The ATK test as a requirement to eat in restaurants is on my "I Don't Get It" list. This evening a restaurant where RichLB and I intended to eat was insisting on it. Neither of us felt like bothering with it, so we simply went to a different restaurant that was neither requiring it nor even asking about it.
That second restaurant makes most sense to me. The test kit rule is it must be done within 72 hours of eating in a restaurant. Unless I'm missing something, there is nothing to indicate when the test was taken. You could have taken the test earlier today or you could have taken it a week ago. There is also nothing to indicate who it was that actually took the test. Anyone could actually do the test, get a negative result, and if he'll give it to you, you can enter the restaurant using his result and no one will be the wiser. All anyone needs to do is bring along an ATK with a negative test result no matter when the test was taken and no matter who actually took the test - and now you get to eat in the restaurant.
Am I missing something? If I'm not, then what sense is there in this rule? Before imposing it, I just don't see how this rule could possibly have been competently thought through.
It might make some sense, not much but some, if the restaurants were required to administer the test themselves on customers trying to enter. That could work with smaller restaurants if customers are willing to put up with it, but good luck with that one if it is a restaurant that attracts crowds, such as the cheap Thai buffets.
It is a test few want to do just to be able to eat in a restaurant, with no way of knowing when the test was taken, who actually took the test, or even if the results are truly accurate. And I'm still trying to figure out why this test requirement applies exclusively to restaurants, but nowhere else that I'm aware of.
"I fail to see what purpose is served".
- Gregory Peck (Gen. Douglas MacArthur), 'MacArthur'