Government is Failing Breweries on Covid

The further the Covid-19 pandemic goes along, the more of a hot mess it becomes. Leaving aside the literally insane spectacles of red-state governors preventing children from wearing masks in schools, even governments in sapphire-blue districts are failing local business.

Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury has no plans to require proof of COVID-19 vaccinations at bars, restaurants or event venues, she tells [Portland alt-weekly] Willamette Week. As the Delta variant erupts across Oregon, sparking the most new infections the state has seen in a single week, venue owners have called for the county to issue a vaccine mandate for indoor activities, similar to requirements in New York City and San Francisco. Kafoury says the county has no means to enforce such a rule. “For one local government in a metro region to quickly implement a widespread adult vaccine mandate when we currently have no enforcement mechanism or administrative structure in place would be incredibly challenging.”

 
 
 


I mean, god forbid a government try to do anything incredibly challenging during a pandemic! \_(ツ)_/

The longer the pandemic goes on, the more governments seem to be stepping away from actively trying to manage it. At some level I get it—we’re all exhausted, and we made a big push to get vaccinated so we could begin something approaching normal life, and a vicious fifth wave feels like too much to handle. Yet leaving it up to schools and businesses and citizens is grossly negligent. Indeed, by sitting on the sidelines, they’re compounding the difficulty. For one thing, they’re passing the buck—letting others sort it out. But worse than that, they’re increasing the polarization by forcing private business to self-police. That creates confusion and a sense of lawlessness. Worse, it passes difficulties onto businesses that may be with them for a long time to come.

Recently, when a coalition of pubs who agreed to ask for proof of vaccination, I cheered them on. It seemed like a proactive step responsible people could support. Through social media and private conversations, I see this all puts them in an untenable position. They need government’s imprimatur, no matter how hard it might seem for politicians. Below are three examples of what businesses are up against, and why Kafoury’s statement of unsupport is so maddening.

First up is Coronavirus Diaries correspondent Ben Parsons commenting on the challenges he faces at Baerlic Brewing (edited for brevity):

I sure wish that Multnomah County/City of Portland would mandate that only vaccinated folks can go indoors—like San Francisco—so that we businesses could just enforce the rules rather than create them. My staff is between a rock and the hard place of balancing their own safety against the threat of tantrums from the unvaccinated. I know of local businesses that are receiving all sort of vitriol due to their vaccinated-only policies.

For businesses that already operate with a sort of 'door' person or host stand or are smaller in physical scale, this is much easier to institute. For businesses like mine (6,000 sq ft and fairly high volume), we'd have to hire said door person and completely change the flow of service—for the fiftieth time. And hiring and maintaining employees is a real challenge right now. So as of now, we have to settle on proof of vaccination for bar seating. From a public health point of view, we are yet again on our own while also being fully liable. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that they don't seem to talk to the businesses most affected prior to making policies…it doesn't have to be this difficult.

Candidly, politicians have little incentive to make the hard decisions. Commissioner Kafoury is a potential gubernatorial candidate. Does she want to be out in front of an aggressive policy that would make her despised by a significant minority of the state? She clearly does not. Kate Brown and Mayor Wheeler have likewise dropped the ball.

Even mask mandates have become highly controversial, which is about as far as we can expect government to go now, it seems. Yet in some cases, half-assed half measures only make thing worse. Sean Campbell of Portland’s Beermongers, a taproom and bottle shop, explains:

I am curious why there was no social-distance or capacity requirements with the new mask policy? Seems like half measures. We have refused to let customers sit indoors, period, costing us money in the hope it keeps everyone safer. Now [our] landlords demand we remove outdoor seating, so we will have to join the vaccine proof-required [mess] indoors.

And while politicians may take indirect heat, business owners are on the front lines. Threshold Brewery’s co-owner Sara Szymanski is right to wonder about the long term fallout:

My concern at present (besides the alarming surge and untenable hospital capacity issues) is consumer confidence in safely going to restaurants, bars, small businesses. Requiring proof of vaccine as a work-around sounds good in theory but without government support it’s a lot to ask of independent businesses that are stretched way too thin as it is. And the divisiveness it causes between pro and anti-vax seems almost irreparable. However, what’s happening now with the attacks via social media/emails/DMs/phone calls, and even vandalism, the hatred and viciousness that’s spewed at businesses that ask for proof is unacceptable. We really need government support for this one.

This is an increasingly bad situation, and elected officials need to start making hard decisions.

Jeff Alworth2 Comments