Can someone explain to me why dining in a completely enclosed, heated tent without exterior ventilation other than what leaks in from under the tent flaps is materially safer and less likely to promote the spread of SARS-CoV-2 then dining indoors? All over Chicagoland, particularly in the suburbs where it’s roomier, bars and restaurants are sprouting such tents. I don’t believe they’re less likely to spread the virus at all. I simply think they’re dodges around the governor’s mandates. Which remain abuses of power since the neverending continuation of his emergency powers still hasn’t been renewed by the legislature.
Everyone knows you don’t get sick from friends and family. Only from unclean others who will be outside the enclosure.
Actually I think it’s window dressing by desperate restaurateurs.
You’re better off in the open air.
I don’t think it’s window dressing. I think it’s an end run around the governor’s mandates that will result in the mandates not achieving their objectives.
Depends on the spacing between the tents.
Are they are spaced further apart then tables inside the restaurant? If not, I don’t see much difference.
Did you see this?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/10/28/ihsa-high-school-basketball-going-ahead-covid-high-risk/amp/
The governors word is the law until there is mass organized defiance; and then….
I am surprised the Governor is not more attuned to the mood on the ground.
‘I simply think they’re dodges around the governor’s mandates’
Yepper. And if Pritzker issues another EO banning that dodge they’ll think of a different one. Like maybe individual table tents. People are innovate, especially when their livelihoods are threatened.
The problem is that no consideration is being given to any detrimental effects of lockdowns, mandates, etc. to every other aspect of society, economics, and mental and physical health. Everything that ‘combats’ COVID-19 is good and questioning any of these measures or their effectiveness means you hate your neighbor and want to kill granny. Nuance, compromise, and the collection of or publishing of data that contradict the narrative even in the slightest are evil incarnate. A COVID-19 diagnosis a sentence of pending agonizing death, that is the justification for everything. We are in the grip of the Professoriat from the Island of Laputa and it will continue without end if Harris is elected.
We’ve had the large white party tents going up since June, mainly in parking lots with sides open or loosely in place. It’s a slippery slope situation like the indoor smoking ban, which initially brought the smokers out onto patios until the state clarified the concept of “indoor.” I don’t think there is “science” or “numbers” here, just precautionary principles mediated against economic loss. This is exactly the kind of thing that the legislature is supposed to decide through laws. There is no “law” here, just prerogative powers and threats that are really only as good as citizen and local government buy-in.
A teenager tried to unsuccessfully jump off a cliff a few days back. This is only one example of many regarding the mental health erosion occurring across the country in the wake of our “fear-endemic.†In the meantime, heart disease, early cancer detection/treatment, diabetes etc. are being sidelined in lieu of all eyes being on counting COVID cases, even as COVID deaths, world wide, are going down. Finally, the authoritarian face masks guidelines are getting more hardcore and punitive, even though there continue to be not one scientific study pointing to a real reduction of respiratory infections when they are used in mass. Furthermore, the ridiculous compliance by people are more in the realm of symbolic – being used over and over again without washing, with bandannas and loose fitting cloth masks being more a fashion statement than used for health purposes.
“Can someone explain to me why dining in a completely enclosed, heated tent without exterior ventilation other than what leaks in from under the tent flaps is materially safer and less likely to promote the spread of SARS-CoV-2 then dining indoors?”
Hard to say – a big factor in reducing spread via aerosol seems to be good circulation and fresh air exchange. How a particular tent might compare to a restaurant is impossible to determine without experimental testing.
Anyway, I’m not so sure it’s an “end run” – sounds more like adhering to the letter and not the spirit of the order and adjusting to the practical realities of outside dining in cold weather.
@CuriousOnlooker, I think the Governor was aware that the IHSA was going to announce its rules for the basketball season, so he recategorized basketball as a high contact sport 24 hours before. Illinois was the only Midwestern state to cancel football this year, and I think the public assessment of football fans from watching neighboring states is that it was entirely unnecessary.
IHSA is a private entity which school districts, public and private join. The public school districts are independent legal entities not under the Governor, but subject to regulation (as are private schools to a lesser degree). The word is that the Governor will retaliate against school districts that ignore him by pulling their funding. He’s probably glad that rumor is out there, but if there is any truth to it, he’s threatening to ignore actual laws that set out the funding formula for personal pique.
These are some pictures of domes appearing in Chicago. Too fancy for us downstaters, but looks like some of them are for small groups:
https://chicago.eater.com/2020/10/19/21523529/chicago-fall-outdoor-dining-domes-pods-program
Another name for the sort of tents that are appearing is “marquees”. No space. There’s just one of them with tables inside. Basically outdoor rooms.
PD:
The only place I’ve seen those domes is a few in Evanston but I don’t go downtown much. Not if I can help it, anyway. Not since January.