Looking back, that’s what happened. Somebody finally did a study on this question. Of course they are careful to not actually say that we should close restaurant inside dining. But you can use this study to inform your own personal practices. And note that we in Cheshire County still have close to the nation’s highest community spread rate for covid-19. Here’s an excerpt from their press release:
“Closing indoor dining during the first two waves of the pandemic was associated with a 61% decline in new COVID-19 cases … compared with cities that reopened indoor dining ... according to recently published data from experts at the Dornsife School of Public Health. The team looked at data from March to October 2020 in 11 U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Atlanta and Dallas. The results were published last month in the journal Epidemiology.”
As far as we know, major news organizations have not picked up this story. We got it from a Milwaukee newspaper.
Here’s a link to the Dec. 6th press release from Drexel University:
New Data Shows Public Health Benefit to Closing Indoor Dining
Drexel.edu