Eat out to help out or eat in to keep liv in

[Snog]

As we pass 100,000 deaths and with the benefit of hindsight was "eat out to help out" a dreadful mistake that cost lives?

i think theres been more deaths from a one day event....xmas day mixing!

Infection wasn’t that high over summer was it? Personally way more concerned about other policy decisions.

@MrsMercedes

i think theres been more deaths from a one day event....xmas day mixing!

I agree. But there is no arguing with stupid. People did (and are still doing) exactly as they please. There is loads of anecdotal evidence on here of Christmas mixing followed by entire families coming down with it.

And workplaces are open.DVLA - 500 cases. It’s all linked but I wouldn’t be looking at eat out to help out for primary cause of cases, I’d be looking at failures in test and trace and delays in action allowing spread.

No. I would say lack of an effective test and trace system (testing was shit for a while, track and trace still is), opening schools fully with no measures in place, not closing the borders or maintaining any sort of control of them, plenty of fundumental and enduring errors rather than an initiative that kept some businesses afloat imo.

Yep! The scheme basically said to people that it was safe to go out and mix. Even if it didn’t lead to many cases (but it probably did) it was the messaging it gave that caused the damage. The message for the whole year should have been one of caution. Same with allowing summer holidays abroad. Utterly ridiculous.

It certainly didn’t help
But Christmas freedoms and then the restrictions of them at such short notice might be their biggest fuck up

I think the lack of widespread step down care for elderly patients leaving hospital potentially C19 positive has caused many more deaths. Care home residents have been like lambs to the slaughter.

Eat out to help out was a huge mistake!

We had dinner out one night and went quite late so as it was quiet and the manager said they had 500 covers within the space of 8 hours!

He said that Mon-We’d took in more than they took in a normal week!

If that’s not encouraging mixing then what is?

We did EOTHO a couple of times. Both places felt so safe, distancing was in place and on one of the restaurants we were sat next to an open French window. Given the time of year and the fact that infections were so much lower I dont think it was a problem

Of course.other restaurants may.not have been so.well distanced/spaced out. I only know about the ones i went to

On other threads where posters have blamed Christmas mixing it slipped out from a couple of the same posters that they had post Christmas holidays planned. People dont always want others to stay home for altruistic reasons.

I only took advantage of Eat Out to Help Out a couple of times, along with eating out after the scheme was over. The places I ate at felt safe with social distancing etc being observed. Where I live was tier 2 throughout December and I ate out weekly then in a local cafe. Half the usual amount of tables and again, felt safe. Still go there now but for takeaway. Lovely family run place

Where I live the case numbers were very low the whole time for EOTHO.

Now they're high. Apparently 20% of cases are in care homes. They weren't eating out...

I must admit that I thought "eat out to help out" was bonkers and I didn't take part in it.

Opening up pubs and restaurants in the summer gave people the impression that the pandemic was all but over. It wasn't of course, it was merely suppressed.

Restaurants and pubs were allowed to reopen on 4th July. Cases didn’t begin rising again until mid-September. A combination of schools and school wraparound care returning (and therefore essentially hundreds of households mixing each day) and colder weather meaning people spending more time indoors in poorly ventilated spaces (which is why many viruses are seasonal) is the explanation.

No. Cases weren't high at that time. The risk of transmission relatively low. Being able to have a few days of near normality, eating outside with friends, helped raise morale.
You don't mention the spike that occurred after children returned to school in September OP?

I think a number of factors have caused the horrific numbers in UK. Firstly, the delay in keeping our borders open. Secondly, the Governments inability to make decisions quickly. Thirdly, poor track and trace. Finally, the disregard a proportion of the UK population has for the rules. Far roo many people think that the rules don't apply. This is compounded by wishy washy rules that can easily be bent or are open to interpretation.

Where I live we had low numbers and eat out to help out was run well by pubs / restaurants and it felt safe , safer than it does sat at work in the office tbh.
From what I see a lot of large outbreaks are at places of work some of which could be done from home .

The schools going back pushed up numbers , cold weather etc and also the new variant has played a huge part in the rise in cases.

Pre Christmas and Christmas mixing. In respiratory virus peak season.

The test and trace system isn’t great but how many posters on here were saying they were giving false contact details because they didn’t like their freedom being impacted and thought they were so clever doing that. People like that haven’t helped the situation. People saying they make their own risk assessment so mixing households but ignoring the fact that they then may come in contact with other people who weren’t privy to their risk assessment.

The Government haven’t been blameless but neither have many people who have flouted the rules because they think they know best.