Similarly, the same survey didn’t distinguish between bars and coffee shops when assessing the risk of contracting COVID in those kinds of establishments. Bars and coffee shops were grouped in the same bucket, even though the settings and the behaviors in each establishment (fewer people linger in a Starbucks) and the conditions for spread could be very different. When pressed on why the agency had grouped bars with coffee shops, the CDC said that it judged the two settings to present comparable risk for transmission.
