This might be the case with this email, but is not always true.
There are ways to infect a device by simply opening an email. Of course this requires some conditions to be fulfilled, but nonetheless it is possible.
The very least you could do is to gather information about the target opening the email (e.g. IP address, browser used, OS, etc..). At least if you are not opening the email in plain text mode.
Oh, and btw.. A few years ago there was a bug in symantecs virus scanner.
It was enough to just receive a malicious email.
Usually the AV checks each incoming mail/attachement in a sandboxed environment. However, there was a bug which allowed an attacker to run code directly with root/administrator privileges on the victims computer.
You wouldn't even need to open the mail, simply receiving it was sufficient.
Usually, opening mails is fine to not get compromised. But it depends a lot on the mail client / browser / whatever you are using to open it.