# COVID19 Keeping Customers Safe



## halb (May 25, 2015)

Not hearing anything here about what we are doing to try and keep our customers safe. Only complaints about how business is down. The largest outbreak in the Country is in New Rochelle, NY that is said to have originated from exposure to a caterer who had an infected employee.

So are we paying much more attention to cleaning and sanitizing, in particular tables, chairs, menus, door handles and restrooms? That means not walking around with a bottle of Windex and an old kitchen towel! Tables as well as chairs and menus should be wiped down with a disinfectant (I like to use Windex Multi-surface Disinfectant / cleaner) while the customers are watching every time you turn a table.

Are we paying attention to our employees so we can be on top of any that appear sick? You can't wait for them to tell you because they never will. No work = no pay.

Do you have tables so close together that the customers become close intimate friends? Nobody want's to breathe germs from strangers sitting on top of them. Better to 86 a few tables than to not have customers at all.

Post a sign near the front door (as well as a statement on your website) letting customers know you are aware and actually trying to do something about it. Say that because of the Corona Virus situation, we are going the extra mile with constantly cleaning and disinfecting tables, chairs, menus and anything else customers may come in contact with.

Maybe with a little extra care you can put yourself above the other restaurants where it's business as usual.


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

That's a particularly sticky wicket with our American economic system. Very few restaurants offer sick pay, and most come down on the side of wanting to see your death certificate if you say you can't come in. With little in the way of a social safety net and few other options, most will try to come in sick since most live paycheck to paycheck. A good majority of American families can't afford a $400 emergency.

All I got is this:

1) Harp on hand washing. Be a Nazi about it! 
2) Sanitize everything, and frequently.
3) Figure out how to keep sick people at home. This will probably be impossible. A lot of folks with COVID19 don't know they have it and don't show any symptoms. You'll be much more likely to notice a sick employee before they interact with customers though than ID'ing sick customers before they interact with employees.


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## Mischief (Dec 13, 2018)

We are actively doing everything you stated. Sanitizing everything from the front doors to the menus all day long. Mandatory hand wash for servers after each table interaction, sanitizing bowling/bocce balls, etc. The customers see and appreciate the effort. I feel bad for my team though, this next few weeks will be brutal to their wallets. I never thought I'd be happy that both my PM pasta guys went on vacation at the same time but it is providing a great opportunity to cross train and give these guys the chance to grow while keeping their bills paid.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

I've had another thought. Thinking about running copies of the menu off on the copy machine and giving those to customers. They can either keep them or we can throw them away when they are done ordering. This way it's less work for us wiping down menus and customers know that nobody has handled them. 

Might even see how asking customers if they want a menu works. We get lots of repeat customers who probably know the menu by heart or always order the same things.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Well.... just got laid off today, as well as most of the other staff. Even those in key positions are down to 3-4 hrs/day. Saw it coming, all week the cancellations kept coming in, the clipboards are all full of red x’s. heard most of the hotels are down to 28-30% occupancy too.

Money wise I can ride this out for about a month after that, I dunno...


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

ShelteredBugg1 said:


> Yall are trippin


Why do you say that? You're not taking this seriously are you.



ShelteredBugg1 said:


> I think my kitchen manager is trying to get the owner to close down the shop because of the epidemic, he says that the government is debating on if we shall receive a stimulus package based on people not working or some ish like that idk i was cutting carrots


Oh, I guess you are now.


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

That sucks, foodpump. Hopefully we'll get some degree of normalcy within the next few weeks. It looks like here in the US there will be some kind of stimulus/aid package to help workers that have been laid off, etc.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

Yeah, hopefully we'll get past this and get back to normal soon.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Stimulus package.....
I don’t understand....
right now the stimulus is focused on shutting down airports, shutting down large gatherings like sporting events, concerts, trade shows, etc, and, I’m guessing in the-not-to-near future, large campuses and schools. Gawd help the hotels and airlines....

I was laid off because there was no business, the bread and butter of the catering co.I work for is corporate, most offices have gone into hibernation mode and are relying on tele-conferencing to get their work done. Large events like weddings, etc., which make up the rest of the business are postponed until the ban on large gatherings has been lifted.

The only single positive thing is that today—Friday the 13th, marks the start of a two week spring break for the majority of all schools, which means the odds of little Suzy or first year College student Billy bringing home the virus greatly reduced.

