A new study from the boffins at Warwick University has brought “the overall soundness” of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme into question, after it has found damning evidence not only did the scheme likely significantly increase infections, it did not lead to a sustained increase in activity in the sector. The paper noted that “mobility in restaurants and cafes dropped significantly from [the week EOTHO ended] again and does not recover.” The central finding of the research is that…

“The empirical estimates suggest that the EOHO scheme may be responsible for around 8 to 17% of all new detected COVID19 clusters emerging during August and into early September in the UK.

The paper suggests that EOTHO may have in fact have not achieved new economic activity either, as dining out became concentrated in the first half of the week, instead of spread along – perhaps simply moving meals that would have been ordered in any case. The paper suggests there was an “adverse effect of shifting and concentrating restaurant visits to earlier in the week, possibly increasing the infection risk even further as restaurants may have been at capacity or possibly even beyond capacity.” A counterproductive ‘free stuff’ scheme from the Government? Who would have guessed…