Calling all Governors - where are the intelligent, data-driven decisions? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

It is non sensical to make sweeping, statewide decisions that shut down businesses and grind our economy to a halt without the data to support it. The chart below is directly from the michigan.gov/coronavirus website charting weekly outbreaks by region and setting. Even as our state's numbers continue to increase, only 1 region reported an outbreak to patrons of restaurants. If the data does not show an obvious threat of COVID19 spread from restaurants to patrons, it makes no sense to respond by shutting down all indoor dining for restaurants across the entire state.

If restaurants screen their employees for symptoms and have them wearing masks, and limit capacity to space tables at least 6' apart, the level of threat posed by dining in a restaurant is minimal. In fact, the WHO (World Health Organization states, "There is currently no evidence that people can catch COVID-19 from food or food packaging. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness and the transmission route is through person-to-person contact and through direct contact with respiratory droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes." I can temporarily get behind restrictions like reservations only to avoid gathering at the door, limiting tables to only members of a single household, collecting detailed contact information, or even symptom evaluations prior to entry. These are all measures that, while cumbersome and annoying, would help mitigate potential exposure, so I'd support those actions if it saves business, jobs, and the ability to enjoy a great meal at my favorite restaurants. Shutting businesses down completely is basically the nuclear option in the fight against COVID19 and it is simply giving up on our way of life and giving in to this virus when their are still plenty of other tactics that can be deployed first.

The obvious exposure risks (as seen in this chart) are still long term care facilities, schools, and hospitals. In Michigan, our Governor is making uninformed decisions that will kill the Michigan economy. If you can, please support your local restaurants by buying gift cards from your favorite full service establishments and order carry out right now. If we don't, as many as half of them won't exist in January!

We should also all be writing our elected officials and request that they take a look at the data on their own website.

I can think of at least one way to better safeguard public health than shutting down businesses. Can we start actually fining the idiots who still refuse to wear a mask properly in public? Can local police quite sitting around in their cars waiting to cite the next person that passes them doing 10mph over the speed limit? I think we've got a bigger fish to fry right now. So how about local police walk through stores and cite the ignorant people who aren't wearing masks. Has anyone even seen or heard of this happening? In Michigan, it is supposedly a misdemeanor subject to a $200 fine and up to 6 months in jail. I haven't heard of one case of this happening, yet every time I go into ANY store, I come across at least a couple of these jackholes walking around with a mask on their chin, hanging off one ear, or not properly covering both mouth and nose. If people started getting hit with penalties for their stupid behavior, perhaps they'd stop behaving stupidly. Laws do nothing if they are not enforced! I still have hope that we can get through this pandemic by getting people to modify their behavior instead of simply locking everyone up until there is a vaccine.