WHERE’S THE SCIENCE? As my local Board of Health ponders closing gyms and bars their own data doesn’t support that action:

Charity Menefee said that small social gatherings between friends and coworkers at homes, offices and restaurants are the most significant causes for COVID-19 cases.

So why close bars and gyms, sending people to spend more time in these gatherings? From the comments to this post, the Tennessee Department of Health data don’t seem to support the restrictions, or even the statement about restaurants above.

As I’ve said before, my concern is that they’re not following the science. They’ve twice admitted that their own data don’t show bars and restaurants as significant sources of infection, yet they’ve continued to treat them as such. In the early days, when we didn’t know much, going by hunch and supposition was forgivable. Now we’ve got over 6 months of contact tracing data, and going by hunch and supposition isn’t forgivable anymore. Any government action must at the very least show a reasonable relationship between a legitimate governmental purpose and the action taken. At this point I don’t think they can show that for the bar and restaurant regulations.

UPDATE: National Study Confirms It’s Safe To Work Out At The Gym: Current Data Shows No Evidence of COVID-19 Spread in Gyms. It’s a big study, though it relies on self-reporting of infections. But, like the contact tracing data above, suggests that gyms aren’t much of a threat.