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.

People were still capable of deciding whether to go out or not - we all knew how covid spread! But you can't keep people locked up forever.
Hindsight has 20/20 vision. I'm sure the govt wanted to support their donors but it's also not a good idea for the economy generally to keep everything closed. People couldn't sit at home getting furlough forever, while other people were working really hard in essential industries - at some point there had to be steps back to normality.

I'm in Wales and our government went absolutely loopy with circuit breakers and not being able to do anything that Mark Drakeford considered even slightly risky.

I think by the time eotho came along, far bigger mistakes had been made that cost the country far more.

If you were under 50 - excellent idea
Over 50 and in a vaccine trial - excellent idea
Over 60 or vulnerable - you should have still been shielding.

The whole response was madness

YANBU- it was a stupid idea. I said so at the time and we ignored it completely. As well as virus spreading-so obvious that's what would happen- it encouraged people to go out and stuff themselves on taxpayer's money. We had Jeremy Hunt, our now Chancellor and a multi-millionaire, taking advantage of it and many others like him. Stupid, typically Tory idea- gimmick, badly thought out and had awful consequences for all of us in increased virus spread, more deaths, more NHS pressure, a further lock-down and the wealthy benefitting on the back of public monies.

A woman I work with, her husband and teenage sons went out stuffing themselves as often as they were allowed for as long as they were allowed. She put almost a stone on and all 4 of them caught covid. It's ridiculous.

Well yes of course they do but it wasn't Mrs Bloggs via a vox pop.
It was someone capable of analysing the statistics and evidence; I just can't remember their exact title.

No one is likely to change their view on this one, I don't think, but he was saying the uptick was happening anyway. More coincidence than cock up.

I'm no cheerleader for the idiots 'in charge' btw.

I cannot believe EOHO had a big impact at all. People were mixing a huge amount for other reasons anyway. EOHO was 1 month, and if you think it had a big effect then you have to assume all the other social distancing changes (shops reopening, schools reopening, pubs reopening, visits in homes allowed or whatever we were allowed, clubs re-meeting, busses that carry children resuming, people seeing their loved ones, gyms reopening, Unis reopening etc.) in July-October were completely trivial for transmission in comparison.

Absolute lunacy but I think what they were going for was to induce waves of controlled infection until we reached the point that we had natural immunity in a high proportions, in case the jab didn't work out and we had to rely on our own immunity to get us out of it.

I was shielding and my employer chose not to claim furlough as they said it was my choice to stay at home. Lost a full time wage as I was only entitled to claim SSP for months.

Help out to eat out was no good to me as I couldn't afford to eat out due to the debts I'd built up having less money coming in than going out.

I don't work for that employer any more.

Im a bit confused at the chopping and changing going on here If EOTHO is to blame for the October tiers two months later then why were people saying that the lockdown that officially* started on Jan 4th was blamed on the Christmas mixing. People seem to be changing the gestation period of Covid to suit their side of the argument. So which is it?!

*tier 4 at Christmas was called tier 4 because they didnt want to call it a lockdown

I think Eat Out to Help Out was fine and did take advantage of it on a number of occasions. It's a shame it came to an end as there wasn't enough done to help the hospitality sector anyway.

Covid was a shit deal all round. Deaths, loved ones dying alone, furlough, redundancy, shortages in shops, panic buying, people's greed was disgusting to witness. And if you were a Scottish resident Auntie sturgeon and Co with their daily lectures on enforcement of ridiculous rules.

Hospitality was one of the hardest hit sectors and has a huge workforce (about 10% of all jobs) on relatively low pay at the best of times. If you're a business owner and your restaurant or cafe goes under, there are huge barriers to starting over again. It certainly wasn't wrong to try to help the sector.

On 24 August 2020 Matt Hancock said they had already had feedback that EOTHO was "causing problems in our intervention areas" but that he had "protected Treasury" and "kept it out of the news"

Simon Case then points out the obvious flaw in the system where restaurants were "insanely packed" on the EOTHO days then "totally deserted" on the other days.

On December 3rd 2020 Matt Hancock refers to EOTHO as "eat out to help the virus get about".

I'm not up to date on the thread so I haven't seen that but it's partly pandemic maths, mostly the chaotic government not doing enough early enough, and then a new variant.

There was no doubling to speak of in July, (but there was a local lockdown in Leicester)

On September 14th the Rule of Six was brought in.

On September 22nd numbers were already so bad that they introduced a 10pm curfew in hospitality and people were told to WFH if they could again.

On 30th September Boris Johnson said we were at a critical moment in the pandemic.

The Tiers were introduced on the 14th October but didn't stop the doubling..

The second lockdown began on November 5th.

Back to Tiers from December 2nd.

Then in December there was a hew variant called Alpha. Or "the Kent Variant" as it was known at first.

Boris Johnson said he wasn't cancelling Christmas on December 16th because it would be inhuman but then cancelled it on December 19th for London and the South East.

December 30th 75% of the country was out into Tier 4 which they'd just invented,

Then on January 6th 2021 we went back into lockdown again.

Covid spreads by humans mixing so if numbers were doubling it was because there was too much human mixing.

Let’s not forget the financial impact. Total f*cking lunacy and the guy who launched it is now prime minister.

It was total madness.
The last 3 years have been absolutely crazy 🤪

Yep

I would have liked more focus on not just shutting most things down

The billions the Tories spent on Test and Trace and PPE that was only for for the bonfire could have been given as subsidies to any industry struggling rather than to £1000 a day "consultants" and mates of Tory MPs who had never produced PPE or run a testing programme before.

There was no need to spread the virus, kill 90,000 people and cause economic chaos and uncertainty until the following summer.

Scotch egg anyone?

I think it was a waste of money as people were desperate to get out and do stuff anyway at that point. Opening stuff up again saved a lot of businesses, this scheme was neither here nor there.

I'd forgotten all that nonsense.

We began opening up in stages from April and numbers were flat almost everywhere for months.

Then EOTHO happened and it all went to shit again.

All the restrictions needed after EOTHO absolutely screwed the whole quarter for hospitality.

Then office party season got screwed.

Then Christmas itself.

Then New Years Eve was Day 1 of the third lockdown.

Yep, I remember when McDonalds re-opened for drive through only (inside remained closed) and they had loads of staff in the car park organising rows of cars to go through the lane, the queues went right back onto the main road and to a roundabout about half a mile away. It was like that for several days.

Customers certainly didn't need encouragement!

Same with our village chippy who, likewise, closed at first and then re-opened with an online app and serving through a hatch in the door - there were queues down the street for a couple of weeks!

EOTHO simply wasn't necessary. People were desperate to get out and about anyway. They didn't do EOTHO for tourist attractions, non food shops, hotels, gyms, hairdressers, etc - all businesses hit just as badly as cafes/restaurants!

We should never have locked down in the first place.
Clearly Covid Cultists will still be in meltdown at people having the temerity to sit in a restaurant.

tier 4 AT Christmas was a lockdown in all but name.