People were very unhappy with me when I said I would be dining out again, now that indoor dining is allowed again in my district. I was told I was a bad example, endangering others, and the reason we are still in a pandemic. (1) #ROC

We aren’t in a pandemic because people aren’t following rules & being bad humans. Our failings are systemic, not individual.

Govt should do a lot of things it hasn’t done: pay biz to stay closed, mandate sick leave, protect nursing homes & vulnerabl, get more vaccines out. (2)

You don’t know how people are living their lives. That person dining out may not have seen anyone else for the prior week & may not see anyone for days to come. You. Don’t. Know.

Going to a restaurant is allowed & diners are not “breaking rules” or being immoral. (3)

Is it best we all stay home & not see friends, work out or eat out? Yes. But we are also (right now, anyway) allowed to do stuff. Most people I know (including me) have greatly limited contacts & outings. They’re mitigating risk & taking precautions while also doing stuff. (4)

Lots of politicians, including myself, were glad restaurants in Orange Zone were able to open & be on a level playing field & try to make $. Not a lot of politicians said they would dine indoors.

But then who IS dining indoors? Who ARE these people?

They’re a lot of us. (5)

Shaming people won’t solve Covid. It makes us all mad at each other when we should be showing compassion. We should be having conversations about how to mitigate risk, like, “Hey if you’re going to eat out, here is what you should know.”

I regret failing to talk risk. (6)

So let’s talk about risk. If you’re going to dine out, here’s what you should know about risk. There are a lot of factors to consider, spelled out here.

Key: If you’re high risk or seeing other people who are high risk - don’t dine out.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-dining-out-safe-during-covid-19/
(7)

Just wanted to add for clarity - I posted this thread because I listened to the criticism and think I messed up by not sharing the risks of dining out.

It's a super hard line to walk to support public health & small biz/workers when govt has given us bad choices. I'm trying. (8)