Several years back I graduated from a Master’s program in biotechnology, with course work that slanted more towards policy in a crisis (such as a pandemic) than it did laboratory work.
One of the more interesting things I learned is that the Federal government (namely, FEMA) actually uses Waffle Houses to gauge how hard hit a community is following a natural disaster. They call it…wait for it… The Waffle House Index. Think I’m nuts…or more nuts than I really am…check it out for yourself from CNN about this time last year:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/04/us/waffle-house-hurricane-dorian-trnd/index.html
Now, fast forward to the Spring of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In light of Kristin having to eat gluten free (as some may not know, she is Celiac), we end up finding our “go-tos” while we are on the road. Things like the customary In-n-Out Burger in The Colony, TX when we arrive on an evening flight from Phoenix after visiting family. We are all hungry, they make gluten free, and they are open late. Problem – Solved.
In the past few months we have found ourselves around a number of Chipotle restaurants along our path north and then eastbound. What has been interesting, has been the number of differences that we have seen as we travel across the country. As we began to notice them, I remembered back to the Waffle House Index and how these differences can highlight two major short comings our country has experienced, as a whole, during this pandemic:
- There is tremendous difference in “policy” from a regional perspective as well as from state to state and city to city.
- There are major contradictions from restaurant to restaurant of both different as well as the same names.
Now, before I get anyone upset over the politics, let’s just give everyone the benefit of the doubt and say all these regulations and restaurant managers are trying to do the right thing for the safety of the public. If we are all going “by the science” then why are we not all aligned? Let’s be specific about getting something, non-alcoholic, to drink at Chipotle. From Oklahoma to Wisconsin, east through Michigan and upstate New York to Maine then south, here are the “safety” and “health” driven drink policies
- Fountain drinks as normal
- Fountain drinks as normal, but you need to get a new cup from the cashier
- Fountain drinks from the staff only behind the counter
- Fountain drinks from the normal machine but refills are done by the people behind the counter with different cups. No, you don’t keep the different cup…they throw that away…
- Only bottled drinks
- (my personal favorite…) No drinks at all. Apparently, touching a bottle, or consuming liquid is more harmful to public health amidst a pandemic than eating itself.
In closing, let me share the thoughts of a enlightened tween we met in Maine…
If pants can’t keep a fart in, how are masks supposed to keep COVID inside?
We hope this finds you well, and if you haven’t noticed yet – take a look at the differences in your local restaurants and reflect on how many non-science people have been tasked with applying science to every aspect of our lives…it isn’t always about the science, sometimes people put their personal “theories” in there too…
-David