How did they know the dining was in-person? I have gotten take out orders several times. Initially from restaurants that were take out only but more recently ones that are open for dine in.
There might be a tax treatment difference in in-person vs. take-out, at least for some areas.
I can’t find the source now, but I just read this morning that proper contact tracing is being hampered by long delays re: test turnaround times.
The various scenarios of “shutdowns” with intent of “flattening the curve”:
A. Reduce R0 to significantly below 1 for enough time to control the virus.
B. Reduce R0 to about 1 for enough time to (1) give the health care system time to catch up and/or (2) medical knowledge to advance to the point that COVID-19 is no longer much of a concern (improved treatment or vaccine). However, relaxation of “shutdowns” before (2) means that the virus will return to faster spread.
C. Reduce R0, but still significantly higher than 1, basically unsuccessful.
A few places like New Zealand and Australia have successfully done (A). It looks like the US basically did (B)(1) (but not (B)(2)). If the virus returns to faster spread, then oscillating between “shutdowns” of type (B) and relaxations is the likely future until the needed medical advances. There is too little political will and not enough personal desire to do (A), and it is possible that “shutdown fatigue” could make the effectiveness of future “shutdowns” less, leading to (C). Or “shutdown fatigue” means that we just give up and let the virus infect more people and scare others into reducing their economic activity.
https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/sales-tax-compliance/news/21134126/the-rules-on-sales-taxes-for-food-takeout-and-delivery describes the sales tax application to restaurant food in California. Basically, take-out orders of only cold items could be exempt from sales tax, but take-out orders with hot items or dine-in orders are subject to sales tax.
But that probably would not be visible to someone analyzing credit card charges, if just the total amount of the charge was known.
^This^
Does anyone know why we use 6 feet for social distancing? In some countries, they use 3 feet.
They might also be able to tell if the charge originated at the restaurant or via an app.
Respiratory droplets fly over 3 feet but mostly under 6 feet.
Any specific number in this respect is likely to be an oversimplication, since there are various factors that affect what a “safe” distance is from exhaled droplets that may have SARS-CoV-2 (e.g. outdoors vs. indoors / enclosed, length of presence with the same other person(s), masks, etc.).
Compare walking by someone 5.9 feet away outdoors to spending an hour dining in an indoor restaurant or working in an indoor office for eight hours 6.1 feet from someone at the next table or desk. Which is likely to be higher risk?
The different numbers were probably picked due to varying local conditions (like how doable maintaining that level of social distancing is and the likelihood of the various other risk levels that may influence what a “safe” distance is) and political considerations.
I err on the side of caution and shoot for 10 feet.
How is the Ro calculated? Up until a couple of weeks ago, many in my state could not get tested, even if they were symptomatic? How can an Ro be calculated under this scenario?
My thoughts on the protest marches and the spread of COVID.
- For weeks we had been told by our governor and mayor that gathering closely in large groups was really dangerous. Yet, when the protests started up, neither one said one word about the dangers of what the protesters were doing. The mayor even took a knee without a mask in a large group of protesters. So what did people draw from this: the mayor must not have been too concerned that he would be infected or he wouldn't have done that. So then, all the weeks of admonitions seemed like nonsense to a lot of people.
- We also saw a huge funeral service for Mr. Floyd attended by lots of politicians at a time when others could not hold funeral services. The message: these politicians must not be afraid they will be infected from a large indoor gathering, so ...
- Neither did the news media comment on the dangers of the protests vis-a-vis the virus. No mention in any of the commentary...what message did that send?
- I thought (and I think I shared it here) that the protesters themselves would not be the ones who became ill (so they were likely not going to be tested). They were able to march for blocks. They are likely healthy. But the people they live with, their grandmas and grandpas or people they work with...those are the ones who will be infected by symptomless protesters and will pay the price.
The 2 restaurants I work for are in two different cities, but the same county/state.
At least in our small sample size there is no way to know if a credit card purchase was for patio, dine-in, or carry out. Delivery, however, is thru third parties.
FYI
@ucbalumnus that analysis was really helpful . It does seem likely that the US will oscillate between B (1) and relaxations until we reach B (2), or worse, C, or worse, white flag (which might mean a D option of the oft discussed herd immunity at unacceptable cost ( or not, depending in antibodies’ duration etc.).
This is quite depressing and makes me really mad at our government.
Only now? Ugh. It has been known for a while that sitting on the beach is not a big risk. This is where government completely loses the message. We can’t stop everything, so let’s focus on stopping the high risk stuff!
Maybe you’re looking at the wrong new sources because I did seen media content on that. Just from one quick scan of one news source:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/politics/surgeon-general-floyd-protests-coronavirus/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/health/cdc-protesters-tested-coronavirus-trnd/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/protests-coronavirus-spread-concerns/index.html
The high risk stuff seems to be multi-generational family living in small homes. I don’t see how that can be stopped.
In my area, while thousands were massing in the streets, high school graduations were being held drive by. I felt so sorry for those kids and their parents were livid at the double standard. At that point, I think a lot of people said ‘to hell with it, this is not fair’.
Well, for one, there were massive protests in states that are still mainly following precautions, and these are not the states where numbers are skyrocketing. The ones where the numbers have gone steeply up, are almost entirely ones which have been opened up. So that’s one way to distinguish. You can’t prove where anyone person got it (well, sometimes you can be pretty sure, like that family with the surprise party in Texas) but you can see a really clear trend: the fastest infection rates are in the states which are opened up, and states with huge protests are not the ones with the steep upturns. Protests were almost entirely outside, and from all reports, had better mask compliance than many other sites.
I’ll also say that probably outside events even without masks aren’t as big an issue, protest or not, since that Lake of the Ozarks gathering didn’t seem to cause a spike. So I think it’s clear it’s mostly sustained indoor gatherings, lack of social distancing, plus low mask use, that is the major issue.
And if people take the protests as an excuse to not wear them, they were just looking for one and never took the evidence seriously in the first place.