The ticketing giant will require concert lovers to use smartphones to verify their coronavirus vaccination status
Ticketmaster is planning to take extra safety measures once large concerts return.
The ticketing giant will require music fans to use smartphones to verify their coronavirus vaccination status or at least test negative for the contagion before they can attend events, Billboard reports. Ticketmaster’s plan utilizes its digital ticketing app, third party health information firms, and testing/vaccination distributors to verify a person’s COVID-related health status.
Ticketmaster will not have access to/or store medical records under the plan. Once a person’s vaccination status is confirmed, they will receive the necessary event credentials. But “if a fan tested positive or didn’t take a test to verify their status, they would not be granted access to the event,” Billboard says.
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Ticketmaster President Mark Yovich told the publication that “we’re already seeing many third-party health care providers prepare to handle the vetting — whether that is getting a vaccine, taking a test, or other methods of review and approval — which could then be linked via a digital ticket so everyone entering the event is verified.”
The plan comes days after Pfizer announced promising results from a Phase 3 trial. An earlier report on theGRIO noted that the latest vaccine data from the pharmaceutical giant suggests the shots may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19, indicating the company is on track later this month to file an emergency use application with U.S. regulators, per The Associated Press. Monday’s announcement doesn’t mean a vaccine is imminent.
“We’re in a position potentially to be able to offer some hope,” Dr. Bill Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of clinical development, told The AP. “We’re very encouraged.”
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If Pfizer’s vaccine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “it’s going to be a while before this has a major impact at the population level,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University and former chief of Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division.
According to The AP, the FDA requires that U.S. vaccine candidates be studied in at least 30,000 people. In addition to adequate numbers of older adults, those studies must also include other groups at high risk, including minorities and people with chronic health problems.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, says the average person may be able to get the vaccine by April 2021.
Meanwhile, Yovich said Ticketmaster hopes to “provide enough flexibility and options that venues and fans have multiple paths to return to events.”
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The post Fans must prove negative COVID-19 status to attend Ticketmaster events appeared first on TheGrio.
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