“Fully open.”
They’re two words that everybody has been waiting to hear in regard to COVID-19 lockdowns, shutdowns and capacity restrictions. We’re not there yet in New Jersey, but we’re hearing that golden phrase more and more often about the near future.
The most recent big announcement locally is that Rowan University expects to be — wait for it — “fully open” for the fall semester.
“I expect our classrooms, research labs, recreation facilities and residence halls will be busy and full of activity once again,” Rowan President Ali Houshmand told NJ Advance Media last week. “We’ll also return to in-person student activities and events. After being away so long, it will be an exciting time, one that I know none of us — students, faculty and staff — will take for granted.”
That’s in September. Meanwhile, 2021 graduates who’ll have endured three semesters with a mix of online and on-campus learning will need to settle for one more all-virtual event: the university-wide commencement in May. There will be some smaller in-person ceremonies, but the decision involving the big graduation seems prudent.
Concerning our region more broadly, this suggests a month or two from now is too soon to hold massive gatherings, even as they joyously go back on the agenda. Summertime, and the living should be easier. By fall, “normal” could be back.
Consider — depending on the COVID-19 case trajectory — what South Jersey and the Delaware Valley can to look forward to soon. Starting today, about 3,100 fans can attend Flyers’ and 76ers’ games at the Wells Fargo Center. In April, 8,800 people are expected to be on hand for the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park opener. Thousands of parents can now sign up their kids for New Jersey sleep-away camps this summer. The Philadelphia Flower Show, that internationally known harbinger of spring, has been postponed until June 5 with a new wrinkle that could be exciting. It’ll be held outdoors for the first time ever.
The need to be cautious for the near term is highlighted by officials in other states who have jumped the gun. Gov. Greg Abbott reads “fully open” not as forward-leading guidance, but as an immediate command. “It is now time to open Texas 100 percent,” he said, although his state has one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates. No masks, no capacity limits. Think increased virus spread there won’t affect us up North? Southwest and American airlines both have big hubs in the Lone Star State. Even if Texas is not your destination, do you know where your plane has been?
Speaking of air travel, Tucker Carlson’s favorite gym owner, Ian Smith, is now banned from American Airlines for refusing to mask up on a return flight to Philadelphia from last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida. The combatively defiant Smith, best known for reopening his Atilis Gym in Bellmawr against state regulations, wrote in his Instagram account: “This (ban) does not bother me. I will happily take any punishment these people wish to hand me. I will happily find a work-around.”
Apparently, it doesn’t matter if others on a crowded airplane are “bothered” by an unmasked Smith’s attendance at the largely unmasked CPAC event in Orlando. He and Abbott are the kind of “all about me” personalities who could spoil the “fully open” future that we all envision.
We still may need to wear masks at the flower show, in Rowan classrooms and at our favorite sports events. It depends on how close our nation has come to much-desired “herd immunity” and the vaccines’ ability to handle new and emerging strains.
However, it is already “meteorological spring” and traditional spring arrives March 20, in less than two weeks. Try to think about travel plans and five-day-a-week schools, not the selfish minority that seems intent on sending us backwards.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com
Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.