SUPPORT THE PA RESTAURANT INDUSTRY'S RIGHT TO OPEN SAFELY INDOORS

This petition is to demand that Governor Wolf permit restaurants to open for indoor dining at 25-50% capacity immediately.

Restaurants are being unfairly targeted by Governor Wolf and Secretary Levine. This latest mandate (issued 12/12/2020) as it relates to the restaurant industry is not based on science or fact. Restaurants should be restored to their indoor dining percentage that was in place on the day of this latest mandate. This would equal 50% for self-certified restaurants and 25% for non-certified restaurants.

The logic for this restoration is detailed contact tracing of over 70 million Americans which found restaurants were only linked to 1.4% to 3.1% of cases. PA State Police completed 59,000 inspections of restaurants from June to December. Restaurants were found to be 99.6% compliant.

Contact tracing, PA Department of Agriculture inspections and PA state police inspections confirm restaurants are providing a safe, sanitized and socially distant environment for the citizens of Pennsylvania. Detailed contact tracing confirms over 74% of spread is occurring in gatherings and celebrations taking place in private homes.

Eliminating restaurants as the safe, compliant and inspected environment for dining will only increase home gatherings where the spread will now increase. It will also result in the lay off of hundreds of thousands of people before the holidays with no financial safety net to fall back on.

The time to stop Governor Wolf and his abuse of emergency powers is now. You can support the restaurant industry today by signing this petition.
Thank you

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Newsweek
(https://www.newsweek.com/restaurants-bars-account-less-2-percent-new-covid-19-cases-new-york-1554206?amp=1&fbclid=IwAR2M8qwJ3JuXSiVB71CvUHRCeDo2CYwe3fc4jbp4REO06MM_HxesRVcsSMc)
"...New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that private gatherings account for the vast majority of new statewide cases, while less than 2 percent are coming from bars and restaurants."

New York Times
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/nyregion/indoor-dining-nyc.html?fbclid=IwAR2Pc-9j26YFPYUTkNiikSDOAG4c2cvVD2v4uvn5J4ztUdx1ibGH-ZSCUQ8)
“Of 46,000 cases between September and November, 1.43 percent could be linked to restaurants and bars, compared to 73.84 percent connected to private gatherings and 7.81 percent tied to the health care system, the second-largest source.”

Los Angeles Times
(https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-02/column-does-l-a-countys-crackdown-on-outdoor-dining-go-too-far?fbclid=IwAR2M8qwJ3JuXSiVB71CvUHRCeDo2CYwe3fc4jbp4REO06MM_HxesRVcsSMc)
“Contact tracing does not show a significant connection between restaurants and community transmission,” Barger stated in an email sent to me Tuesday afternoon by her office. “COVID-19 cases traced back to the county’s restaurants and bars accounted for just 3.1%, or 70 of the 2,257 confirmed outbreaks.”