Most of post-COVID-19 America is technically opening back up again over the summer, but that doesn’t necessarily ease the stress of diving back into the social interaction pool’s deep end. Sure, we’d love to grab a drink at our favorite bar, or head to the theater to catch A Quiet Place Part II, or hell, even see a concert... but we’re still having trouble shaking the feeling that it’s still, y’know, not exactly safe to do so. Like, what if that person in line for Raisinets is an anti-vaxxer? What if that dude in front of us at the merch table hasn’t had the time to schedule his first Moderna shot? Well, at least one event has apparently taken that into consideration: a very fun-sounding punk show later this month in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
As a local St. Pete’s news outlet reported last week, an upcoming concert featuring the very Warped Tour circa 2005-sounding artists Teenage Bottlerocket, Make War, and Rutterkin is hoping to create the safest space possible by offering sensibly priced $18 tickets to all attendees who can provide proof of vaccination... and $999 passes for those who want talk your ear off about how the J&J one-and-done shot actually inserts a 5G microchip tracker into your bloodstream.
“We’re just trying to do a show safely. And they should go out and get vaccinated to protect themselves and their families and their community,” show promoter, Paul Williams, told WFTS Tampa Bay News, with Teenage Bottlerocket’s lead singer and guitarist, Ray Carlisle, adding, “We’re all vaccinated. We encourage everyone to get vaccinated so we can see you in the pit.”
Apparently, some people aren’t thrilled at the attendance policy, citing things like Florida’s vaccine passport ban for private businesses, recently recovered COVID-19 sufferers who cannot get the vaccine, and various “muh freedoms” reasonings—so, sure, maybe there’s some ethical issues at play here. But, as Williams notes, those people “can come to the next show.”
Or maybe anti-vaxxers crying about oppression can take a page out of uninsured cancer sufferers’ playbook: “Perhaps put together a Go-Fund-Me and all the other weirdo anti-vaxers [sic] can help support you going to Teenage Bottlerocket for a thousand dollars. That’s always an option,” Carlisle suggests.
In any case, it looks like the show’s vaccine-rate tickets have already sold out, so maybe public health incentivizing tactics actually work sometimes.
[via BoingBoing]
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