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NRA: 'Second wave of closings hinders recovery efforts'

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July 27, 2020

The National Restaurant Association wants all U.S. governors and mayors to know the restaurant industry has maintained an "unwavering commitment to customer and employee safety," during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and wants to set "the record straight," in regards to misinformation regarding industry practices during the coronavirus.

That's the message the industry group sent in a letter to the National Governors Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors Monday. The NRA also shared the financial impact that the pandemic has had on the industry in terms of loss of revenue and jobs.

The letter notes that the U.S. restaurant industry has lost more jobs and more revenue than any other sector and will be the slowest to recover, citing $145 billion in revenue lost in the height of shutdowns.

"Just as we were starting to reopen our doors, nearly 100,000 locations have been shuttered again, by state or local mandate putting people out of work and costing owners thousands in lost reopening investments," according to the letter written by Lawrence J. Lynch, the NRA's senior vice president, science and industry.

Lynch said closing dining rooms that are operating within guidelines is harming communities and hindering industry recovery.

"The U.S. restaurant industry is historically highly regulated, which enables restaurants to work quickly and constructively with local and state regulators to enact new customer and employee safety protocols and to work with federal officials to adopt best practices like the new Centers for Disease Control restaurant considerations," stated the letter, which also noted that the NRA has worked with the FDA, academia, the Conference for Food Protection, public health officials and industry representatives, to produce detailed guidance for the safe reopening of restaurants.

"Despite this unparalleled commitment to customer and employee safety, inaccurate information about the industry continues to dot media coverage, social media conversations, and statements from some public officials," Lynch wrote, adding the statements include references to a non-peer reviewed paper about COVID-19 spreading in a crowded China-based restaurant.

"The paper cannot and should not be used as a reliable scientific model. In fact, the model was never reproduced and relies on customer density and seating patterns not currently allowable in any U.S. restaurant," wrote Lynch.

Making a comparison between that scenario and America's restaurant industry has had a negative impact on everyone in the industry and hindered recovery, he added.

"Surviving this public health crisis is a responsibility our industry and every owner and employee, takes seriously," he wrote. "The safety of our customers and employees has always been—and always will be — the top priority of our industry."

The letter included a copy of the NRA's Reopening Guidance which Lynch said is designed to be used in conjunction with the FDA Food Code requirements, and all guidance the CDC, FDA, and state and local health officials are requiring as the states move through the phased reopening of their economies.

"Closing restaurants a second time puts a dangerous strain on an industry that is struggling to stay afloat," Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of NRA public affairs, said in a release on the letter.