Is The 10 p.m. Curfew Beneficial?

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Filip Mroz

Kamryn Clothier, Staff Writer

On November 21, San Diego announced that the city will now have a curfew of 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. While it is uncertain whether the 10 p.m. curfew will make a difference, most businesses are making it work. According to Amy Longwill, the manager of Beaumont’s Eatery, “It only affects us on the weekends since we cannot stay open as long.” Most are not affected by the 10 p.m. curfew because it is only affecting how late they can stay open. People still do not know if the 10 p.m. curfew is really benefiting public health or helping the cases go down. 

However, preventing people from being able to be out as late does not really stop anything because people can still have earlier gatherings, and people can still go out. In order to have a beneficial curfew, it will need to be stricter; otherwise, we should not have one at all. “The epidemiology shows that this is happening at private gatherings in homes, and I wonder if a curfew would just create even more of a desire for people to have private gatherings,” stated Dr. Amesh A. Adalja. Since people cannot go out, they are doing more private gatherings at home, and the 10 p.m. curfew is not doing anything about that.

Filip Mroz

Many people do not think that the 10 p.m. curfew is beneficial and think that it is mostly pointless. This is a controversial topic because some people think that having a curfew is beneficial, but others think that it is ineffective. Sophomore Cecelia Dethage stated, “The 10 p.m. curfew is just a joke in my opinion. No one is going to listen to it and it doesn’t make a difference. If bars are closed or following COVID-19 rules then the people shouldn’t be worried about any curfew. It’s just a way to say they have control over the people.” People are still gathering together, even if they cannot do so in a bar, and will instead do so in someone else’s house, so the curfew is not really stopping anything. Sophomore Anastasia Akopova stated, “I think it’s beneficial because people only really party super late at night but maybe an earlier curfew is safer.” By having a curfew as late as 10 p.m., people can still have gatherings and parties earlier in the day, so it is still not effective in stopping the spread.