Eat Out To Help Out: Brilliance or Lunacy?

[verdantverdure]

On the day the Covid Inquiry convenes I thought I'd ask your opinion on Eat Out To Help Out.

Covid case numbers and deaths were low, as we'd done a phased return out of the first lockdown.

Then we had Eat Out To Help Out and it all kicked off again within weeks.

What did you think? At the time? Now?

YABU Eat Out To Help Out was brilliant, I loved it.

YANBU Eat out To Help Out was a bloody stupid idea that was obviously going to help the virus spread, leading to another wave, more economic devastation, and tens of thousands of us dead. And it didn't even help the hospitality industry because it screwed up Christmas which is usually their most profitable quarter.

The restaurant I worked in one the only one in my town that never took part in it.
It was a stupid idea.

If we had not had Austerity for 10 years, the health & public services would have coped far far better.

Other comparable countries in Europe have not seen such huge negative health effects nor 7.3m on waiting lists, which seem to be increasing.

I hope the inquiry will look at this and the effects of LD on MH too but of course one can survive a MH crisis, less easy to survive death & the UK has the highest absolute number of Covid deaths anywhere in Europe (i wont inc Russia in this as god alone knows if we can trust their numbers) and one of the highest of comparable nations per capita, twice as high as Germany.

On a personal level I loved it. Dh ds and I had covid at end of July 2020 and isolated into August. Having got away with light symptoms or asymptomatic we felt safe to make the most of free food on Rishi! I appreciate this situation wasn't the case for most- but on the other hand the virus was always going to spread when restrictions ended and tbh we were always going to be fucked for winter and Christmas. Viruses spread if people mix- people prevented from doing so since March were always going to mix.
Re schools reopening in June- at ds's school only reception and y1 (fortunately he was y1!) were allowed in. (and y6 for 1 day at the end of term) They were kept at all times in bubbles of less than 10 with one member of staff only. No mixing at all This was pretty typical of schools in the area. So it wasn't until September when everyone came back that in my view schools going back drove the infection rates up.

Same

It was hell-I had to break up so many fights between tables (the most memorable was a fight between an older lady and a middle aged man-she was scared of catching covid and lashed out at a middle aged man,who hit her back-i dont know who started it,but i should never have had to finish it),took so much abuse,it was boiling hot and I had to run between tables to clean them between customers-the same customers that refused to move to let me clean their sodding table safely but where screaming at me for getting too close

We where heaving all the time-sounds good to be busy but I was getting screamed at every few minutes,had people treat me like crap and I was barely coping

I was hit twice during this time,headbutted once and had some bloke grab my ponytail and yank me backwards-nothing happened to any of them

My hair started to drop out due to the stress and I lost a lot of weight

I'm customer care-i clean your table,help if i can,take your orders,sort any issues and kick out teenagers

Im not the police

(My managers where under a lot of pressure from the higher ups and couldn't always come to help-a lot of 'oh,you can deal with that 'minor' trouble by yourself' went on-even when it was kicking off so badly,the police should have been informed)

Eat out to help out was a bad idea from the staffs point of view-let alone covid

Too many people,too close and numbers shot back up

I missed out on my last christmas with my darling fil as he died the following march

What a load of rubbish. We shouldn’t have locked down at all.

And what would your plan have been?

@SunnySaturdayMorning And look at the gaslighting we get as a thankyou. Told that the lockdown that started at Christmas 2020 was Lockdown Two when it was Lockdown 3 Lockdown 2 was November 2020 Told that Lockdown 3 didnt start till Jan when loads of us were in tier 4 which was lockdown in all but name. Tier 4 was the same thing The cunts just didnt want to call it a lockdown. Obfuscation and psychological abuse.

. Men in barbers having their nose hairs plucked while beauty salons remained shut. Us dirty women eh more likely to spread the virus than men 🙄
Caroline Hirons was furious and it became the basis for her Beauty Backed campaign

And EOTHO was the problem?

I didnt participate btw. Having to look like a scruffbag to help the NHS didnt exactly fill me with the confidence to go to a resturant.

It was serious enough so menopausal women couldnt have their facial hair sorted but not serious enough , therefore men could have their nose hair plucked at the barbers and before anyone says you could have sorted your facial hair yourself well so could the menz

Hopefully the enquiry will condemn Sunak's populist decision making.

It was a disaster. Subsidising middle-class indulgence that cost many vulnerable people their lives.
And we knew at the time it would.
But we used public money to let the wealthy and irresponsible have a few jollies at the expense of others more needy.

Maybe they’ll ask some clever mners rather than University of Cambridge’s Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter to speak at the inquiry

He was a bit rubbish on that programme too

Cheap food - loved it. Did it every week and it was a great way to socialise our new puppy in cafes

& the UK has the highest absolute number of Covid deaths anywhere in Europe

Absolute deaths are meaningless. You can look at deaths per 100k, or even better, excess deaths per 100k, as each country counted covid deaths differently. We had one of the highest rates as we include all deaths where covid was mentioned, many countries inc. Germany, only counted deaths "from" not "with".

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker

I don't disagree with you in that the NHS has fewer doctors and nurses than almost any other health system, and that in itself caused so many additional issues over any sort of healthcare during the pandemic.

Do we know this with certainty? If so, are you able to share the source please?

I've seen some comparisons with Sweden where the population were trusted to be sensible, however I am not sure the population here could be trusted to be sensible.

Our own government didn't even stick to rules they imposed, but that's a whole other thread.

It was absolutely ridiculous. In Leicester, which never really properly came out of all lockdown until summer 2021, you could eat out for breakfast, lunch and dinner but the children's play parks were still taped off closed! So stupid.

I should add that I don't necessarily think lockdowns were necessary.

I was a Customer experience leader and had exactly the same experience. Got so stressed i started throwing up before and after every shift. I lost loads of weight because when i did have an appetite, i couldn't keep food down.

I was grabbed, knocked down, screamed at by both customers and managers, had to phone the police multiple times. I started working for McDonald's in 2013 and ended up off work with stress.

Covid also went right through the staff. Had 11 people (out of 110 ish total) phone in sick in one day at its peak.

Madness…And I refused to participate

That half price lobster bisque I had in my local French bistro though 👌🏻

Businesses weren't closed.

They did bring in the Rule of 6 about two weeks after Eat Out To Help Out though.

Then a 10pm curfew in hospitality about three weeks after Eat Out Yo Help Out.

Then the Tier System about six weeks after Eat Out To Help Out.

Then the second lockdown two months after Eat Out To Help Out.

I'm so sorry @Mygrandadwasmywingman

Christ @QuestionableMouse

The Covid Inquiry has reached the Eat Out To Help Out stage of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Apparently one of the scientists called Rishi Sunak Dr Death because of the plan.

And described the GBD's Carl Heneghan as "that fuckwit".

It's all go at the Covid Inquiry.

Hopefully they will talk to all the business owners for whom it was a lifeline and they’ll look at how many businesses survived because of it. I know a few that did and were hugely grateful. It gave confidence back to people to go out too so had positive mental health benefits to many people. I thought it was a great idea

Yes is this enquiry just focussed on one half of the equation?

The amount of general damage to livelihoods was huge, hopefully people will be included who benefited or survived as a business due to it

@sashagabadon it definitely helped give people confidence to get back out and integrate into society.

It also pushed Scotland forward who had some of the most harsh lockdowns going.