Being at the beach does not seem to be much of a threat, but going to the beach is a different story. Cramped, less than sanitary public restrooms, crowded food stands, parking kiosks that rarely get cleaned- this all adds up to lots of contact. Sweat is an interesting substrate which doesn’t get a lot of airtime, as are shared beverage containers.

There are worse things than going to the beach, but when hundreds of thousands of people go to them at once, things most certainly get transmitted. I shudder to think how much gets transmitted at Venice Beach on a normal day, let alone in a pandemic.