NFPA Journal - July/August 2020 - 8

Editor's Note by Scott Sutherland

Executive Editor, NFPA Journal

In-Between Days
n the last day of June, 48,000
new coronavirus infections
were reported in the US-a
new single-day record in what
had become a string of such
records as the virus mushroomed, and as we
prepared for our fifth month of COVID-19.
"Prepared" seemed like a wildly inappropriate term for much of the national
pandemic response at that moment,
however. New infections had jumped 80
percent over the two weeks leading up to
June 30, and experts warned that daily
infections could top 100,000 unless drastic steps were taken immediately. New
infections were on the rise in more than
half the states, and a handful of Sun Belt
states, including Arizona, Texas, Florida,
and South Carolina, were responsible for
the majority of all infections nationwide.
In general, June amounted to a dismaying
display of American fecklessness: as governors grandly declared businesses open,
consumers donned their party shoes and
resumed their pre-COVID lives, with hardly
a facemask or an attempt at social distancing in sight. Pandemic? What pandemic?
Ground zero for the lion's share of those
new infections were the bars, restaurants,
bowling alleys, and other spots where
people toasted their newfound freedom.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Scott Sutherland
ssutherland@nfpa.org

A large percentage of new infections were
among people under 40-proof, as if it
were needed, that the virus wasn't just a
concern for the aged or medically compromised. Some states, shocked into reason by
the speed and aggression of the virus, shut
down the bars and restaurants once again.
That's why this issue of Journal, with
its focus on assembly occupancies, is so
timely. In his cover story, "Risky Business,"
Steven A. Adelman takes a close look at the
challenges faced by assembly spaces during
these in-between days: the period between
the reopening of businesses, however fitful,
and the emergence of a coronavirus vaccine or more effective modes of treatment.
Adelman considers everything from pubs
to concert venues, with the former constituting the sharp end of the spear. "Every
failure and retrenchment by the smaller
venues allowed to reopen in Phase 1 further
delays the time when live events-considered more difficult to operate safely-will
get their turn," he writes. "Time is money."
Meanwhile, on June 30, no one in
Massachusetts, where I live, died from
COVID-19-something that hadn't happened since March 21. Also on June 30,
I met friends for tacos under a tent in a
restaurant parking lot, my first dinner out
since mid-March. Baby steps.

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NFPA Journal - July/August 2020

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