Is Singing Together Safe In The Era Of Coronavirus? Not Really, Experts Say

In...March...singers and choral directors across the country became concerned after a chorus in Washington state made national headlines. Sixty singers in the Skagit Valley Chorale showed up to a two-and-a-half-hour rehearsal. Fifty-three of them became sick with the coronavirus, and two people died.

The CDC issued a report about the group in May, writing: "SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19] might be highly transmissible in certain settings, including group singing events." But since then, the CDC has erased that messaging from its current posted guidelines, due to what American scientists worry are political concerns.

"Singing in a room for an extended period of time, in close contact with lots of people and no ventilation — that's a recipe for disaster," says Shelly Miller, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Along with Jelena Srebric at the University of Maryland, Miller is leading a six-month research project looking at singers' and other musicians' transmission of aerosol particles.

Their team's research is funded by a consortium of organizations — from professional advocacy groups like Opera America to associations representing high school bands and choruses — who are all trying to figure out how they can get back together safely.

In preliminary research published on July 13, Miller and her fellow researchers found that singers, as well as certain wind and brass instrumentalists, generate respiratory aerosols at high rates. In other words, they spew a lot of droplets into the air when they warble or blow. A second round of research published on Aug. 6 reinforced those findings and the team's recommendations. Read More

Also See: 
Performing Arts Aerosol Study
Second Round of Performing Arts Aerosol Study Produces Encouraging Preliminary Results
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by inhalation of respiratory aerosol in the Skagit Valley Chorale superspreading event
COVID-19 Airborne Transmission Tool Available
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: implications for infection prevention precautions
CDC Quickly Changed Its Guidance On Limiting Choirs At Religious Services

I am posting links to these articles as follow-up to the article on church camps and pipe organs to which I posted links earlier. Where COVID-19 transmission is concerned, the evidence is mounting that singing is a high risk activity. Unfortunately some churches will ignore this evidence and will not take necessary precautionary measures to protect their congregations and their communities. While singing has played an important role in Christian worship, it is certainly not the only way to worship God. Indeed worshiping God is not just something Christians do on Sundays. Christians should be honoring God with everything do and say every waking moment of the day. Those who do that are the true worshipers that the Father seeks, the ones who worship him in spirit and in truth.