Savage article in the Times Sunak caused the Second Wave

[vera99]

archive.vn/icVku. They don't hold back with pointing the finger of blame at the richest man in British political history. Hope you enjoyed your freebies

Dining in = more profit because customers buy drinks and more people being employed to clean tables etc
You could argue that Deliveroo/Uber Eats/Just-Eat drivers stay in jobs if people pick delivery but that's sad for the people who'd lose their jobs if waiting staff wasn't needed or businesses that would end up renting premises that were too big for their needs.

@RedGoldAndGreene

EOTHO was a good idea in the sense that it gave people confidence to visit pubs, coffee shops and restaurants because many were gripped by The Fear and opting for takeaways because they felt it was safer.

It was safer to opt for takeaways.

Even though it must have been sort of fun?

@Carolina24

What do you mean by ‘Hope you enjoyed your freebies’?

Good point. But don't expect an answer.

I don't agree with the premise of the article. It was one of the contributors, another I think was having universities open up to in-person learning in late September. Having universities online only was one of SAGEs recommendations.

@OldRailer

It was more likely seasonality.

Seasonality is not necessarily that important. Look at South Africa; their summer is December to March.

Humidity may have more impact than a simplistic seasonal relationship. "Going indoors" is also a big cause of spread from proximity, aircon and poor airflow, and that occurs more in very cold weather (UK, EU autumn and winter) or very hot (South Africa, Florida, Texas, California all had rising rates during hot months I think?).

Thanks for the link Vera99. It's well written and I think I shall look out for the book when it's published.

I don't see why eat out to help out and holidaying in Spain can't both be partly responsible for the rise in cases. I suspect there was quite a lot of overlap between the two. The cautious, the clinically vulnerable, and people on very low incomes probably didn't do either. Somebody who went on holiday to Spain and caught the virus but was asymptomatic could have been a bit of a super spreader if they went out to eat a few times when they returned to the UK.