry. A telltale sign of Covid-19 is a fever, and identifying this before entry could possibly lead to fewer transmissions of it in the businesses, but few theaters have implemented this. This allows for every person who can potentially be carrying the virus to just waltz on in. Even if customers don’t appear to have a fever, it is still possible for them to be asymptomatic carriers.
Eager people ready to get back in the theaters may argue that the employees sanitize and are required to maintain the cleanliness of the theater, but if a teenager working minimum wage has to both clean up the mess families neglect at their seats and spill on the floor, and sanitize every last inch of the theater, there is no doubt in my mind that they might skip a few of the necessary steps.
During these times, it is easy to get caught in a negative mindset and a bad mental health space, so it is important to do things that make you feel happy.
While this is true, it is also important to be mindful of the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic is serious and even though it is not that deadly to some people, others with immunodeficiency or who are older in age are more likely to have a more severe or deadly battle with it.
Simple things like staying out of large crowds or crowded public spaces could potentially save lives by stopping it from its roots: transmission from person to person.
To aid with this, platforms like Disney Plus have been directly streaming their movies to their website.
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “Mulan”, for example, were both released to streaming platforms instead of theaters. “Borat” was even free to watch on Amazon Prime.
Although you have to pay to watch “Mulan” on Disney Plus, it saves people from having to go into movie theaters and possibly contracting Covid-19.
For those wanting to watch movies, I strongly recommend that you stay home and watch them when they are released to streaming services. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice things you like to do to protect yourself and others, and this pandemic is one of those times.