Just because indoor dining is now available in the Bay, you do not necessarily have to do it yet – even if you have been vaccinated, according to experts in infectious diseases.
Since the vaccines Moderna and Pfizer are 95% effective, experts agree that a person who has been fully vaccinated is unlikely to become ill indoors, but they warn that it may not be worth the risk right now.
While one said the practice should be good for younger vaccines, he warned that an older individual with existing health conditions should be more careful. Another expert said indoor meals are currently unwise for anyone because there are still so many viruses in the community – and more contagious variants are spreading. However, the situation may improve within a few weeks.
Without any official guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it becomes a personal decision.
“It depends on who you are and what your risk tolerance is,” said George Rutherford, an expert on UCSF infectious diseases.
The CDC on Monday released new guidelines stating that vaccines without a mask can coexist safely with other vaccines, although the agency did not address restaurants. There is the challenge that it is impossible to know whether workers or fellow eaters have also been fully vaccinated. It is still unknown whether a person who has been vaccinated can carry the virus, and possibly infect other people, even though he does not feel ill.
“Until we have an answer to the question with much more data, I think it is wise to assume that it is possible,” said John Swartzberg, an expert in infectious diseases at UC Berkeley. A more transmissible strain is expected to become dominant by the end of March, which could lead to an “over-spread event” if many people in a restaurant are not vaccinated, he added.
For Rutherford, it depends on personal risk factors, such as age and existing health conditions, whether it will eat inside. This is because the chances of getting sick when they are fully vaccinated are slim, but that it does not exist.
Restaurant density also matters a lot, he said. While in San Francisco restaurants it is mandatory to work 25% with tables that are at least 6 feet apart, the rules are not applied much unless the visitors report matters to the Department of Health. If two tables stand right next to each other, it could endanger even a person who has been fully vaccinated, he said.
Since indoor dining is not an essential activity, Stanford University’s infectious disease expert Robert Siegel recommends continuing to eat and take out – or wait until more of the population is vaccinated as well.
“We have come so far that we think red level means safe. But look at the definition, ”he said. (Red level means that the spread of virus is ‘significant’.) “If you want to be completely safe, do not take off your mask.”
The number of coronavirus cases is too high in California for Swartzberg to feel good about eating in a restaurant. The numbers are similar to the boom of last summer, a time when few people considered it safe inside. While Swartzberg, who was fully vaccinated and in his 70s, feels confident that he will not die from the coronavirus, he knows that the chances of him getting sick are slim – and he would rather not have the chance to get a suitcase to endure for a dining experience.
From a public health perspective, he is also concerned about more contagious variants already detected in the state. He pointed to the CDC’s recent study linking restaurant eating and increases in coronavirus cases, and he fears there could be a fourth upswing. Ideally, people should stick to the indoor eatery for four to six weeks, he said.
“It’s like there’s a storm off the coast of California, and we do not know if it’s going to land or not,” he said. ‘We play the same record over and over again: we’re going up a boom, we’re getting really careful with social distance and masking, and we’re seeing the numbers go down. But every time after a boom we are released too soon. ‘
Janelle Bitker is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @janellebitker