Tourists and Dining During COVID?

I don't know. You can find reputable sources that say dining causes spread and others that say outdoor dining doesn't have a large impact. We had outdoor dining all through the summer and fall months while the case numbers remained low. Whatever triggered the recent outbreak doesn't appear to tied to outdoor activities like this. The largest factor still appears to be indoor gatherings (family, friends, coworkers), travel, holidays, and general complacency by everyone.

Raise your hand if the comments on EH have changed your mind on any of this. I don't see any evidence that people have moved from their positions. If that is the case, then what is the point of posting? Seems like the definition of insanity to me, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Good point Pit, I agree completely. We're locked in at this point because people who listen have done so and those who don't listen do what they want. I think it's impossible to convince or force the last few percentiles to do the right thing, kind of like vaccination. I don't think there's much value for people here to be arguing about it.
We'll have to let the chips fall where they may, waiting for availability of vaccine from the slow ass government. At least for those who believe in vaccines and herd immunity. Those that don't you'll probably be alright, or not. Wait and see.

Let's hope we get some rain next week.

A some point you are going to have to open businesses back up. Currently, there are at least 50,000 people in this county that have some level of immunity through either having had the virus or having been vaccinated. That number will grow daily. There is no reason those people can't go out and dine outside-they won't get infected nor will they infect anyone.

False. There is no evidence that vaccination or a prior bout keeps you from spreading the virus.

The fascinating point out of all this is the discussion that it's "all private gatherings". Current PHD data shows that it's approximately 62% private gatherings (known contact) and 38% community spread (unknown contact), not including the handful of travel cases and the 9000+ "unknown" (aka, didn't respond to contact tracers).

So what ARE the 38%?

And also, when it comes to discussing whether comments on edhat change anyone's minds ... what about new information? Like the new variants that are more easily spread? Does that change anyone's minds?

Tourists from LA are not causing the spike. Idiots are causing the spike. Who are these idiots? These are people who travel to places (perhaps Mexico) and get infected by doing large gatherings with no precaution. These people then travel back to SB County and continue to do large gathering with no precautions and infect more people. Don't believe me - look at the demographic data. These people then go to their place of work and also infect people at risk. The other people causing the spike is cases are the college students - but this is a non-issue as none of them get sick and require hospitalization nor do they infect the rest of the community since they live their bubble and no non-idiot will hang out with college students with out taking proper precautions. All the SB County Health Dept needs to do is quit being politically correct and call it like it is. Identify who these idiots and tell us how to avoid them. Everyone can then quit being so paranoid and we can get back to a normal way of life.

Off topic, but I just heard about this and wondered if anyone else has? It was news to me....

I've just learned from a friend, who lives in another state (Oregon), about "anti-masker" gangs.... folks (covidiots) who literally gang up on people wearing masks, who are minding their own business. The "game" is to confront those who are masked, at close range, in order to intimidate them, then film it for posting on the internet.
Oh gee, how fun.
My friend and her husband were recently the victims of such a confrontation, they tried to diffuse the situation and walk away, but were followed and threatened by the the anti-maskers. Subsequently, she contacted her local law enforcement agency about the incident, inquiring about the legal use of pepper spray for self defense in such incidents. She was told, if threatened, she had a legal right to defend herself with pepper spray.
I was pretty surprised, as I'd never heard of this, until now.

There are businesses now not falling the rules - and I've even heard reports of some in-house dining. If you go outdoors in the middle of the day - the mall lots are full and I don't see any businesses limiting capacity. There really isn't much of a lock down. If you compare now to the first stay at home order - no one is staying home. The previous administration chose not to set an example or even try to fight Covid at the federal level. That left the idiot brigade empowered and out causing super spreader events.

There is no way I’d eat at any of these places during the current surge. I pretty much wear my mask at all times when away from home (shopping, running, etc). I wish the tourists would stay home for now.

This is click-bait and it's pathetic. The people in that photograph are waiting for take-out containers. I witnessed the scene myself, and some of the eating places on State between Cota and Haley are places I would avoid. They do not represent the vast majority of the restaurants in SB pre-ban-on-outdoor-dining. The current spread can be attributed to indoor gatherings in private homes during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Restaurants can open safely outdoors with appropriate social distancing. I anticipate the day when 20 and 30 year olds are complaining about vaccinated senior citizens happily eating outdoors and shedding virus on those of us who haven't been vaccinated yet. Everyone should get off their high-horses and try to work through this pandemic pragmatically.

