Ask ME: Is dining in an outdoor structure safer than inside a restaurant?
Experts say that, when properly ventilated, outdoor structures can be a reduced-risk dining option.
By JACK ALLSOPPPortland Press Herald
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Ventilation and contactless service help reduce the risk of dining out in indoor structures, like these domes at Rising Tide.
Photo courtesy of Rising Tide Brewing Co.
The outdoor dining structures, like tents, shacks and plastic domes, that have popped up at restaurants and breweries during the pandemic have been mocked on social media and criticized as hypocritical: So it’s OK to eat inside, as long as it’s outside, their skeptics question.
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When the pandemic suddenly rearranged educational programs at Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine last March, many students were eager to get into clinics or elsewhere in the community to help fight COVID-19. Alas, like most students, they were pushed to stay home largely for their own safety.
But when Rowan students were offered an opportunity to assist their south New Jersey community in late November, many jumped at the chance. Now dozens are helping co-run a COVID-19 vaccination site, along with the state s department of health.
Rowan is among a handful of schools whose medical and other qualified students are assisting COVID vaccination sites nationwide. With the lack of manpower being one reason for the slow vaccine rollout thus far, administrators cite their help as invaluable. Some students, in turn, feel the same way about the experience they are gaining.
Volunteers answer staffing shortage for vaccination clinics, expose growing need
Maine hospitals have called in volunteers to help vaccinate thousands of front-line health care workers, indicating a potential shortage of trained vaccinators and others to carry out a mass inoculation.
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Dr. Peggy Pennoyer and her husband, Dr. Don Endrizzi, both recently retired physicians, have returned to Maine Medical Center in Portland as volunteers to help administer COVID-19 vaccines.
Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Drs. Peggy Pennoyer and Don Endrizzi came out of retirement this month to help Maine Medical Center launch an effort to vaccinate thousands of front-line health care workers against COVID-19.