Will In-N-Out become the next conservative darling of fast food, a la Chick-fil-A? Probably not. You may recall that Chick-fil-A was briefly a badge of conservative virtue signaling—like Freedom Fries—though that ended in 2019 when the company cut ties with Christian groups and opted out of the culture war. (Chick-fil-A’s bottom line seems to have neither benefited during its Favored Dining status nor been hurt by conservatives turning away from it after it said, “No thanks.”)

In-N-Out is regional, with fewer than 400 locations. And while it is California-based, the other locations are in southwestern states—and most localities don’t currently have COVID protocols as aggressive as San Francisco’s.

Besides which: The company has already sort of caved. While the In-N-Out spokesman told the Post that the chain is committed to the “highest form of customer service,” and wants unvaccinated people to be able to eat indoors at their restaurant, they have opted to reopen the San Francisco location, but with a closed dining room.

Which is the kind of response that a normal business trying to get along in a once-in-a-century pandemic would have. It is not ideal to have only take-out and drive-through dining. It is also not ideal to have 1,500 Americans dying of a communicable disease every day.