(via Pitchfork)

Dave Chappelle was one of the few comedians that could tour with all the sort of precautions that one can take to do in-person shows during this COVID-19 pandemic. He had been doing socially distanced outdoor shows in Ohio and had just started doing them in Austin, TX. Despite rapid testing for the audience and going through daily testing himself, it was just announced by Chappelle’s reps that Chappelle has contracted COVID-19 asymptomatically. There’s no trace as to how he specifically got it yet, but, as we all know at this point, the spread of COVID-19 is so rampant that there might be no telling where he got it.

He has since cancelled those shows that he had scheduled and refunded any tickets bought. There’s no word as of yet, but we can only hope that the rest of those Austin crowds are COVID-19 free.

It’s important to note here that no sort of gathering is entirely safe during this pandemic and that you can only mitigate the probability of transmission. Chappelle utilized all the measures available to him to try to do shows and somehow, he still caught the virus.

There will inevitably be a period where things attempt to reopen in earnest and for good as the vaccine distribution moves forward. Yet, this is a perfect example of why the protocols that scientists have put in place to combat the spread of the virus will have to stay until the majority of the world’s population gets inoculated. Essentially, things won’t be safe until we all can be safe and we can only wish that this lesson will stick very soon.