Dr. Fauci hopeful that U.S. will be able to fill up seats in arenas by summer 2021

Sports fans have had it tough through the whole coronavirus ordeal, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

With COVID-19 vaccines set to be available to the public in the near future, the number of positive cases will drop dramatically and the large proportion of the population will be protected from contracting the virus. That means life can finally start going back to normal, but it will still take a bit of time.

Fauci optimistically believes that professional sports leagues like the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL will safely be able to allow fans at full capacity in their respective arenas by the time summer 2021 hits. More likely though, it will be later into that season before it will be implemented.

“We’re gonna be vaccinating the highest-priority people (from) the end of December through January, February, March…By the time you get to the general public, the people who’ll be going to the basketball games, who don’t have any underlying conditions, that’s gonna be starting the end of April, May, June.” said Fauci

“So it probably will be well into the end of the summer before you can really feel comfortable (with full sports stadiums) – if a lot of people get vaccinated. I don’t think we’re going to be that normal in July. I think it probably would be by the end of the summer.”