O.t.o.h., I’ve got a lot of small projects at home to keep me busy for the next few weeks.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

A whole lot of folks are going to have that experience, I expect. It’s very sad for the economy and might be devastating to individuals and families. I hope things improve for you and all soon.


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

foodpump said:


> Stimulus package.....
> I don't understand....


Just a few hours ago Congress and The Great Pumpkin finally agreed on a bill that will pay sick/emergency pay to people out of work or laid off d/t CoV. The specifics are sparse on the ground and given the efficiency of all things related to this clown caravan I'm not sure what kind of relief will come but hopefully it will be of some help.


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## sgsvirgil (Mar 1, 2017)

All I know is this........compared to the 2019-20 flu statistics in the US published by the CDC, the world wide Covid19 numbers are far less. Yet, the level of panic and the level of government response is heretofore unprecedented. 

Never before in my 6.5 decades on this planet have I ever heard of American Citizens being quarantined on US Military installations. In seven States, the National Guard has been federalized and deployed. That means the National Guard in those states are under the control of the Federal Government, not their individual states. Why? 

There are about 1,600 reported cases in the US with 41 deaths. Why the overkill response? This is what I want to know. Here's some context. In the 2017-18 flu season, which was one of the worst on record in the US, approximately 900,000 Americans were hospitalized. The CDC estimates between 61,000 and 79,000 people died due to the flu and complications caused by the flu. That's nearly a million reported casualties over a 6 month period and not a single soul was quarantined on a military installation, not a single National Guard unit was deployed, there were no travel restrictions, not a single school or public event was cancelled. 

I'm not given to conspiracy theories and all that jazz. But, there is something afoot here that we are not being told about and I want to know what that is. 

I hope this lunacy passes quickly so everyone can get back to work and get back to living their lives in relative peace.


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

Foodpump, What are they saying in Canada to help out the Businesses and unemployed ???? Vancouver has to be hit hard because of it depending on tourism. It also has been a popular destination for the i5 cities from Seattle North. I can't see anyone going either way during this. I could see this Virus being a 6 month economic disaster. It takes a few weeks to shut things down, then you're in the middle or worst part of the virus and then it takes time to restart the economy. Nothing start or stops on a dime. Most middle class Americans are living paycheck to paycheck saying a $600 expense would be a hardship. The thing I would worry about is when it hits the homeless. Places like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and LA will be breeding grounds for this virus. This is just the beginning of something we have never seen before. We just had all the schools canceled in Washington State. Oregon did the same........Take care and keep the family healthy.


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

sgsvirgil said:


> Never before in my 6.5 decades on this planet have I ever heard of American Citizens being quarantined on US Military installations. In seven States, the National Guard has been federalized and deployed. That means the National Guard in those states are under the control of the Federal Government, not their individual states. Why?


This way you have every city in every state doing the something. You don't need some people in some cities skipping down the street while other cities are in Quarantine. It looks like what China did worked. Just think if they didn't. What we are doing now may be and may even look to be over kill. If you don't do it now you can't do it when half of your population is dead in the street.

What would you do with 330 million people and a Virus that didn't have any way for you to prevent or cure. We have flu shots for the yearly flu and look how many die. Just think of how many will die with no prevention. You'll find out if everything we are doing was right after this is over. I would rather have them go over board with keeping our families safe now than finding out we didn't do enough in the beginning.


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## happyhound (May 19, 2014)

National Emergency allows for marshal law...
Just sayin'


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

ShelteredBugg1 said:


> Thank you people are trippin


 Can you expand on this statement?

To the best of my knowledge "tripping" would a psychedelic experience, ie an acid trip. If this is so, please elaborate .

It's not the virus anyone's worried about, it's the Gov'ts response to the virus, and if you have any experience or foresight, you will comprehend that a recession is very probable.

So, please, elaborate on your statement.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

foodpump said:


> To the best of my knowledge "tripping" would a psychedelic experience, ie an acid trip. If this is so, please elaborate .


That's the way I took it. But who knows, maybe to this generation it's a compliment.


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## mike9 (Jul 13, 2012)

My local brewery has removed 25% of seating, coasters are gone and CDC posters about hand washing are posted in the bathrooms. As far as cash goes this gives new meaning to the term "Filthy Lucre".


