Saturday, March 21, 2020

Takeout/delivery

Some cities and states that have lockdowns exempt takeout/delivery joints. That's better than nothing, and it's a boon to takeout/delivery industry.

This is supposedly in the interests of minimizing physical interaction and bending the growth curve of the coronavirus. I wonder, though, how many mayors, governors, and lawmakers have ever taken a look at the kitchen of the average takeout/delivery joint. Oftentimes the kitchen is visible from the customer area. In my experience, these are usually rather cramped spaces with multiple chefs–as well as delivery drivers ambling around. Social distancing isn't feasible in the kitchens of many takeout/delivery joints. Yet they're preparing food that radiates out to the community. Is that a potential vector of transmission? 

My point is not that we should shut down takeout/delivery joints. Rather, I'm probing the facile notion of social distancing. 

4 comments:

  1. Yikes. I ordered out from Panda Express yesterday. Did it to support their business.
    Want to do so with other places.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve, I agree with you. However, one point almost everyone is missing about "takeout/delivery" is that it assumes that is it "food" in the first place. It is the most anti-immunity thing you could do for the health of your body. It is not food, it is highly-refined processed "food." Stay in and rather eat a can of salmon or sardines.

    So not only does it prevent social distancing, but it promotes killing ones's immunity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll add one other comment. They should shut down all the middle aisles of grocery stores, which is about 90 percent of the store. It is made up of practically all processed foods (except for canned salmon, sardines, and the like). The aisles on the ends of the grocery stores, dairy, meat, fish, and whole vegetables should remain open. The bread/bakery section, however, should be shut down. One thing we will learn from this outbreak in the aftermath is that immunity matters. We will all get the virus eventually, the quesiton though will be how will our immunity respond to it. Watch, immunity will be a cottage industry, I predict, for good reasons. But since too many people are addicted to sugar and processed carbs, I am pessimistic that they will have the discipline to make a clean break.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. steve3/21/2020 11:11 PM☍
      I'd simply point out that due to centuries and millennia of selective breeding, our crops and livestock have been highly modified compared to their ancestral counterparts in the wild which comprised the diet of stone age humans. In that respect, even many of the "unprocessed" foods you recommend (meat, whole veggies, dairy products) have been processed by selective breeding. And even among edible game animals there's been a certain degree of spontaneous interbreeding between wild animals and feral domesticated animals.

      Delete