Research supports high risk of dining inside restaurants

Sam Haas’ letter to the editor (“Consider the results,” Dec. 24) stating that “extensive data shows restaurant customers are not passers of the virus” encourages dangerous behavior. Getting data from restaurant dining’s contribution to the spread of COVID-19 is difficult, mostly because poor contact tracing makes data on how COVID spreads in general difficult to obtain. However, some data does exist.

From STAT+ (a biotech news site started by the founder of the

Boston Globe) Nov. 10: “Using cellphone data from 1 in 3 Americans, researchers have identified the indoor public places most responsible for the spread of Covid-19 in the spring, and they argue that sharply limiting the occupancy of these locales — chiefly restaurants, gyms, cafes, hotels, and houses of worship — could control the raging pandemic without resorting to lockdowns.”

From USA Today, Nov. 26: “Published research on the role restaurants play in the pandemic is highly suggestive. Taken altogether, the studies paint a scary picture of how potent restaurants can be in spreading COVID-19.”

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study across 10 states found that those who had tested positive for COVID-19 were more than twice as likely to say they had dined at a restaurant in the two weeks before their illness began, compared with those who tested negative. Dining at a restaurant was the only activity that differed significantly between those who tested positive and those who tested negative for the coronavirus.

Shutting down restaurants had the strongest correlation to reducing the spread of the disease, according to researchers at the University of Vermont.

And The New Mexican back in August printed that state data showed “restaurants are emerging as one of the riskiest places to work in New Mexico.”

Finally, public health officials at all levels have warned that spending long periods indoors without masks, with multiple people outside one’s household, is high-risk. That is pretty much the definition of indoor restaurant dining.

I have relatives and friends who own restaurants and bars, so I empathize with the effects of COVID-19 on these businesses. But it is the fault of the virus, not the policy. I also have multiple friends and relatives who are doctors and nurses, and I hope potential diners can empathize with them. We are almost there, people. Have some stamina please.