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

sgsvirgil said:


> All I know is this........compared to the 2019-20 flu statistics in the US published by the CDC, the world wide Covid19 numbers are far less. Yet, the level of panic and the level of government response is heretofore unprecedented.
> 
> Never before in my 6.5 decades on this planet have I ever heard of American Citizens being quarantined on US Military installations. In seven States, the National Guard has been federalized and deployed. That means the National Guard in those states are under the control of the Federal Government, not their individual states. Why?
> 
> There are about 1,600 reported cases in the US with 41 deaths. Why the overkill response? This is what I want to know. Here's some context. In the 2017-18 flu season, which was one of the worst on record in the US, approximately 900,000 Americans were hospitalized. The CDC estimates between 61,000 and 79,000 people died due to the flu and complications caused by the flu. That's nearly a million reported casualties over a 6 month period and not a single soul was quarantined on a military installation, not a single National Guard unit was deployed, there were no travel restrictions, not a single school or public event was cancelled.


I'm not trying to start a fight nor am I saying you're all wrong, but this is unlike the flu in several ways. The first being that there is not treatment for it whatsoever. With the flu there are several anti-viral meds that are very effective against. Next, there is no vaccine against is unlike the flu where the vaccine is pretty safe and effective. Lastly it's much more virulent and spreads much more easily than our common strains of flu.

Remember the word _novel _in front of coronavirus! We know very little about it. We don't know what the mortality rate will ultimately be nor can we be sure at all that spring weather will stop it like it would the flu.

Apropos of nothing, in your 6.5 decades of life there's probably never been such an incompetent leader as we have now. That's going to add to the misery we're going through with CoV.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

I believe that statement to mean we are overacting to this.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

chefross said:


> I believe that statement to mean we are overacting to this.


 You mean shelteredbug's statement? 
Well yeah, but his/her pattern on the phone thread was to make a comment that offers no advice, written without punctuation, and leaving us guessing if he/she intentionally spelled things that way or didn't bother to review what spellchecker did, and has not posted on that thread since. Same pattern on this thread.

But are we overreacting? I dunno, did my boss overreact when she laid off 80%of her staff indefinitely? Did my govt's overreact when they stopped air traffic, large events and gatherings? One thing is for certain, you can't hold me accountable for other people's actions.


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## sgsvirgil (Mar 1, 2017)

chefbillyb said:


> This way you have every city in every state doing the something. You don't need some people in some cities skipping down the street while other cities are in Quarantine. It looks like what China did worked. Just think if they didn't. What we are doing now may be and may even look to be over kill. If you don't do it now you can't do it when half of your population is dead in the street.
> 
> What would you do with 330 million people and a Virus that didn't have any way for you to prevent or cure. We have flu shots for the yearly flu and look how many die. Just think of how many will die with no prevention. You'll find out if everything we are doing was right after this is over. I would rather have them go over board with keeping our families safe now than finding out we didn't do enough in the beginning.


This is precisely the point. The incredible overreaction to this virus is caused by an overly sensationalist media and the general public's complete misunderstanding of what this virus actually is. There are scores of people out there who believe their chances of survival if infected are practically nil. The fact that the government has allowed this idiocy to prevail is astonishingly irresponsible. Part of the government's responsibilities in this situation is to assuage fears, not promote panic and irrational behavior.

For an otherwise healthy person with no pre-existing or complicating health conditions, what's the big deal if they do become infected? Healthy people who are infected with this strain have a near 100% chance of survival, which is the same survival rate for any other coronavirus. The vast majority that emerge from their bout with this illness will have the extra added benefit of an immune system that has had the opportunity to develop resistance to this strain. Unlike the flu vaccine that has a marginal effective rate at best, our body's own immune system is the best possible defense we have against things like this.

Now, let's think on your statement "think of those who will die." This is fear implanted by the media. As I said in my previous comment, 16,000 Americans have already died in this year's flu season. There is no evidence whatsoever that Covid19's mortality rate will even come close to these numbers. In fact, the evidence strongly supports a completely contrary conclusion. Depending on what source you use, there are around 160,000 reported cases of Covid19 worldwide with about 6,000 deaths. That's better than a 96% survival rate overall. When we look a the total worldwide population involved in this outbreak, we are talking about roughly 4 billion people. Out of those 4 billion, 160,000 are infected and 6,000 have died. These numbers are barely above statistical zero.

1,600 Americans our of 330 million are infected. 46 have died. Here's some context. In the 24 hours that have passed since I wrote my original comment, more than twice the number of Americans have died in car accidents than have died from this virus.

So, I ask.....what's worse? The reaction to this disease that has literally ground life to a halt in the US or the virus itself?


