Exposure to the virus is how you get the virus. If there are other people at the beach, some of them might be infected, and you're being exposed by being in proximity. Maybe if you're Far Enough Away you can limit the exposure, but are people really Social Distancing on beaches and in restaurants? Evidence so far suggests the answer is no.

Incidentally there is also a lot of data out there suggesting that the virus can travel through the air a pretty reasonable distance, and it's likely to be breezy on the beach.

In any case, why would a bureaucrat want to go out of their way to close hospitals if there wasn't a good reason? Who benefits from that? Literally no one. It's only a reasonable idea because of the outbreak. The only people you see closing hospitals on purpose are vulture capitalists.

What evidence would that be? Do you have any reliable data on the number of people infected at beaches? So far the results of real world contact tracing aren't consistent with computerized models of virion distribution in open air.

you just exhibited the fallacy of equating a restaurant to a beach (or being outside). You are also using "exposure" in the most generic sense of "presence" within a distance. That's really not how it works.

Like I said there is absolutely no evidence that you could get infected while in an open environment, moreover plenty of evidence that being outside is greatly beneficial to health and well being.

Now I am asking you the same question you asked me: "why would a bureaucrat want to go out of their way to close a beach if there wasn't a good reason?"

The answer is simple as unpleasant, they don't understand what they are doing.

> In any case, why would a bureaucrat want to go out of their way to close hospitals if there wasn't a good reason? Who benefits from that?

Politicians benefit from that. The current situation is no different than "No one ever got fired for hiring IBM". In this case "hiring IBM" is a surrogate for doing whatever your voting base believes in. In blue states, the majority believes in shutting things down aggressively, so politicians do. In red states, the majority thinks we should keep things open, so politicians do.

Politicians by and large in this crisis aren't responding to what experts say, they are responding to their own self interest. This is super easy to spot by seeing what experts are saying or what evidence is raised that they summarily dismiss because it contradicts what their constituency desires.

Why are we talking about closed beaches? We were talking about people with symptoms of appendicitis who choose to stay away from the hospital that is very much open for such cases.

Closing the beaches is frankly idiotic, but postponing elective surgery isn't. It's not wise to go in for a breast enlargement when an epidemic is on the move. With an appendicitis, on the other hand, you don't have a choice.

If a surgery isn't needed to prevent serious permanent injury in the next few days, it's considered elective. Tumor removals, for example, are elective surgery and have generally not been allowed.