'Eat out to help out' a key driver of the second wave - study finds

[annabel85]

Coronavirus: Revealed - the impact Eat Out to Help Out had on infection rates
Research suggests that between 8% and 17% of newly detected infection clusters can be linked to the scheme.

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-eat-out-to-help-out-accelerated-second-wave-of-covid-19-study-says-12118285

I know they were trying to get the economy going again, but what a ridiculous initiative this proved to be? I know people in hospitality who said it was bedlam on the days of discounted food, so it's no surprise.

@YuckYuckTea - but my post didn’t make any claims about how students are actually learning, it was about what they are willing to do and what they did not insist on doing. Which is why you shouldn’t quote people selectively. And btw, online teaching was not expected “across the board” in all subjects for the entire term, hence why so many students were willing to travel from their home towns and live in a new place, mixing with lots of new people, when they could have stayed in their home towns, mixing with nobody new, and never going anywhere near their university campus. Also, online teaching is not “across the board” as in not all teaching is 100% online, as you have pointed out in your post. How would you like it if I selectively quoted you to make it look like you said something completely different from what you actually did - eg that 100% of university teaching is taking place online ?! It’s seriously irritating.

We did EOTHO 2 or 3 times when we went away for a few days in august .The places we were not overly busy or packed. We wouldnt have gone in if they were.

SoloMummy

Oliversmumsarmy

I don’t see how it was a death sentence for everyone else. There weren’t any places we went where we were in any danger of catching this virus from anyone else.

Sat in a pub garden 8-10 ft from other people. Only time the servers came near to us was when they were delivering drinks and food and they were always wearing masks and visors at the same time.

Whether other places around the country were operating so strictly is up for debate but people have to take some responsibility for their actions and if I saw somewhere that was completely overcrowded or wasn’t adhering as strictly to the safety measures then I wouldn’t have gone in.

Looking at the stats for the weeks in August and September, our local figures didn’t start rising till late September which would coincide with schools opening.

This virus can’t be caught from someone who doesn’t have it.

I know more people who have committed suicide because of hard lockdowns in other countries than I do who have died from this virus

@Oliversmumsarmy

We made use of the EOTHO.

Everywhere we went tables were at a distance, not overcrowded, servers with masks and texting your order so servers had minimal contact with diners.

Fwiw it was a lifeline. I don’t know if I could have coped without being able to go out.

Fwiw it was a lifeline. I don’t know if I could have coped without being able to go out.

You could have gone out for a quiet drink/meal on any other day though.

I'm not having a go as it's human nature to take advantage of the offer, and you've picked places that were sensible on those days, but there was nothing stopping people going out to the pub or restaurant 7 days a week over the summer once they opened back up. A lot of places were just stupidly busy on the Eat Out days and reckless with safety which has helped to accelerate the second wave.

Families piling into packed out restaurants one week and pouring back into schools the next.

annabel85

We are on universal credit. Curtesy of the previous lockdown. Couldn’t afford to pay full price

The restaurants and pubs around here were not busy as tables were placed well apart.

Definitely no rise in infection rates till end of September/October, so the culprit around here was when schools went back

@Oliversmumsarmy
There have been cases (around the world) of under pressure doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff committing suicide. Traumatised from their work with Covid patients - some being their own colleagues.

I've also heard of suicides triggered by bereavement.

SheepandCow

I know more people who have committed suicide because of hard lockdowns than I do people who have died through Covid.

One of my close friends is hanging by a thread.

I know someone who worked at one of the Nightingale hospitals
They were hardly anyone being transferred to them whilst we are now told hospitals couldn’t cope.
Why didn’t the hospitals send some people to the Nightingale

@Oliversmumsarmy
I'm sorry for your losses. I hope your friend pulls through and makes a good recovery.

The nightingales weren't used properly because of lack of staff. There's even less now due to staff sickness (Covid, Long Covid, PTSD).

Your experiences are terribly sad - and also very unusual.

We need to rely on fact and not anecdota.

One has to ask why the author of this study felt the need to share his work with Femi Oluwole (the anti-Brexit campaigner) and Keir Starmer on twitter yesterday.

His tweet on 12th Dec 2019;
"So today, as you vote in #GE2019, make sure to make the right choice. Hold your nose, if you have to, and vote for the party best positioned to beat your local #Conservative - it is vital."

The nightingales weren't used properly because of lack of staff

Certainly no lack of staff in the one person I know worked at.
Saw someone say about the lack of staff on the news earlier. I question why after spending a fortune on a new hospital there wasn’t supposedly enough staff