The city of Liverpool ran an experiment to see how the Coronavirus spreads by allowing young people (particularly older teenagers) who tested negative for the virus to go to their first-ever rave since restrictions began last year, as reported by CNN. The rave itself would be exactly as it would have been before the pandemic hit the entire world; this meant no restrictions to space and social distancing, no mask-wearing, etc.

The plan was carried out by Liverpool’s director of public health, Matt Ashton. Ashton proposed the idea to see if it would be viable to have mass gathers again in the future. It’s not stated whether or not the teens have been vaccinated, but all had tested negative before entering. Now, as Ashton believes, it’s a matter of waiting to see if any of the club-goers test positive for the virus. The world awaits to see the results and if there is a chance to return to some sort of  ‘normalcy’ in the future.

The U.K. was one of the hardest-hit countries at the beginning of the pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had not taken it seriously until he had gotten the virus himself. Eventually, the government went into lockdown and had a brief moment of loosening restrictions in the summer of 2020 before going into the hardest lockdowns seen within all of Europe. During their second lockdown, the government ramped up their vaccination program and began to accept any and most vaccines as quickly as possible, and to get them to the most vulnerable just as fast. Many citizens and MEPs within the European Union were critical that the EU’s effort to gain the first vaccines (such as Pfizer) were taking a longer time than their British counterpart, but this was due to the EU’s own much stricter regulations on medicine.

Photo credit Mauricio Alvarado.