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

sgsvirgil said:


> Actually, in terms of symptoms, its nearly identical to the flu. Another similarity shared by Covid19 and the flu is they both do not have a cure nor are there any "treatments." This is precisely due to the fact that effective vaccines for viral infections are notoriously difficult to make and on the rare occasion one is made, the virus typically develops resistance to it. Essentiall
> 
> This is precisely the point. The incredible overreaction to this virus is caused by an overly sensationalist media and the general public's complete misunderstanding of what this virus actually is. There are scores of people out there who believe their chances of survival if infected are practically nil. The fact that the government has allowed this idiocy to prevail is astonishingly irresponsible. Part of the government's responsibilities in this situation is to assuage fears, not promote panic and irrational behavior.
> 
> ...


The reason why all this is being done is we don't have a way to treat the virus. If we have masses of people get the virus we don't have enough of ventilators, doctors or Hospital beds. If we follow your idea masses could die. If people stay home they don't infect other people, it gets contained. If you can't treat the virus you have to separate masses of people from being in contact with the virus. This may look strange to people in the beginning. The only way to control it is to act before it gets out of hand.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

All I removed the post "y'all trippin" I feel this type of post is not useful to the conversation. The topics is "What are you doing to keep your customers safe". It is a solid topic for all restaurants.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

A sushi place I visited yesterday was doing these things:

1 not presetting. Nothing is on the table until after I was seated. Usually there are napkins, chopsticks and soy sauce. This is all brought out fresh so it's not picking anything up from other diners i n the area or previous diners at that .table.

2 with reduced patronage, they seat diners as far apart as they can..

3 reduced table visits. Usually the sushi comes out as its finished. This time it came all at once. They didn't do drop by "is everything ok" visits but weren't inattentive.

4 signage indicating their cooperation with the feds, state and city departments to establish best practices and explaining some of the impacts such as I listed earlier.

Essentially structured social distancing. Of my other dining experiences recently, this was the most clear and visible effort.


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

phatch said:


> Not presetting. Nothing is on the table until after I was seated. Usually there are napkins, chopsticks and soy sauce. This is all brought out fresh so it's not picking anything up from other diners i n the area or previous diners at that table.


That was another suggestion I also thought of.


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

The CDC expects up to 70% of Americans to catch COVID-19. For the sake of argument lets say the CDD, the NIH and the WHO are more credible than news anchors and celebrities. That would be around 245,000,000 cases. In Italy the death rate is around 3%, in South Korea it's only 0.8%. The US is doing a far worse job than South Korea and Taiwan at testing and therefore will probably do a worse job at containing it. Also, in South Korea 99.1% of citizens have health coverage, and they have a little over twice the hospital beds per capita than the US. Lastly most Asian cultures score higher on the Collective scale vs the very Individuality scale in the West. Generally when their govts tell them to do something they comply; generally in the US when the govt tells us to do something we rebel. We do have the advantage of seeing what has worked and hasn't worked in other places but it doesn't appear we're using our headstart to good advantage.

So, a 1% fatality rate would be miraculous, and would result in nearly 2.5 million deaths.

Of course, if we aggressively self quarantine and take drastic steps we may not reach 75% infected. I think it's a certainty that we'll see it spread rapidly if we don't take the threat seriously.

As chefs we know that a certain amount of cooks will take any excuse to miss work. But we also know others will crawl out of their coffins to make their shift. In normal time we celebrate that machismo and consider those that never call of badasses. That attitude will kill people. Young healthy folks won't need to die or even be hospitalized; they can simply give it to their parents and grandparents who will die.

I don't have the answers but this bears watching.


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## sgsvirgil (Mar 1, 2017)

phaedrus said:


> The CDC expects up to 70% of Americans to catch COVID-19. For the sake of argument lets say the CDD, the NIH and the WHO are more credible than news anchors and celebrities. That would be around 245,000,000 cases. In Italy the death rate is around 3%, in South Korea it's only 0.8%. The US is doing a far worse job than South Korea and Taiwan at testing and therefore will probably do a worse job at containing it. Also, in South Korea 99.1% of citizens have health coverage, and they have a little over twice the hospital beds per capita than the US. Lastly most Asian cultures score higher on the Collective scale vs the very Individuality scale in the West. Generally when their govts tell them to do something they comply; generally in the US when the govt tells us to do something we rebel. We do have the advantage of seeing what has worked and hasn't worked in other places but it doesn't appear we're using our headstart to good advantage.
> 
> So, a 1% fatality rate would be miraculous, and would result in nearly 2.5 million deaths.
> 
> ...


