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.
I hate to break it to everybody, but thats not outdoors.
Why is outdoor dining better in the first place?
COVID-19 is mainly transmitted by respiratory droplets.
Droplets get spread far apart from each other and diluted.
Sunlight may help to kill the coronavirus, especially on surfaces.
Outdoor parameters often make distancing easier to accomplish.
Compare a restaurants indoor seating to its sidewalk tables.
Tents solve almost none of these problems
What if youre in a tent?
Well, theres a barrier between you and the people right next to you.
Thats the only advantage.
The downsides are significant, though: theres no breeze, and no dilution of air.
While the CDC doesnt weigh in on tents specifically, they list someguiding principles for restaurants.
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?
But youre 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.
Its also not impossible that youre 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?
