What do COVID-19 variants mean for restaurant dining and worker safety? “I think that all of the measures [to prevent contracting the virus] that we were doing before should still work, but they may work less well,” Liu says. “The B.1.1.7 variant, which is one of many variants that have been found, appears to be about 50 percent more transmissible, which means that it’s much easier to spread from person to person.” Liu explains that while these new variants aren’t expected to spread in new ways — say, through sewage or drinking water — they do make some activities more dangerous. “Any situation where you are taking some risk, including eating in a restaurant, where you spend some time indoors, with others without your mask on, will just become riskier.”
Before the appearance of highly contagious variants of COVID-19, indoor dining already presented a number of elevated risk factors. In addition to being transmitted from close-contact interactions where large droplets containing the virus are expelled, the virus is also carried in tiny droplets known as aerosols, which, according to information the CDC first published in September, “can linger in the air for minutes to hours.” In other indoor settings that allow constant mask-wearing, the inhalation of these particles can often be prevented or limited by the use of a high-quality mask. But eating necessitates unmasking, and when masks come off for long stretches of eating and drinking in close proximity to others, risk — to restaurant workers as well as restaurant workers as well as fellow customers — goes up dramatically. Explaining the risks of indoor dining, Dr. Russell G. Buhr, a pulmonary and critical care physician at UCLA Health, told Eater in October that “being in an enclosed space where air is recirculated means that if there are viruses suspended in those aerosols in a room, the longer you spend time unmasked in an enclosed space, the higher the risk of contracting the virus.”
A group of people sitting inside of a plastic bubble on the sidewalk at night Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images Even in cases where restaurants are following established guidelines like spacing out tables, adhering to maximum occupancy limits, and utilizing a powerful HVAC system to filter and circulate fresh air that disperses viral particles, the risks of dining out are now higher in places where positivity rates are high and more contagious variants are present. The social-distance guideline suggested by the CDC to prevent person-to-person transmission when an infected person “coughs, sneezes, or talks” — six feet — is still a good baseline of protection, but it shouldn’t be treated as a failproof safety measure in crowded spaces, especially when there’s a high density of infection in an area, as well as documented cases of a more contagious COVID-19 variant. “Unfortunately, the [social distancing] guidance of six feet is probably weakened by a more transmissible virus and also by more virus [droplets in the air],” Liu says. “The more people who are sharing that room with you who are infected, the less that six-foot radius is going to be effective.”
Most major cities that have reintroduced restaurant dining are seeing lower positivity rates than they did during and shortly after the holidays. But those same cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, are still documenting thousands of new COVID-19 cases each day. “We’re not seeing dramatic increases in case numbers [due to new COVID-19 variants], but I also don’t want to to minimize the risk of where we are right now, which is still at very high levels of transmission,” says Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist and the B. Frank and Kathleen Polk Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. With transmission levels high, and variants spreading across the country, dining indoors is one of the highest-risk activities one can do. And while outdoor dining is certainly a safer option, it also comes with some risks.
Is outdoor dining a safe option right now? As people looked for ways to interact with each other in the early days of the pandemic, there was a general consensus that being outdoors — and therefore outdoor dining — was far safer than eating in a restaurant’s dining room or gathering in the tight confines of a bar. And while outdoor dining is relatively safe on paper, once we’re surrounded by friends or family, we tend to ignore risks that might arise. It can be extremely awkward to ask a friend to put their mask on when they aren’t eating or to sidestep a hug from a loved one. It’s also far too easy to mindlessly endanger restaurant workers carrying the lion’s share of risk, forgetting or simply choosing not to put a mask back on when waitstaff come to take an order or drop off food. These small actions add up, and that’s what concerns Syon Bhanot, a behavioral and public economist and assistant professor of economics at Swarthmore College. “In the moment, some of these standards slip, and that’s where I think the calculation goes out the window,” he says. “And then with these more contagious strains, [these seemingly safe actions may lead] to outcomes that we tried our best to avoid.”
Those concerns are compounded by the fact that even when outdoors, a small restaurant table doesn’t leave much room for social distancing with friends from another household, and yet again, masks have to come off to eat and drink. The ability of fresh air to push out lingering infectious particles also depends on the outdoor setups that actually resemble the outdoors, rather than the enclosed structures that struggling restaurateurs in colder climates have erected so they can continue serving diners through the winter. Unfortunately, many of these structures — think yurts, igloos, solariums, and cabanas — prohibit the free movement of air that makes outdoor dining much safer than eating indoors.
