There’s a good chance they haven’t been preventing the spread of COVID, and they might even be counterproductive.
by Liz Wolfe
Reason.com
Eateries have adapted to COVID in countless ways. Hostesses take our temperatures upon entry. We scan QR codes instead of reading paper menus. We are served by masked waiters. In some cities, unsightly plexiglass barriers have appeared between tables and bar seats.
Restaurants should be given broad latitude to adapt how they see fit, to best protect their workers and return a degree of confidence to their customers. But some of these adaptations verge on hygiene theater. When those plexiglass barriers are used in classrooms, they “might be making things worse by blocking ventilation,” to quote Zeynep Tufekci, who then points to a new study in Science.