The whole world is anxious to get back to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic, but the reality is that it might not be time yet. As of right now, Beaver Stadium does not require proof of vaccination or a mask to enter Penn State Football games. The stadium is at full capacity and on September 18th it held 109,958 people for the White Out against Auburn. With 106,572 13 inch wide seats (Not including luxury boxes) there is no possible way to abide by CDC social distancing recommendations. According to The New York Times, Center County is currently a “high risk area” and the CDC recommends that even vaccinated people wear masks in our area due to the rapid spread. Multiple eyewitness accounts have stated that you could count on your hands the number of people wearing masks inside Beaver Stadium during the Penn State vs. Ball State game on September 11th. Naomi Radio, a Penn State football game attendee gave her take by saying, “I think wearing face coverings is a really great mitigation strategy, I think COVID is still very prevalent in our lives and communities and it is on all of us to do our part to limit the spread; especially for [college] students or young people who are not able to get vaccinated. Wearing a mask is just a small thing we all can do to slow the spread of COVID and other diseases as well.”
Another issue is the university not having the stadium at full capacity without any social distancing guidelines at all. Naomi Radio mentioned social distancing with these few sentences, “Social distancing has certainly been reduced, it doesn’t seem to be a priority. Being outside is another mitigating factor but when you jam pack people in together and they’re screaming, that does present a risk, especially when those people are unmasked and potentially coming from all around the state or [even the whole] country.” According to the CDC, only 57% of Pennsylvania is fully vaccinated, and with Penn State not requiring proof of vaccination to enter Beaver Stadium, that is a lot of unvaccinated people together. "Being outdoors offers protection in the sense that there's more air circulating," NBC News was told by Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at the City University of New York. "But if you're in close quarters with a lot of people for a couple of hours, it's not as if the wind can just magically sweep away all of the viruses." Dr. Fauci has also expressed concern about the current crowd sizes inside college football stadiums. Penn State is specifically mentioned in an NBC article as not having any fan restrictions or requirements.
State College and Pennsylvania in general are not yet ready to return to normal after the COVID -19 simply for the reason that we are not to the point of being “after” the pandemic yet. Dr. Fauci is quoted as saying, “People would like to say we’re done with Covid, but Covid is not done with us,"according to MSNBC. Penn State football is a great gathering place for families and friends, and just a fun football environment in general but it is just not plausible at this point in time.
Sources:
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/college-football-season-delta-variant-rcna1920
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/centre-pennsylvania-covid-cases.html
Image Source: https://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/2021/07/penn-state-announces-2-whiteout-games-for-2021-season-when-will-they-be.html