Educators, Industry leaders compare Utah’s second pandemic winter to its first
Heading into a second pandemic winter, the message many Utahns seem to be shouting to policymakers in Washington D.C. is “Don’t tell me what to do.”
On Oct. 4, hundreds of residents thronged Utah’s Capitol Hill — many of them unmasked — to tell lawmakers they vehemently oppose workplace vaccination mandates that President Joe Biden hopes to impose on businesses with 100 employees or more.
The alternative to getting the shots would be submitting to weekly Covid tests.
Craig Madsen, a steel-erection business owner in Utah County, called the mandate “out of place” and a “real big overreach.”
“If people want to get vaccinated, they can do it,” Madsen said, describing the work his company performs as “way more dangerous than Covid.”
Madsen urged legislators to put a “hard stop” to the mandate.
Spencer Young, president of the Young Automotive Group, told committee members that his long-standing family business now has more than 1,400 employees across Utah and southern Idaho. Over the past 18 months, they dealt with a challenging business environment.
“We implemented all the safety and health measures that state and federal government have recommended,” Young said. That included frequent sanitizing of surfaces, installing plexiglass dividers, wearing masks, washing hands, social distancing, and having staff work from home.
Although the majority of his workforce has been vaccinated, Young believes the mandate will seriously impact his business because many have questions and concerns about the vaccine and “believe it is their freedom and their right to choose.”
“They’re terrified of this … we could lose up to 30 percent of our critical workforce,” Young said.
But while everyone yearns to get back to “normal” in terms of school, work and play, the Covid-19 virus continues to mutate and variant cases continue to surge. The pandemic has not gone away.
According to the Utah Department of Health data, most of Utah is experiencing high transmission rates due to the rapidly moving Delta variant. On Oct. 8, 2020, the 7-day average for new Covid-19 cases came in at 1,170. As of Oct. 6, 2021, that 7-day average had reached 1,436.
A year ago, the 7-day average for hospital admissions was 41.6 compared to the recent Oct. 1 average of 51.1. Last Oct. 8, the 7-day average for Covid-19 deaths was 5.9, compared to the most recently reported 7-day average on Sept. 28 of 9.1.
And a year ago, vaccines were not yet available. Now anyone 12 years and older can get vaccinated, and Pfizer recently asked the federal Food and Drug Administration to extend emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
Overworked and exhausted
An Oct. 8 snapshot of Utah hospitals offers a glimpse of the huge burden healthcare workers continue to bear during the pandemic. https://coronavirus-dashboard.utah.gov/hosp.html
The state currently has 572 Covid patients hospitalized, with 238 of them in intensive care units — numbers quite similar to last December and January before vaccinations became widely available.
While the state Health Department tracks the percentage of ICU beds in use by Covid patients, the Utah Hospital Association noted the situation is actually direr. At 85% ICU utilization, the state has functionally run out of staffed ICU beds — which indicates an overwhelmed system.
And that’s where Utah currently finds itself, with 100.8 percent of its ICU beds occupied.
Brad Gillman, media relations manager for Intermountain Healthcare, said by email that their caregivers have been working almost non-stop throughout the pandemic, describing it as an “exhausting and stressful, long-standing situation.”
Gillman acknowledged their current shortage of workers available for hire — a situation he said also plagues the rest of the state and nation.
In spring 2020, Intermountain Healthcare took steps to support caregivers by launching its Emotional Health Relief Hotline (833-442-2211), which they soon made available to the public as well.
Over 6,500 calls came in, Gillman said, causing Intermountain to transition to the Behavioral Health Navigation line that offers expanded resources such as telehealth visits.
Educators on edge
In fall 2020 Utah schools shifted into hybrid mode, offering both online sessions and socially distanced, masked in-person classes. And through the year, schools periodically shut classroom doors when cases exceeded a certain level.
But now almost everyone is back in the buildings and masks are mostly voluntary. And by early September, one in four new Covid cases occurred in school-aged children, with some having to be hospitalized.
Heidi Matthews, president of the Utah Education Association which represents more than 18,000 members, compared this year to last.
“Last year almost all our districts had additional time put into their schedules to specifically address the needs of their remote learners,” Matthews said. “That is no longer the case, so when we have students that are on quarantine or are ill, there isn’t that time built into the schedules any longer. So that has been difficult.”
Matthews pointed out another difference in terms of safety protocols.
“The UEA stance is that if the Health Department recommends it, there should be no barriers to do it,” Matthews said. “But we’ve seen where health departments have been overridden and we’ve seen legislation that does place barriers for our medical experts’ recommendations to be followed through.”
Those barriers put fragile and immunocompromised students at greater risk, Matthews added.
And then there are issues related to running out of paid time off.
“Last fall there was additional leave granted in the CARES Act, extra funds that allowed for covid-related leave. And that’s no longer the case,” Matthews said. “We’re seeing — particularly with our teachers and educators who are newer in the profession — a real fear that they’ll run out of leave if they have to tend to a child or if they themselves get sick.”
But perhaps the biggest shift lies in the state’s priorities.
“Last fall, health, wellbeing and safety were elevated,” Matthews said. “This fall it feels like the intention is more on moving on and getting back to normal — and pushing it prematurely.”
Hanging by a thread
Restaurants typically run on tight profit margins. But the industry is now so strained that many eateries have exited the business.
“Our last figures showed that during the pandemic itself there were in excess of 420 restaurants closed,” said Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association. “You have to make that decision — do I stay open with limited staff, takeout and delivery or completely close and wait until it’s over. “
The good news is that new restaurants are sprouting up, equipped with drive-thru windows and other pandemic-proof options.
But the bad news is that “we ended up with about 323 restaurants that have permanently closed their doors,” Sine said.
The supply chain crisis caused by Covid-19 continues to deal blows to the industry by ushering in food shortages and skyrocketing product costs.
“When you see boats and ships with cargo on them that can’t get into port because there’s no one working there to bring all those supplies in … those are all supplies that the industry needs,” Sine said.
But wait, there’s more adversity due to rising rents and worker shortages, so Sine sees it as a difficult time to be in the restaurant business.
“There isn’t a six-foot social distancing requirement (anymore) but there might as well be because they just don’t have enough people working to be at full occupancy,” Sine said.
Sine recently delivered more sobering data to Utah legislators as she spoke against mandatory vaccinations during the Oct. 4 committee session.
“Our national statistics point out that 91 percent of our restaurants are paying more for food, 63 percent are paying higher occupancy rents, and 84 percent are paying higher labor costs,” Sine said. “We are anything but recovered. We are on life support.”
And in a recent phone interview, she called on the public to be kind and patient when they dine out.
“The people who are working are doing the best they can. They want to give you the best experience possible,” Sine said. “But there are food shortages so you might come in and the item you see on the menu isn’t available because we never got it.”
While franchises and corporate-owned restaurants have a better chance of survival, Sine said she fears for the small independent restaurant owners that add to a community’s unique identity.
“They have already mortgaged their homes, sold their cars, and gone without pay themselves to keep their restaurants going,” Sine said. “There are tremendous trials and challenges to even keep their doors open.”
