[Genuine Realist]

A day after saying he was pausing and not going backwards, the governor of Texas shut down bars today.

I'm glad to see him reacting to evidence. Bars are one thing - I don't know about restaurants. Shutting them down ha gigantic implications to an entire industry, food supply chains, etc. 

The article speaks to a correlation, not causation. PResumably greater restaurant spending signals more social interaction of all sorts of kinds.

But EVERY social interaction increases the chance of infection - obviously. But they can't all be banned. Better to leave restaurants open, insisting on appropriate social distance, and continue to refine regulatory practice. At the dumb prosaic level, you can't even get data if you don't have some interactions.

[Genuine Realist]

A day after saying he was pausing and not going backwards, the governor of Texas shut down bars today.

I'm glad to see him reacting to evidence. Bars are one thing - I don't know about restaurants. Shutting them down ha gigantic implications to an entire industry, food supply chains, etc. 

The article speaks to a correlation, not causation. PResumably greater restaurant spending signals more social interaction of all sorts of kinds.

But EVERY social interaction increases the chance of infection - obviously. But they can't all be banned. Better to leave restaurants open, insisting on appropriate social distance, and continue to refine regulatory practice. At the dumb prosaic level, you can't even get data if you don't have some interactions.