U.S. Muggle government releases guidelines for reopening Muggle businesses and society

Apr 23, 2020

Posted by: Amanda Kirk

News

Last Thursday, April 16, the White House, in collaboration with the CDC, released a set of guidelines for a three phase plan to re-open the country to normal Muggle commerce, recreation, and social interaction after most states have implemented a patchwork of varied closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a respiratory disease that can be fatal, especially in the elderly and the immune-compromised, which has grown into a global pandemic over the last three months.

COVID-19 is caused by a novel coronavirus that appears to have originated in Wuhan, China, and was spread via international travel. Most countries around the world have implemented restrictions on normal everyday activities in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease, which transfers from person to person mainly via virus-laden droplets from respiration. As these varied social distancing protocols have decreased person-to-person transfer of the virus, Muggle governments at all levels are attempting to plan a gradual and safe return to normalcy that will avoid a resurgence in cases.

Public health officials have identified certain measures that should be in place to facilitate a re-opening that minimises new cases. Each country is unique in the social distancing measures it has applied, the mitigation to economic disruption that it has provided, and its timetable for reopening. If you have been following the Muggle news, you will have heard a lot of talk about the pattern of cases, which usually occurs on a curve with cases increasing, peaking, and then decreasing.  Once new cases have started to decrease (deaths will, sadly, lag behind and keep increasing even after new cases have begun to decline), most governments begin to talk about a phased, gradual reopening, taking care to avoid spikes in new cases.

Avoiding a sudden spike in cases is important: When cases occur over a longer, gradual timeline, healthcare facilities can better treat patients than if there are large numbers of sick people needing treatment at once. Imagine if an entire year’s worth of Dragon Pox patients flooded into St. Mungo’s in one week rather than spread throughout the entire year. The healers would be overwhelmed, and people might die before they could be treated.

It has been important for the Muggle healthcare facilities that people practice social distancing to “flatten the curve” and prevent a surge of COVID-19 cases all at once. The good news is that this has mostly succeeded in the United States, and the federal government, as well as state and local governments, are starting to talk about gradually and safely re-opening areas of the country that have been largely shutdown in recent weeks.

The United States is a large, diverse country, with different states and localities hitting their COVID-19 case peak at different times, so re-opening will not be like flipping a switch where everything goes back to normal. There is also some disagreement amongst both citizens and politicians about how and when to re-open. We won’t go into that here, but suffice to say that getting both sides to agree is a more challenging task than turning Norberta the Norwegian Ridgeback into a quiet family pet.

When the U.S. federal government issued its set of guidelines for re-opening, it left the concrete decision-making to state and local officials. So, we can’t tell you exactly when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando or Universal Studio Tours Hollywood will re-open. We don’t have any concrete dates, just a set of criteria to gauge the safety of re-opening moving from phase to phase. We’re all eager for Cursed Child to be back on the stage, and filming to resume on the third Fantastic Beasts movie. But most of all we want everyone to be safe and sound, and to avoid more fatalities and permanent injuries. As Warner Bros. makes announcements about its plans to reopen its theme parks, we’ll be the first to let you know about them.

In the meantime, keep twiddling those dials.  We’re here virtually every day (get it, virtually every day…never mind) bringing you the latest Potter-related news. There are a variety of official and unofficial Harry Potter activities online to keep you tuned in to the Potterverse whilst you are staying home.

 





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.