'Why Opening Restaurants Is Exactly What The Coronavirus Wants Us To Do'

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Mon Feb 8, 2021, 11:51 PM - Edit history (1)

- 'Why Opening Restaurants Is Exactly What the Coronavirus Wants Us to Do.' Slate, Feb. 6, 2021. Governors continue to open indoor dining & other activities before vaccinations become widespread. Experts warn this could create superspreading playgrounds for dangerous variants & squander our best shot at getting the pandemic under control. - Ed.-

On Jan. 29, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was promoting “marital bliss” at a coronavirus news conference. Announcing that indoor dining would reopen at 25% capacity in New York City on Valentine’s Day, and wedding receptions could also resume with up to 150 people a month after, Cuomo suggested: “You propose on Valentine’s Day and then you can have the wedding ceremony March 15, up to 150 people. People will actually come to your wedding because you can tell them, with the testing, it will be safe. … No pressure, but it’s just an idea.”

Cuomo isn’t alone in taking measures to loosen pandemic-related restrictions. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allowed indoor dining to resume at 25% capacity starting Feb. 1. Idaho Gov. Brad Little increased limits on indoor gatherings from 10 to 50 people. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is raising business capacity from 25% to 40%, including at restaurants and gyms. California Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted stay-at-home orders on Jan. 25. To justify their reopening decisions, governors point to falling case counts. “We make decisions based on facts,” Cuomo said. “New York City numbers are down.”

But epidemiologists and public health experts say a crucial factor is missing from these calculations: the threat of new viral variants. One coronavirus variant, which originated in the U.K. and is now spreading in the U.S., is believed to be 50% more transmissible. The more cases there are, the faster new variants can spread. Because the baseline of case counts in the U.S. is already so high- we're still averaging about 130,000 new cases a day- because the spread of the virus grows exponentially, cases could easily climb past the 300,000-per-day peak we reached in early January if we underestimate the variants, experts said.

Furthermore, study after study has identified indoor spaces- particularly restaurants, where consistent masking is not possible- as some of the highest-risk locations for transmission to occur. Even with distanced tables, case studies have shown that droplets can travel long distances within dining establishments, sometimes helped along by A/C. We’re just in the opening stage of the new variants’ arrival in the U.S. Experts say we could speed viruses’ spread by providing them with superspreading playgrounds or slow them down by starving them of opportunities to replicate. “We’re standing at an inflection point,” said Sam Scarpino, asst. professor at Northeastern University. Thanks to the arrival of vaccines, he said, “we finally have the chance right now to bring this back under control, but if we ease up now, we may end up wasting all the effort we put in.”

Dr. Luciana Borio, an infectious disease physician who was a member of the Biden-Harris transition team’s COVID-19 advisory board, put it more bluntly at a congressional hearing on Feb. 3. “Our worst days could be ahead of us,”...

More, https://www.propublica.org/article/why-opening-restaurants-is-exactly-what-the-coronavirus-wants-us-to-do

[MFM008]

1. i wouldnt go to a restaurant

even if they were giving vaccines out there,..............

[AZ8theist]

3. By not continuing the lockdown and opening things up now....

The Anti-science morons have won.

Vaccinated and herd immunity are still months away. Fucking idiots.

[SunSeeker]

4. Yup. The Governor just opened up restaurants for outdoor dining here in CA.

Our month-long Christmas lockdown had dropped the case count/ hospitalizations by around 50%. I am afraid it will pop back up now, especially with the UK variant now in CA. I suspect our Governor was feeling the pressure from a recall campaign that has been gaining steam by anti-lockdown forces.

[AZ8theist]

5. I am sure of it..

I think Newsome is a pretty good governor, but you are correct, he's definitely feeling the pressure to open up, despite the science.

Like I said, fucking idiots. As if wearing a mask is taking away your rights. Well, your right to be a BLITHERING FUCKING IMBECILE is certainly infringed. What a catastrophe!!!!