A tool developed by the New York Times can help diners assess the risk of activities like dining out on a county-by-county basis. The tool judges the threat of infection in a majority of United States counties to be “extremely high” at the moment, and recommends residents of those areas to avoid outdoor dining and outdoor bars. Would Dowdy make the choice to eat outdoors at a restaurant in, say, New York, where infection rates are still high, and most patio and sidewalk dining is protected by tents or other walled structures? “If [the restaurant is] calling it ‘outdoors,’ but what it really is, is some sort of plastic enclosure… I’m probably not personally going to partake,” he says. “If it’s a very warm day and [the restaurant has] truly outdoor tables that are reasonably spaced from each other, and the people that I’m with are part of my small bubble of people that I interact with, then I would probably be okay with [outdoor dining].”
Even if you’re dining outdoors, wear a mask with a filter, consider layering two masks on top of each other, and pull the mask(s) back over your mouth and nose in between bites. This doesn’t protect just you and your fellow diners, but also restaurant workers, many of whom do not yet have access to a COVID-19 vaccine, have not been able to claim unemployment, and must put themselves at risk of serious illness to collect a paycheck. The least risky option, for you and for restaurant workers? Eat your favorite restaurant dishes from the comfort (and safety) of your own home, and treat tipping generously as a non-negotiable part of paying for your meal.
So, uh, no restaurants? For how long? The most effective way to minimize risk, slow the spread of new COVID-19 variants, and continue to bend the curve back in the right direction is to just stay home, if your job and other responsibilities permit. But for a population that’s burnt out, exhausted, and yearning for human contact, this is easier said than done. Add to that the desire to support struggling restaurants that are barely staying in business, with little to no government support, and you’re faced with what feels at times like a philosophical and moral quandary.
“I think people are just so worn down,” says behavioral economist Bhanot. “They’re starting to kind of say, ‘You know what? Enough is enough.’ And to a certain extent, I sympathize with that. But at the same time, I would urge people to think about regret aversion.” In other words, Bhanot encourages would-be risk-takers to ask themselves a question that is likely swimming around in the back of their mind already: Is what I’m about to do worth the risk of contracting this virus? This kind of thinking isn’t fun, and it won’t necessarily make the reality of the situation less frustrating or isolating, but it can help put risky decisions into a broader context.
More contagious variants of COVID-19 call for heightened vigilance and, in some ways, adherence to even stricter measures than the ones we’re already so familiar with, even if that means increased solitude for what are, hopefully, the final months of this pandemic. And until vaccines are in the arms of most Americans — including frontline restaurant workers — the best defense is to keep doing what’s worked so far: doubling down on mask-wearing, diligently handwashing, and being mindful of social distancing. As hard as following these measures is, limiting social interaction when it doesn’t feel entirely safe is still the most powerful weapon against the spread of COVID-19. “We have every reason to believe that in a few months, things are going to be a lot better,” says Dowdy. “If people are able to hold out for another two, three months, things are going to warm up. It’s going to be easier to eat outside. We’re going to have the vaccine.”
It’s possible that in the future, coronavirus variants will create new challenges for the vaccination against and control of COVID-19. Much as they have already done, restaurants will have to continue adapting, and diners will too. That may mean, in part, ordering takeout liberally from favorite restaurants when dining in isn’t safe. When possible, order directly from a business, sidestepping ordering and delivery apps that take a sizable chunk of the profits. “You can think of it as doing your part,” says doctor Liu. “A way to help people out during the pandemic is to keep these businesses going.”
Oh my God we’re all gonna die! (If you return to normal life)
The upshot is, they’ll keep ‘finding’ new strains of the Wu Flu for as long as it takes to push their agenda.
Bull crapolla!
This stuff is merely propaganda from our masters to keep the pandemic-driven tyranny in place...
Pandemic is better than the standard threat of war with another country to keep the serfs in line...
Bow down... Obey... Snitch...
A deep dive into the mindset of liberals is not for the faint of heart.
Stop the madness!!!
Fauci,and pals,are *exactly* the ones that President Reagan warned us about with his classic "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".
Yeah. Worry about a virus that’s 98% survivable, but its ok to eat dinner 50 feet away from some guy crapping on the sidewalk. No danger there, right?
What a time to be alive...
they will nefer stop using this as an excuse for continuing to destroy your lives
we gave an inch and they’re stretching it for miles...
“which seems to potentially be”
The panic is subsiding and we just can’t have that so we will make pronouncements that focus on the worse case scenario.
Life is one big risk. You either accept it or stay in bed.
I believe that viruses are all around us and they will either kill us or we will adapt to them and they will die. Plus it’s a motivator to stay reasonably healthy. You don’t need that third bottle of champagne.
Can these bureaucrats just shut up about subjects they know nothing about???
Does it ever end?
They want there to be no small businesses left.
But the bath houses and glory holes are okie dokie
Elazar Sontag, one of the city’s resident 50 IQ apes, warns that eating can kill you.
Please send Elazar Sontag the ape a bag of peanuts.
We’re doomed.
In the Peoples Free Republic of Florida even the Golden Corral Buffets are open and packed.
Forget about moving here though. You will have to swim through alligator and shark infested water to get to the Golden Corrals.