Packed restaurants- people just not worried anymore?

[avenueq]

Lunchtime today in a tier 1 town. Area with several restaurants. They all had long queues and/or wait times of 1 hour plus. I'm not judging, I was there myself, but it just made me think how rising cases don't seem to worry people yet? Or is it anymore?

Tier 1 here and life is basically back to pre-covid times, not including sanitiser and masks of course. We still have one of the lowest rates in the country even though people are going about their normal daily lives. Around 100 cases per 100,000 in my city.

No idea why it’s so prevalent in some places and not others. But I’m hoping it stays this way so we don’t move up a tier!

@likeamillpond do you take that attitude with everything that can potentially harm you ? Cancer , heart disease , sunlight, cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes , gout etc etc if so , then you are better off in a sterile bubble. I think the basic human condition us actually " take a risk, and if nothing happens, carry on "?
So many people do think like you - that one day Covid will " get you " like some kind of bogey man.
You call that living ?
Forgive me if you have a condition that puts you in the vulnerable category, because life must be like that for the vulnerable 24/7 , with or without covid .
Most people will be unaffected and that is the bottom line , I'm sorry if you dont like it .

I think most people's response to the virus now is entirely proportionate to the risk it poses to them

Exactly.

People are rational.

Tier 1 here and was out for lunch yesterday.

I'm not scared of catching covid. I'm in my early 40s, slim with no health conditions- so I'm low risk if I catch it. I also work in a school, so presume I'll catch it at some point anyway. (If I haven't already).

I could hide away in my non-work times and be miserable, but that doesn't seem a reasonable cost to pay for something that is highly unlikely to make me or my loved ones very sick, and I'm more likely to catch it at work.

I'll follow all rules I need to. I'm not going to overly worry.

Italy- our restaurants all now have to close at 6pm (ie only lunchtime service) until the end of November. 4 max to a table. 22,000 positive cases yesterday. 221 deaths.

I've still been eating out throughout, but everywhere I've been has been very controlled. Temperature checks, hand gel on entry and exit, leaving trace details (no possibility to refuse, they just wouldn't let you stay. Some made photocopies of your ID doc, others asked you to fill forms in.)

I know not all were so closely monitored but I always felt happy in the places we went to.

The restaurateurs and bar owners are protesting now that they've been made to close- and they have a point. Those places, together with schools are the most closely monitored, cleaned, SD'd etc, yet they're the places which have now been closed.

People are making their own risk assessments and most conclude that the benefits of going to restaurants outweigh the risks.

People die every day, unfortunately. There are risks to most things we do.

It does appear that the level of worry has been deliberately pushed in order to keep numbers down and not flood the nhs.

It’s true to say that the hospitals would be flooded with covid admissions if it were allowed to spiral. When things spiral out of control, I would fully expect the nightingales open with staff transferred there (currently hard to staff and weren’t really required) but I’m not sure that they can really provide the same environment?

@NikeDeLaSwoosh

When you consider that somewhere between 50-70% of cases are asymptomatic, and the average age of a covid death is greater than the average life expectancy in the UK, its surely irrational to be worried...?

Agree and the survival rate is excellent so I'm not worried at all

Tier 3 here and the restaurants definitely aren’t packed!

Walked through my local ‘village’ last night where there are 7-8 restaurants. I’d estimate 15% of tables occupied.

It’s crucifying hospitality being in tier 3

I’m not worried about getting it but it’s not irrational to think unrestricted Covid will have an economic and social impact. It’s not just about dying. Or risk to self. I would rather not see schools shut and a total lockdown brought on so am sticking to the rules unlike people who are ‘doing their own risk assessment’.

so am sticking to the rules unlike people who are ‘doing their own risk assessment’.

Nobody has suggested not following the rule!

Yes people need to be sensible and take precautions but within reason and proportional to their individual risk. I have seen family and friends almost sink in to depression by not going out and having very little contact with people since March. There comes a point where your mental health also needs to be prioritised. This is going to be a long tough winter and we need to do whatever we can to say physically and mentally well to get through it.

I’m in Wales so I can’t go out to eat but I wouldn’t want to anyway. We haven’t been out to a restaurant and sat in since August and I was nervous then. We have queued up to buy ice creams/chips and I’ve sat outside for drinks but I just don’t feel it’s worth the risks, even though I am not in any risk category. A lot of my friends have the same reservations and agree with the firebreak so it isn’t just me. I am trying to support local cafes/restaurants by ordering takeaways but I don’t think I’ll feel comfortable eating in for a long time, or going into a cinema/theatre.

Those of you who aren’t concerned seem to be mostly living in other areas of the U.K. (many of you mention tiers), which I find interesting - I wonder if the different governments handling of things has filtered down and people in areas that saw restrictions lifted quickly and places that haven’t gone back into lockdowns are generally less stressed about Covid? I’m not criticising anyone’s response by the way, I just find it interesting!

