Restos and the end of mask mandate
Eater looks at how restaurants are responding to the plan to remove the mask mandate as of April 15. Short take: they’re happy, but have they considered that some clientele may stay away if they feel they’d be at risk?
Blork 10:15 on 2022-03-25 Permalink
Some of them have probably considered it, but I expect they are less concerned with specific customers as they are with overall numbers. And I suspect the level of overall COVID denial (in all its forms) is so high that most restaurants will do well. Until the next lockdown that is…
Kevin 10:57 on 2022-03-25 Permalink
I don’t think there’s any point to wearing a mask inside a bar or restaurant if you’re a customer. It’s pretty evident that the latest variants of Covid are spread through the air, and not really by droplets, even if the province disagrees.
Which is why I’m not going to any restaurants unless I can sit outside.
qatzelok 11:57 on 2022-03-25 Permalink
“Until the next lockdown…”
I’m not sure if we should be normalizing the government’s ability to lock down the population. This was a special situation, and not a new way of governing.
Chris 12:44 on 2022-03-25 Permalink
>…some clientele may stay away if they feel they’d be at risk?
Those people are already staying away (like Kevin).
Anyway, there’s basically already no mask mandate, you only have to wear it for the first 5 metres, until you get to your seat. It’s comical security theatre by now.
DeWolf 13:27 on 2022-03-25 Permalink
The only country that still seems intent on pursuing a lockdown strategy is China, and it’s not going well. Despite the uptick of cases in Europe, I haven’t heard any rumblings about further restrictions. South Korea is also going through a huge surge that still hasn’t peaked and the government there has announced that most restrictions will soon be dropped. Hong Kong is also loosening restrictions despite very high daily case numbers and a horrible wave of deaths that stemmed from a low vaccination rate among the elderly.
One of the worst periods of the Spanish flu pandemic was in 1920 — the third year — but by then society seemed to have moved on, and there were no attempts to control it:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/opinion/covid-pandemic-end.html
We seem to be going through a similar phase in this pandemic.
It’s worth noting that the flu pandemic ended after the waves of 1920, but of course the flu never went away and there have been a succession of pandemics since 1920 that have killed millions of people: 1957-58, 1968-69, 2009-10.
jeather 14:46 on 2022-03-25 Permalink
Honestly the mask mandate in restaurants specifically doesn’t feel nearly as necessary as a vaccine passport. Anyone laying bets on when they will start reintroducing restrictions?
Kevin 16:26 on 2022-03-26 Permalink
jeather
After the election.
We’re at 50% more in hospital than Ontario and this year have averaged 25 dead per day. Those numbers will have to double before anyone notices.