Shut it down. The U.S. disease chief just suggested restaurants and bars close. After 48 hours of studying restaurants' role in COVID and brainstorming ways to help people in my industry, I tragically agree: we should temporarily close nonessential public gathering spaces. I'm not an epidemiologist or a health expert. I'm a writer whose skill is digesting reams of research until I'm reasonably sure I've found truths. And I believe we need to temporarily shut down. The time for helping small business owners by gathering in crowded spaces is over.