The three dudes on the left are idiots who should be wearing masks while waiting for their takeout containers. Where were the downtown ambassadors? AOL, apparently. I find the title of this piece very problematic and xenophobic. Are these people TOURISTS? How do we know? Can edhat proof?

I feel that a lot of tourists are also taking a vacation from the virus as well. You see them walking around maskless on Cabrillo or State, often in groups. Restaurants contributed to crowding (when eating outside was legal) and often had tables WAY too close together. Even if we go back to eating and drinking outside, I will stay away from the crowds, at least until I get vaccinated and have achieved a certain level of immunity.

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record with the Heinlein, but AGAIN, here's something to think about:

“Both for practical reasons and for mathematically verifiable moral reasons, authority and responsibility must be equal - else a balancing takes place as surely as current flows between points of unequal potential. To permit irresponsible authority is to sow disaster; to hold a man responsible for anything he does not control is to behave with blind idiocy. The unlimited democracies were unstable because their citizens were not responsible for the fashion in which they exerted their sovereign authority... other than through the tragic logic of history... No attempt was made to determine whether a voter was socially responsible to the extent of his literally unlimited authority. If he voted the impossible, the disastrous possible happened instead - and responsibility was then forced on him willy-nilly and destroyed both him and his foundationless temple.”

-Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

We live in a SOCIETY, which its lots of people cooperating with one another in order to make things collectively better. And sometimes, you need to make sacrifices that inconvenience your personal comfort, for the well being of the group. If we had worn masks and stayed home and not travelled, we'd be like New Zealand right now. Instead? We've destroyed ourselves and our foundationless temple. People keep going on and on about their rights, but forget they have responsibilities in equal proportion to their rights. Can't have one without the other.

Off topic. But this is like a “Who’s on First “comedy routine. Delightfully bonkers. I’m going to have to get out a checkers set and give EdHat names to the chips to figure out who is playing on which team.

We have to find a middle ground when it comes to regulation. Banning everything is causing people to gather privately. I’m pretty sure as we near two months of a lockdown and continue to have 350+ cases a day I’m allowed to say it’s a fact that outdoor dinning, hair salons, nails salons and walking around at the zoo had little to nothing to do with this surge. We can’t keep doing things that don’t work. A damn year has gone by and doing the same old thing has gotten us nowhere. We need to move forward not backward or stay stagnant.

Well, Gee, Gavin Nusom didn't seem to think dining semi-outside was a problem, why should I, or any of us?

When healthcare workers and first responders can return to some semblance of normality and reasonable levels of stress, it will be time to welcome tourists. Right now now LA is a huge COVID pit, and we'd have to be nuts to welcome them. I'm sorry forry for people who must suffer economically, but this is an extreme situation. It's not yet manageable, and we can't pretend we know how it's going to develop.

This is the worst of times, I do feel the outdoor dinning was safer then going into a store. But I did see to many people and not 6 feet away from all directions. And yes this did lead to people gathering with people outside of their households. But those people obviously do that anyways, so if you know these people stay clear of them and wear a PROPER MASK. I personally have not gone to the dentist last year, now that’s to close! I have personally got sick from the dentist before, so not chancing that.
The outdoor dinning needs some adjustments, but if it doesn’t happen soon, you can say goodbye to them. Hair salons, too can make adjustments, but you and them keep a mask on at times. I feel with better protocols and this time keeping them, then more businesses can be open. I’ve been in department stores, they clean off the key pad, the counter you touched and their hands every time , more then what the grocery stores will do. This is scary but so is driving a car on our hwy ways but we do it anyways and most of us make it home without a problem, because we follow the rules.
I do know people who don’t follow the rules and they are family members , guess what I stay away from them because I know they are seeing people outside of their family and not wearing mask all time, and some of them have gotten the virus, I can not control them, I talk to them 10 feet away but have my mask on, I do not invite them over because of their choices. Now I do wonder about the number of people they say died of it, my mom got it who is 78, and has all the diseases they say a person like her would die from this and cancer, guess what she did not, she only had a slight cough and nasally for 3 days, no fever ever, makes you wonder, if these older people who died was it because of corona virus or because of their diseases they already had? I don’t want to get it , but I think we’re being lied to also. As always I say wear your mask properly and a safe one and keep a safe distance and carry hand sanitizer.