Tonight a campaign group of performing artists and their allies sounding the alarm on the long Covid crisis, Protect the Heart of the Arts, will hold a mask handout at London’s Donmar Warehouse theatre. David Tennant is playing the lead in Macbeth there this evening.
Protect the Heart of the Arts is asking for the reintroduction of audience masking at select performances in London theatres, in response to the UK’s escalating long Covid crisis. Volunteers will distribute masks and information cards about preventing Covid transmission, in order to protect cast members, staff, and audience members. Even advanced air-handling can’t prevent close-range infections without the additional use of masks.
Long Covid
Long Covid describes long-term health problems persisting — or developing after — Covid infections. Symptoms range from more subtle health complaints like memory issues, changes to smell and taste, and gastrointestinal problems, to more serious health difficulties like cardiac and pulmonary problems, immune issues, ME/CFS, and cognitive dysfunction.
A 2023 population study in Scotland estimated that 6.6-10.3% of people in the UK were living with long Covid. A recent major study by Imperial College London found that tens of thousands of people in England may have lasting symptoms from Covid more than a year after infection. According to the Office for National Statistics, at least 87,000 children were living with symptoms of long Covid by October 2022.
The British Medical Association conducted the first major survey of doctors with long Covid earlier this year, revealing its debilitating impacts on their health, lives, and work. A January 2023 study found that at least 65 million individuals worldwide were estimated to have it, with cases then increasing daily.
The latter study noted that: “Few people with long Covid demonstrate full recovery, with one study finding that 85% of patients who had symptoms two months after the initial infection reported symptoms one year after symptom onset … a significant proportion of individuals with long Covid may have lifelong disabilities if no action is taken.” Yet it’s hard to say where we’re going with Covid in the UK – and therefore long Covid – as data is no longer being assessed and reported in the same way.
Impacts on performance artists
Crowded indoor spaces are the highest risk for people infecting others with Covid, especially when poorly ventilated. Covid is an airborne disease. Many performers, crew, and venue staff are either on long-term sick leave with long Covid, or are no longer working due to the high risk of reinfection.
According to the World Health Organization, “It is known that the chance of developing the condition increases the more times a person gets reinfected by SARS-CoV-2, and that reinfection can worsen symptoms for people already living with long Covid.”
Many performing artists have been open about the impacts of long Covid on their lives and work, including actors, conductors, dancers, musicians, and singers. Actor Tilda Swinton has spoken of damage to her memory, and musician Dave Navarro of lingering fatigue. It ravaged New Zealand soprano Christina Orjis’ ability to sing. Gwyneth Paltrow, Billie Eilish, Colin Farrell, Alyssa Milano, Emma Samms, and Mick Hucknall have all suffered its symptoms to varying degrees.
High risk venues
To reduce infections, London theatres are upgrading their ventilation systems. Modelling by aerosol scientists has demonstrated that layered mitigations, such as HEPA filtration and effective masking, are the most effective for protecting people in indoor spaces.
Protect the Heart of the Arts has chosen Macbeth for this evening’s mask hand-out because the play was first performed in 1606, when an outbreak of plague closed London theatres for eight months. We advocate for layered mitigations in venues, like clean air and masking, so that performers, crew, venue staff, and patrons can safely attend.
We believe in the enduring power of the performing arts as the heart of a society, uplifting us in dark times and inspiring us to always seek our most noble potential. The heart of the arts is worth protecting at all costs.
In Shakespeare’s time, Macbeth provided an expression of the trauma of plague-stricken England. Now it sounds the alarm on the long Covid crisis in the performing arts.
‘Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself.
It cannot be called our mother, but our grave.’
