Restaurants have had to get creative to survive the pandemic. Takeout-centric operations and outdoor dining have allowed us to keep eating well throughout these long months. But as the weather gets chilly, some restaurants are now serving customers “outdoors” inside enclosed plastic tents, greenhouses or bubbles. I hate to break it to everybody, but that’s not outdoors.
Why is outdoor dining better in the first place?
COVID-19 is mainly transmitted by respiratory droplets. Most of these droplets fall to the ground shortly after leaving your mouth or nose; they’re the reason for the six-feet rule. But smaller droplets that float in the air—aerosols—can also transmit the virus and probably play a role in super-spreader events.
Outdoor dining disrupts transmission in a few ways:
It’s well ventilated: breezes move those airborne droplets away from us.
Droplets get spread far apart from each other and diluted.
Sunlight may help to kill the coronavirus, especially on surfaces.
Outdoor settings often make distancing easier to accomplish.
Compare a restaurant’s indoor seating to its sidewalk tables. Instead of being trapped indoors with dozens of other people’s respiratory droplets, you’re in a place where droplets float away on the breeze, sunlight zaps the ones that remain, and ideally you’ll be a good six feet or more from the next table over.
Tents solve almost none of these problems
What if you’re in a tent? Well, there’s a barrier between you and the people right next to you. That’s the only advantage. The downsides are significant, though: there’s no breeze, and no dilution of air. If the tables are closer together than they would be minus the tent, then another factor is simply that there are more people around whom you might encounter as you’re entering and leaving.
While the CDC doesn’t weigh in on tents specifically, they list some guiding principles for restaurants. Among them: “Ensure that ventilation systems operate properly and increase circulation of outdoor air as much as possible, for example by opening windows and doors and prioritizing outdoor seating.” And: “Discourage sharing of items that are difficult to clean, sanitize, or disinfect.”
An enclosed tent is not well-ventilated. Nor is it easy to clean. How often do customers and servers touch the door of the cute little greenhouse? You’re probably better off in one of these little tents than crammed into the restaurant’s indoor dining room, but that’s not saying much.
You are not alone
I’ve heard a defense of dining tents that amounts to: Hey, if you’re in a tent with your family or close friends, those are the people you’ve already decided you’re willing to risk contact with.
But you’re never truly alone in that tent, are you? Your server has to come in and out. They are also serving people in all the other tents. Even if this scenario is safe for you, it’s not safe for the person who has to breathe in multiple households’ stuffy, droplet-laden air while they’re just trying to earn a living.
It’s also not impossible that you’re breathing in droplets that were left by the previous group of diners. If the tent or greenhouse is enclosed, where do you think those droplets went? Some might have fallen on the floor, table, or other surfaces; many could still be floating in the air. (If the tent is opened on two or more sides and aired out between customers, that would make it a bit safer, but I still wouldn’t eat in one.)
Just get takeout
Look, I know that it’s hard to adapt to new situations, and we’re all hoping for little tastes of normality, like eating out with friends. But you can still eat with others and support your local restaurant without freezing your butt off: Just get takeout, tip well and eat it at home.