Dr. Anthony Fauci recently explained how you can safely eat in a restaurant during the new coronavirus pandemic.
What is happening?
Fauci told CNN on Tuesday night that people should be careful when eating inside a restaurant during the pandemic. But, he said, it can be done if it is “done with care”.
- “If you eat indoors, you do it spaced out, where there are no people sitting side by side,” he told CNN on Tuesday night.
- He said that “good airflow” is important. And, he said, you should avoid being in places where you are breathing other people’s breath.
Fauci told CNN that he is aware of the economic problems that restaurants face because of the coronavirus pandemic.
- “You know, people sometimes think that public health officials are oblivious to economic considerations. Not at all – I mean, we have a lot of empathy for that, ”said Fauci. “But we still have to maintain public health measures if we are to control this outbreak.”
Study on eating in restaurants
A September study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that going out to eat at a restaurant can be more risky than other activities.
- The study found that those who tested positive for COVID-19 were twice as likely as those who tested negative to have gone to a restaurant before being infected, as I wrote for Deseret News.
- The CDC defined a restaurant as “any area designated by the restaurant, including the interior, patio and terrace”.
“The results of a case-control investigation of symptomatic outpatients from 11 US health centers found that close contact with people with known COVID-19 or going to places that offer eating and drinking options on the spot were associated with positivity of COVID-19. ”