@Hyperfish101 - you do realise those of us going out for lunch are also sticking to the rules?! The rules allow going out to restaurants until 10pm. Lunch is a more civilised meal now as you don't feel rushed to finish and be out.

Its also worth considering the queues outside restaurants might be caused by the restrictions in the number of tables they are able to have in order to keep people apart. The restaurant we went to yesterday had less than half of their normal tables available. In a normal half term, you would say trade was brisk but not crazy/overflowing, if a restaurant was just over a third full at lunchtime.

It also took forever for the stupid NHS app thing to register the place we were trying to check in at, we were stood outside for a while trying to get that to work in the rain!

@likeamillpond

Just because a person has no symptoms doesn't mean that damage isn't being done. All sorts of things could be going on silently and unseen. Weakening of the heart, immune system, who knows? These things might only show up in old age.. I think it's reckless and short sighted to have a "I don't care if I get it" attitude. So little is still known about this decrease, why would you want yourself or loved ones to get it? It's madness.

Right but that might happen with any virus, any condition, at any time in your life.

Do you worry about getting glandular fever or chicken pox on a daily basis out of interest?

I don't want to get it so I sanitise and I distance. But you have to weigh it up. I want to see my mum more than I don't want to get it. It would be worth getting it to see my mum, in my mind.

For me, I got glandular fever, I was extremely ill, I have lasting damage but I am still living my life. If covid gets me and the Same happens so be it. if I am incredibly unlucky as a mostly healthy 25 yo and I die that will be incredibly shit for my family but no more shit than if I had died of anything else!

In my mind if there is a possibility I might imminently die I want to live in the mean time and not exist on the 4 fucking walls of my house.

So little is still known about this decrease, why would you want yourself or loved ones to get it? It's madness.

Nobody has claimed that they 'want' to get Covid, just like nobody wants to get the flu, cancer or any other disease.

But many of us are making a rational decision that the benefits of going to a restaurant (or whatever) outweigh the risk.

I think people are extremely fed up, the stats are misleading and so is the guidance generally.

It doesn't help the the "stats" are generally meaningless.

They tell us X amount of deaths a day. Can't or won't tell us which deaths were a direct result of covid and nothing else, which covid played a part but other conditions did too, which were absolutely something else but they happened to have a positive test. Same with hospital admissions. We get "x people admitted to hospital with covid" we don't get to know who was admitted because they are unwell with covid, or because they are unwell with something else and covid, something else with a positive test and no symptoms, or something entirely different and then they've caught covid in the hospital well after admission.

I think if we had that information that would be helpful.

I've been going out to eat as it's half term and I want to have some normality before we move into stricter lockdown. However most of the places I've seen are not following the guidelines properly. Tables definitely not 2 metres apart and no screens anywhere that I've been.

Yes, agree that people can't trust the news reporting any more.

People take a risk going out a few times and each time they do and nothing happens they become more convinced that nothing will. And then the next time Covid gets them.

But it probably won't 'get them'. And even if it does, most people are likely to have only mild symptoms at worst (yes I know, 'long covid' blah blah blah...)

We all take calculated risks every single day, balancing them against other risks. You may lock yourself up for fear of 'Covid getting you' if you wish. That's your risk assessment. Others will evaluate the risk differently.

Both my DP and I are working outside the home with the public. DS is in nursery 4 days a week. Going out to eat isn’t significantly increasing our risk any further so I’m living my life whilst I can.

Went to my third restaurant this week (as on half term) and all had perspex, distanced tables, masks.
Felt very safe

@FlyingFlamingo

I’m in Wales so I can’t go out to eat but I wouldn’t want to anyway. We haven’t been out to a restaurant and sat in since August and I was nervous then. We have queued up to buy ice creams/chips and I’ve sat outside for drinks but I just don’t feel it’s worth the risks, even though I am not in any risk category. A lot of my friends have the same reservations and agree with the firebreak so it isn’t just me. I am trying to support local cafes/restaurants by ordering takeaways but I don’t think I’ll feel comfortable eating in for a long time, or going into a cinema/theatre.

Those of you who aren’t concerned seem to be mostly living in other areas of the U.K. (many of you mention tiers), which I find interesting - I wonder if the different governments handling of things has filtered down and people in areas that saw restrictions lifted quickly and places that haven’t gone back into lockdowns are generally less stressed about Covid? I’m not criticising anyone’s response by the way, I just find it interesting!

I'm tier three, so not a low risk area at all.

We have 300 cases in every 100,000. That's cases of course, not deaths.

When I look at that statistic then no, I'm not afraid to go out.
Lots of cases at my children's seconday schools. My one son spent 4 weeks in total in isolation last term due to active cases in class - that's half the term, a healthy teenager stuck inside.

We are getting out while we can.