On the safety of dining in tents, Dr. Taison Bell, a critical care physician at University of Virginia Health, said there’s a spectrum of factors that make some tents safer or less safe than others. He noted the tents he’s seen that are not totally enclosed to allow for airflow comparable to being totally outside. “I’ve seen a few tents that did not have walls and air was able to circulate freely through,” Bell explained. “I think something like that is essentially equivalent to the outdoors because your ventilation is about the same as it would be outside.”