This is an opinion that was issued by Dr. Brian Monahan, who is the attending physician of Congress and the US Supreme Court. This is not an "official" opinion issued by the CDC, thankfully.

Here is a fantastic example of the fear mongering engaged by the mainstream media. Take note of the inflamed language in these two passages from an article published by MSNBC on March 12.

_The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the coronavirus, which has rapidly spread to more than 121,000 people, including in the United States, a global pandemic. While the virus is slowing in China, where it originated in December, it's picking up pace in other countries,* world health officials said. In the U.S., the number of cases erupted over the last week to more than 1,030 spread across at least 36 states, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.*

Infectious disease experts say the *virus so far appears to be deadlier and more contagious than the seasonal flu, with many experts and U.S. health officials saying the mortality rate is likely somewhere around 1%, making it at least 10 times as lethal as the flu.* Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at Harvard, said earlier this month that he thinks about *40% to 70% of the world's population could become infected with the virus, and of those, 1% will die.*_

The choice of language used in this article is representative of the sort of fear mongering that litters the news and social media. The unnecessary panic and chaos this fear mongering is churning unnecessarily is far worse that the disease itself. This is the reason why our restaurants and other venues are empty.

Right now, there are about 1400 cases of Covid 19 in 36 states. That's 1400 cases in a population of 330 million people. Can it spread? Sure. Will it spread? Probably. However, for a medical professional to recklessly state this virus is "far more deadly" than the flu is patently irresponsible when the numbers and evidence thus far simply do not support such a statement.

Is there anything we can do to stem the tide of panic created by an unscrupulous news core? No. The only thing we can do is be smarter than they believe we are and ride out the storm. Food industry professionals have a lot of faults. However, our greatest assets are our resilience, endurance and ability to overcome tremendous adversity.

We are part of the apparatus that feeds America. Let's shift gears and use that. Right now, my former restaurant is offering food and dietary essentials at cost to those who can afford it and free if they can't. Our supplier is in reasonably good shape and we have adjusted our ordering to accommodate this mess. We have informed the staff that due to the decreased revenue that we may not be able to pay their full salaries. Many have chosen to volunteer their time. The executive chef (who I sold the business to) and I are giving the staff who volunteer some cash. Its not much but, it helps. The morale in the restaurant thus far is excellent.

Cheers!


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

sgsvirgil said:


> The choice of language used in this article is representative of the sort of fear mongering that litters the news and social media. The unnecessary panic and chaos this fear mongering is churning unnecessarily is far worse that the disease itself. This is the reason why our restaurants and other venues are empty.
> 
> Right now, there are about 1400 cases of Covid 19 in 36 states. That's 1400 cases in a population of 330 million people. Can it spread? Sure. Will it spread? Probably. However, for a medical professional to recklessly state this virus is "far more deadly" than the flu is patently irresponsible when the numbers and evidence thus far simply do not support such a statement.
> 
> Is there anything we can do to stem the tide of panic created by an unscrupulous news core? No. The only thing we can do is be smarter than they believe we are and ride out the storm. Food industry professionals have a lot of faults. However, our greatest assets are our resilience, endurance and ability to overcome tremendous adversity.


Neither of us are doctors and you can certainly do the math for yourself. Even if that estimate is pessimistic by an order of magnitude this will be a pretty big deal. The fatality rate in Italy has been nearly 8% (!). So far the US has gotten off a really poor start and even now there are people (perhaps like yourself) that don't want to isolate in an attempt to flatten the curve.

Even in the places where COVID-19 has been exceptionally well controlled the best fatality rates are still five to seven times higher than the seasonal flu. Panic is bad but burying your head in the sand may be worse.


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## galley swiller (May 29, 2013)

At this point, the discussion may be moot (at least. Here in Washington State, Governor Inslee has already ordered all bars and restaurants to be closed to sit-down service (take-out is still legal). San Francisco has ordered that all non-essential businesses be closed, effective at midnight tonight, and that all people remain home, except for essential trips. President Trump announced a recommendation that Americans should avoid eating and drinking in public places like bars, restaurants and food courts. All of this is just from today's news.

Whether this is commonsense prudence or fearmongering is rapidly becoming irrelevant. An enforced shutdown by government of bars and restaurants is either being done in selected locations or may soon be enforced elsewhere.

