New study: Adults With COVID-19 Twice As Likely To Have Eaten At Restaurants

[BigmanPigman]

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/09/11/912076989/adults-with-covid-19-twice-as-likely-to-have-eaten-at-restaurants-cdc-study

"The study also points out that many reported cases tied to restaurants have been linked to air circulation."

"Those who tested positive were more likely to have been in close contact with someone known to have COVID-19 —Of those close contacts, 51% were family members."

"The study found that both positive and negative cases reported going to gyms, hair salons, shops and in-home group gatherings at about the same rate. But the positive cases were about twice as likely to report dining out at restaurants within the 14-day period before feeling sick."

[Blue_true]

1. Would you like a side of COVID19 with that order, sir, ma'am?

You will catch me sitting down for a meal inside a restaurant if I am dead, in which case COVID19 and the meal would be irrelevant.

[Blecht]

2. Interesting correlation

My interpretation:

Those who eat at restaurants show carelessness, and they are more likely to engage in other types of risky behavior in addition to eating at restaurants. That makes it hard to conclude that the restaurants are where the transmission occurred.

If you know somebody who admits to eating inside at a restaurant, my advice would be to stay the hell away from them.

[Laelth]

7. That seems like a reasonable conclusion to me. n/t

-Laelth

[LisaL]

22. It doesn't have to be anything more complicated than what it is.

People go out to restaurants. They can't be masked while they are eating. There are other people there who are also not masked. Little droplets are flying around everywhere. Next thing you know, they got covid.

[gristy]

25. Yes, I agree

That has to be part of it. And the folks who study these kinds of things surely have that behavior accounted for in their models.

[tblue37]

32. You can't wear a mask while eating and drinking. nt

[JI7]

3. Does it mention if they were eating inside or outside ?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Nope, it wasn't asked. nt

[BigmanPigman]

5. Here it is...

"Though the study has limitations — including its size and the fact that participants weren't asked to distinguish between indoor or outdoor dining — it echoes concerns over safety in bars and restaurants during the pandemic."

Since it mentions air flow I was thinking it must be indoor dining.....
"Direction, ventilation, and intensity of airflow might affect virus transmission, even if social distancing measures and mask use are implemented according to current guidance," the CDC notes."

[Initech]

6. It's like this god forsaken virus is targeting those of us who like to go out.

And that's one of my favorite things to do in life. Fuck COVID-19.

[LisaL]

17. That's generally true of all viruses.

They can't survive without a host. To become a host, one has to interact with other hosts in some way.

[Loki Liesmith]

8. Eh too my many variables here.

It could just be that a willingness to eat at a restaurant right now is a predictor for other variables that are the true culprits.

[BigmanPigman]

10. It is also a CDC study...for what it's worth.

[tblue37]

33. Eating means you take down the mask. Also do that while drinking in bars. Combine the

lack of a mask with being indoors, around people, with poor air ventilation, and there is your major risk factor.

[BGBD]

9. A lot of questions it doesn't answer

So people who take less precautions are more likely to get it.

However, it doesn't get very deep into what the risk is or how cumulative risk applies.

For instance, you may have only a .05% (1 in 2000) chance to catch covid by going to the store or to eat on an given trip. However, if you do those activities many times a week your odds of getting it over the course of a year are more like 70% due cumulative risk.

So, if you want to go get something to eat the odds are that you will be sure. But, if you decide to forego precautions and like life like normal, odds are you are going to get it.

[lpbk2713]

11. Don't forget to tip your server.

[cwydro]

12. Well, I contracted it in early August.

I've not been to any restaurants except for take-out, and that rarely (not at all since then).

I hadn't been to a gym, a hair salon, a bar, nothing and nowhere. Only quick grocery trips and two garden center trips.

Thank god I've no underlying conditions, and I'm in good physical shape. Still knocked me on my ass for a week and a half.

[BigmanPigman]

13. Do you live with anyone?

[cwydro]

19. No, I have a close friend who comes and goes, but oddly she had been hospitalized the week before.

She is older than I with a lot of other health problems, and she came to my house to recuperate. She had tested negative at the hospital, but we did wonder if somehow she brought it in. I did get sick the very next week.

At any rate, she didn't get sick, thank god, because she does have underlying conditions.

I was always masked when I went out, but masks aren't magic.

My other suspicion is the kids in my neighborhood. I frequently seem to be the one they come to for bike repairs of some sort or another. I know the home they live in has people coming and going constantly.

