amercer said:
" Bars have been closed or operating at drastically reduced occupancy since March. Restaurants remain at 50 percent occupancy even in the new modified Phase 3 plan starting Oct. 1."
Seems like that might be the reason why they aren't a place for transmission.
Interesting note, in my county the traced a lot of cases to people who were at bars late. So they shut down alcohol after 10pm. I don't love it, but at least it was data driven.
Honestly the data in that report is lacking, or should I say it's hard to draw conclusions from it.
I know there are bars in the Denver area that are lax with enforcing rules, don't require masks even entering, and limit capacity but don't distance. I wonder which bars in Nashville saw the cases, and how strongly they were enforcing rules.
Even so, there needs to be a comparison to "regular" businesses, like office spaces that are at 50% capacity.
You can say it's "data driven", but what does the data say? Yes there is spread at bars, but is it significant enough to warrant 50% capacity limits and subsequent business closures?
Regarding early closures, I 100% don't agree with it. You are hoping this will limit spread, while causing an uptick in binge drinking and DWI's earlier in the evening. I don't have numbers on that, only my own experiences. Here in Denver, they do last call at 10 pm (now 11 pm), and you have to finish you drink within an hour or two.
At the local dance hall, this results in the bar selling buckets of beer and pitchers of mixed drinks to each person in a effort to re-coupe losses from closing early. And people drink hard and fast, don't leave any scraps behind, and drive home.
Why are more people at bars driving? Because ubers are crazy expensive with fewer drivers and more rules.
Mike Shaw - Class of '03
