As of May 1, more than 30 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control, with more getting the jab every day. However, with a significant number of people reluctant to take the vaccine, the rate of people getting the shot is likely to taper. So what does all this mean for businesses that are anxious to reboot the trade show and events industry?

We sat down with Brian Labus, an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at the UNLV School of Public Health, who is also a member of Nevada Governor Sisolak's COVID-19 Medical Advisory Team. He provided insight into vaccines, face masks, COVID-19 variants, and how it will all affect the reopening of trade shows and events.

EXHIBITOR Magazine: What role will COVID vaccinations play in the reopening of trade shows and events?
Brian Labus: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to release guidance on things that fully vaccinated people can do. An individual vaccinated traveler is considered to be at low risk and does not have to test or quarantine before or after travel. Groups of fully vaccinated people can gather without masks and interact like we did before COVID. Unvaccinated people do not have these options. COVID vaccinations are the path out of the pandemic and back to normalcy.

EM: How might the emerging COVID variants affect the reopening of the trade show and events industry?
BL: The emerging variants can spread more easily or cause more serious disease, and this poses a greater risk any time we gather people together. The vaccines do appear to be effective against these variants, and that makes it that much more important that people get vaccinated.

EM: After vaccines are widely distributed, will trade shows and events immediately rebound to pre-COVID norms, or do you expect to see changes such as smaller shows and mask wearing further into the future?
BL: It's not about having a certain percentage of the population vaccinated. It's about stopping the spread of disease in the community. We should see the effects of vaccination in our case counts, and that is what is going to drive behaviors. It is going to take some time to get back to normal after we reach that point, but that has more to do with the logistics of scheduling trade shows and events. Large events are scheduled a year or more into the future, so we will still see smaller and more local or regional events come back before large national events.

EM: Is wearing masks still an important safety protocol for trade shows and live events?
BL: Masks are absolutely effective in stopping the spread of the virus and are something we need to continue to do until we have the disease completely under control. The best mask is one that fits well and one that people will actually wear. Also, multiple layers of fabrics provide more filtration than a single layer.

EM: If you looked at your crystal ball, when do you expect to see the trade show and events industry significantly reopen?
BL: I am optimistic that we can start to get back to normal around the time kids start to return to school in the fall. However, that is dependent on what the virus does and how we respond as a community. We are on the virus' timeline, and the virus has not been tipping its hand as to what is next.