I would suggest that chefs and staff start planning how to handle a shutdown IMMEDIATELY!

GS


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

As of 8PM tonight, all restaurants and bars in NY, CT and NJ are ordered to close except for takeout. The liquor law has been amended to allow the takeout of alcohol as long as this is in effect.

I think there is going to be a run on plastic cups and lids.

What's happening here is that they are trying to avoid what happened in Italy.


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

I think commenting on how the restaurant industry is going to get through this very long slog is appropriate. However, furthering the narrative that all this is an overreaction to a ginned up media circus is completely inappropriate. The message coming out from scientists in the field of epidemiology is consistent and unwavering and they are saying we aren't doing enough. The "nothing-to-see-here" rhetoric is downright irresponsible.


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## sgsvirgil (Mar 1, 2017)

chefpeon said:


> I think commenting on how the restaurant industry is going to get through this very long slog is appropriate. However, furthering the narrative that all this is an overreaction to a ginned up media circus is completely inappropriate. The message coming out from scientists in the field of epidemiology is consistent and unwavering and they are saying we aren't doing enough. The "nothing-to-see-here" rhetoric is downright irresponsible.


If not for the lack of numbers to support the panic, you would be correct.

In the 1980's, the AIDS/HIV scare involved healthcare professionals, politicians and public figures literally stating that anyone who contracts HIV is pretty much dead. Its only a matter of time. 25 million have died of AIDS since then. Yet, when the AIDS panic was gripping this nation, there wasn't a fraction of the panic that has gripped this nation over this Covid 19 thing. There are about 3,800 cases in the US with 68 deaths. That's about a 98% survival rate overall.

Most importantly, what people are not looking at is the near 100% survival rate in those who are otherwise healthy with no preexisting conditions. In the rush to defend the panic, crucial facts are being overlooked and dismissed out of hand. That is the real problem here. Not this virus.

I'm 65. I'm part of a group that's at "high risk." If there's anyone in this thread that has skin in this game its those of us who were alive when the Beatles formed. When the facts and evidence warrant panic, perhaps I will consider panicking or I'll just open a bottle of Pinot Noir and decide to get on with my life.


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

That's just not consistent with the facts. The fatality rate is very low among otherwise-healthy individuals in some places, and in others the mortality rate is much much higher. In every case it's at a minimum five times higher than from the flu. There is also no vaccine and no known treatment beyond pallative care.

This should be obvious but you don't have to die from COVID-19 to have it upend your life. The science is saying that while a lot of people get very minor or even no symptoms, it's not uncommon to have permanent lung damage. There are also millions of Americans with no health insurance and any lengthy hospital stay means bankruptcy.

I have lived a pretty decent life and while I'm not ready to go I understand that's not completely up to me, so I have made peace with it. If you're not willing to take it seriously that's on you. But for the rest of society the choice is probably being taken a bit out of their hands. I've talked to friends in the industry that have been laid off (told it's for at least 2 months) and in many states bars and restaurants are being closed. It's a shame that states have to save people from themselves but I guess that's what happens in a post-fact world where everyone is a special snowflake who's opinion must be validated, regardless of the science behind it.

To be clear though I don't see anyone here defending "panic". That's the opposite of what we need. Concern is good, panic is not.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

The panic has even reached my little island paradise. 
Our governor closed all bars, nightclubs, and restaurants in our state except for carry-out. 
This puts the few people who have jobs here at risk. 
My grocery store has already had, and is having panic buying. The toilet paper is literally flying off the shelves. The dairy aisle is just about empty and our next order isn't until Friday.
Schools are closed and parents can't find sitters for their kids, so they can go to work.
It is an endless cycle.


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## Flour (Apr 28, 2020)

A bit late. In my situation, I prepare food for a houseless resource center. We stopped having our diners come in to eat 2 months ago. I prepare the food, someone else passes them the food containers and water, and a third person gets there name down and gives them silverware. Everyone in the building wears a mask and gets temp checked every day. no one comes in the building without temp check and without wearing mask. Our diners outside are asked to disperse if it gets to be more than 5. We have almost no sanitizer left, I do not understand how bigger businesses can open safely if we and myself at home cannot even find lysol to purchase. I hope everyone continues curbside selling and togo, but I personally cannot support my local restaurants anymore because none of them are wearing masks (2 national chains and a local eatery). We will continue wearing masks where I work, I pretty much live in gloves because food prep anyway.


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