[ruminasean]

I work in TV, in an environment that's very strict. We're tested up to 4 times/week (I have friends who are tested daily), asked not to use mass transit, and many of us work so many hours that we have no time to do much socializing outside of the group of people working for the production who are all in the same boat. It's really the only place I go where I feel perfectly safe. Even when unmasked to eat, we don't sit together, we're always socially distant.

Contrast this with my friends outside the business...they're going out semi-regularly, have only been tested when they want to see their family or get out of quarantining for 2 weeks after travel, think nothing of eating in the outdoor huts that are slowly getting more and more enclosed as the NYC weather gets colder. I'm very sympathetic to this woman and all restaurant owners in general, but the situations are not the same.

[neither_color]

Restaurants were never a major source of transmission and your industry isnt really more essential. The only fact you stated is that you get tested more, which is a good argument, but I dont really buy your anecdote that you guys go out less than anyone else and this somehow justifies your privilege. This is a very sensitive topic because small businesses feed families and are being destroyed across the country so you'll have to do better than say "We're totally more well behaved than people who go to restaurants"

[graeme]

Restaurants are majorly associated with spread. They’re unmasked, indoor environments where people talk.

Here’s an interesting report where two people were infected with just five min of overlap by an unmasked person. Extremely detailed contact tracing by the south koreans.

TV, by contrast, gets other people to stay at home in front of the TV and not be bored. A super vital service right now!

https://zeynep.substack.com/p/small-data-big-implications

[zarkov99]

I have to object to TV being vital in any way, shape or form. Come on. Even if you accept that watching TV is somehow essential during this period, which it is not, there are enough archived shows and movies for people to watch for multiple lifetimes.

[graeme]

I mean I don’t watch new TV but I know a lot of people will choose new TV over socializing.

I love older stuff but that’s not what most people watch. You have to deal with the world as it is, not how you want it to be.

[ruminasean]

I never said we were essential. I personally don't watch tv, so I'd agree with you generally.

[neither_color]

The story in question is an outdoor dining area set up directly in front of an identical looking film crew dining area.

[graeme]

Oh I think outdoor dining is fine if not in one of those indoor tent things.

But your comment seemed about dining generally. If you only mean outdoor dining I agree that’s fairly low risk if spaced out.

[masklinn]

> Restaurants were never a major source of transmission

Restaurants were some of the earliest known sources of mass spreading locations.

[kelchm]

Restaurants with open air outdoor seating as depicted in the linked video?

[ruminasean]

I never said TV was essential. Entertainment in NY and LA feeds families as well, however. My Broadway friends who are losing their homes and apartments with no hope of work until at least June (but most likely September at least) might want a word about feeding families.

[tomc1985]

Then perhaps all the restauranteurs ought to get together and self-regulate. An industry practicing discipline is not "justifying" any privilege. In my city, many of the businesses forced to closed in the last week due to covid violations were restaurants

Figure it out and you too can enjoy that "privilege"