Ask HN: Why don't restaurants give you a Covid test before you can enter? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why don't restaurants give you a Covid test before you can enter?

2 pointsamichail15 comments

Or maybe some of them do?

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Why would they? They aren't regulated to do that, so they won't spend their money on it.

And if they did, many people would simply go to another place that won't make them jump hoops just to get some food.

Many people no longer eat in restaurants due to their fear of catching Covid.

And it's great that these people have a few options:

1. They could put on a mask, go in, and grab a takeaway.

2. Or they could order DoorDash, Uber Eats, or many other options available across the globe.

I think both options make way more sense than restaurants forcing tests on people who don't see COVID as a threat anymore.

Based on anecdotal experience, I don't think there are many people who still worry about COVID: every restaurant around me with >4 stars on Google Maps is full in evenings and on weekends.

COVID isn't popularly considered dangerous enough anymore (due to mutation, people's immune systems having some experience with it through prior infection and vaccines, and availability of useful treatments for rarer serious acute cases). The tests also cost money and take time.

I'm kind of surprised that they didn't do so in the past, when COVID was more dangerous and more people were more concerned about it. Possibly vaccination status was then thought to be a good alternative for reducing transmission risk, and many restaurants were legally required to check it.

Long covid is still a thing though.

Spend money on delaying and turning away and losing business from people* who unexpectedly find themselves to test positive, even though that will not prevent all (possibly most) transmission risk on site?

*Many of them would blame the restarurant, or indeed vilify it as an matter of reflexive politics?

Why should they, and why would you want it?

Who wants a swab stuck up their nose every time they want to enjoy a meal?

I can only assume that you are not a restaurant owner.

Doctor - Please don't stick Qtips into your ears. You can damage your ears.

Doctor - It is very important that you stick a Q-tip up your nose every now and then. It is very necessary in the fight against Covid.

PS. How much do Covid tests and whose has to pay for them?

Most or all humans have a sensitive eardrum in their ears but no such sensory membrane in their noses.

The q-tip in nose tests felt awful. Go and try it if you don't believe me.

Anecdotal story: My ENT said that most people administering the nasal swab didn’t understand anatomy, that is why the Covid swab was so painful.

I've done plenty of qtip nasal swabs. It was not comfortable, but it wasn't painful, either. I, for one, do not have an eardrum in my nostrils.

It's uncomfortable enough that nobody would go to a restaurant that subjects them to it.

Before they don't want to lose the customers who would think it's stupid,and they don't want to throw money through the window.

Doubtful that restaurant owners would want to entice the customers that testing would bring. The current customers would go elsewhere.

Precisely.

Tests take a substantial amount of time. Door staff could be tasked to check the results of self-administered tests, but monitoring their execution would be far too demanding. Expecting them to be able to administer them in a controlled way is unimaginable.

Anything self-administered is open to gaming by the customer.

Anything administered by venue staff is open to gaming by the venue itself — whether it is protecting scarce revenues, or just treating valued customers differently.

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