Anyway, it was horrible.

[LisaL]

21. Could very well be kids.

They might show no symptoms but they can still spread it. I wouldn't let then near me.

[cwydro]

24. Yeah, it actually was kind of funny when I was on my feet again and out in the yard.

My yard is fenced, but they were all "hey miss!" (southern thing.) I'm nice to them, I don't think they have a lot of adults in their lives. Except for the numerous ones who seem to come and go from their grandmother's house (where they live). I feel sorry for them.

I told them I had the virus that week, and they ran screaming for the hills lol. Literally screaming.

They circled warily for a few weeks, but they're already back around.

I wish school was a thing again.

[LisaL]

15. Yikes.

I guess it happened on one of the trips to the grocery or garden center?

[cwydro]

20. No way of knowing.

You can see my response to BP in this same thread.

Any number of ways it could have happened, even as careful as I was.

[triron]

16. Happy to see you recovered!

[cwydro]

23. Yes, me too! Thank you.

The thing is, I rarely even get a cold, but if these were normal times, I just would have thought, oh crap, I've got the flu. Wouldn't have thought much of it.

As it was, I was in terror every time my temperature spiked, every new symptom that appeared alarmed me no end. Really scared I'd start having the breathing problems. Never did.

Started with the worst headache I've ever had. That progressed to chills, then fever, then the most awful body aches I've every had in my life. My skin literally felt scraped raw and my bones felt like I'd been pounded with a bat. The fever went as high as 104 (at which point I quit taking it)...finally on the last night, I sweated through my t-shirt, sheets, mattress pad...and then by morning, I was shaky, but the fever left.

Exhausted for the rest of the month, and I'm a really active person. Just an awful experience.

These people at these rallies are insane.

[LisaL]

28. Did you get tested?

NT

[cwydro]

38. Yes, I hate going to the doctor and probably wouldn't have, but my friend convinced me.

She used a political argument lol, that I would be helping the tangeranus’ stats if I didn’t.

They called to tell me I was positive; doctor said to call immediately if I developed any breathing problems. I had asthma quite badly as a kid, so that worried me, but never had any respiratory symptoms at all.

[Silent3]

14. My wife and I eat at restaurants now, mostly outdoor dining...

...but every now and then indoors. We're careful to only do this in restaurants that appear to acting responsibly, and didn't do so the first time until a few weeks after our initial shutdown ended.

We're in NH, which has maintained a low infection rate all this time. If transmission start to tick up we'll definitely avoid eating indoors again. I'm expecting that's likely to happen soon, too, as the weather turns colder.

[former9thward]

26. I call BS

Places with high Covid infections have had restaurants closed down and the infections remain high.

[LisaL]

27. Restaurant isn't the only place where one can get covid.

By the way, what places would that be?

[former9thward]

29. Restaurants were the topic of the OP weren't they?

Chicago, for one, where I live.

[Tarc]

30. Haven't sat down in a restaurant since Feb, don't plan to soon

I support my local haunts with takeout and delivery, with a 20-25% tip.

[wackadoo wabbit]

31. This actually makes a lot of sense

If you go to a gym, hair salon, shop, etc., you'll (hopefully) keep your mask on the entire time.

If you go out to eat, on the other hand, you'll need to remove your mask to shovel food down your gullet.

Et voila! You've just breathed in COVID.

[marlakay]

34. My doctor told me at last visit in May

Do not go out to eat even out doors.

I confess i have eaten outside a few times, but she is right and I have been lucky.

[BigmanPigman]

35. Even outdoors?!.

That will kill what's left of the restaurant industry. I was hoping that places that get cold would be able to convert to something outside with heat lamps. The govt is going to have to free up a lot of money to pay for staff and small business owners to stay afloat for a year. I guess all of them will have to figure out how to do pick up and delivery or close completely. Chefs must be cringing when their well timed and planned creations/meals are turned into inedible garbage.

[marlakay]

36. I agree i love eating out and worry for all my

Favorite places. When everything was closed except to go i got curbside.

Same with a lot of small businesses i just don't know long term how they will make it. I shop more online now to protect my health.

[Awsi Dooger]

37. 100% common sense

I can't imagine thinking it's safe to eat out. I have told my golfing buddies and other friends since May that the one activity I would not consider at all is eating out. None of the technicalities like outside or separation mean a thing

I have made 3 trips to pick up a pizza, and that's it