As Gov. Justice brags to the press, essential workers fear for their lives

by DOUGLAS J HARDING

As Gov. Jim Justice bragged Monday during a virtual press conference that the state is “hitting it out of the park” and “leading the nation” in vaccine rollouts, a group of service workers gathered outside the Capitol—barred from entering the building due to COVID-19 restrictions—to demand the state government stop endangering their lives.

“We risk our health every time we clock in,” said Tyler James, a local bartender who demonstrated outside the Capitol Monday. “I have many friends who work from home and who have had both shots of the Pfizer vaccine already, and it's looking more and more like my peers who handle public interactions daily aren't going to be vaccinated until spring or early summer.”

James said that despite pre-registering for the vaccination the first day it was made available, he has not received any information about when he may be able to acquire one.

James said classifying public-facing employees such as bartenders, waiters, grocery clerks and teachers as the “general public” is unfair because their jobs require special responsibilities, such as being the “mask police” and endangering their own lives each day.

“Many customers adhere to the mask regulations, but with alcohol in them, people get more lax, and having up to 9 people eating and drinking at my bar honestly stresses me out. I hold my breath when I have to approach people who have their masks pulled down or suspended from their ear,” James said. “We should have a higher priority [for being vaccinated] than the general public.”

James said when he and other protestors confronted the governor as he exited the Capitol building, Justice stopped briefly to listen, eventually telling them, “I wish I could wave a magic wand and get [the vaccine] out to y'all."

“It felt like he was brushing us off, but he didn’t have to [speak with us] at all, so I appreciated that,” James said.

Meg Osborne, a server and bartender at a local restaurant, said the government’s failure to prioritize essential workers is especially dangerous considering Gov. Justice’s recent executive orders easing pandemic-related restrictions, including one which allows bars and restaurants to operate at 75% capacity (increased from 50%) and raises the social gathering limit to 75 people.

“We want to know when we’re going to be able to get vaccinated, why we’re not being given priority and why the decision was made to begin loosening regulations without giving us any other protection,” Osborne said.

Osborne said she also has signed up for the vaccine but has not received any further information. She, too, said she knows several non-senior citizens who work from home or have office jobs and somehow were able to acquire the vaccine before her.

“I have not personally contracted the virus to my knowledge, but I have watched it work its way through a couple of restaurants, and I have had to quarantine a couple of times and have lost wages because of that,” she said. “I am exposed to so many people every day I work, talking to people without masks and touching dirty plates, that in my head it’s not if I’m going to get it but when. I cannot in good conscience see my family because my grandparents are in their 90s, and I would not be able to live with myself if I accidentally gave them COVID.”

Osborne said West Virginia—and the U.S. as a whole—should have listened to scientists and health experts and followed the total shut-down model of places like Australia and New Zealand since the start of the pandemic.

“They’re almost back to normal [in those places], so the excuse that we are doing everything that can be done is obviously not true,” Osborne said.

In addition to easing restrictions, the state government also is endangering the lives of workers by failing to enforce the guidelines which actually are in place, Osborne said.

“I have not seen anyone making sure restaurants and retail spaces are enforcing what regulations are in place,” she said. “Go into any grocery store or restaurant at any given time and you’ll find people downright ignoring the mask mandate with zero repercussions. Workers, who unwillingly became mask police overnight, have been bullied so much by anti-maskers that they’ve largely given up arguing with people.”

Osborne said the state should implement a system by which people who ignore regulations and refuse to wear a mask are punished in some way.

“A teenager working the host stand isn’t going to deter an angry anti-masker,” she said.

Despite certain essential and service workers such as herself being of a younger age group, Osborne said they still are particularly vulnerable because so many are unable to acquire health insurance.

“Service industry workers have taken a lot of unwanted abuse this past year and have rarely been acknowledged by the powers that be,” Osborne said. “We are tired and we dread going to work for our health, but I want to let my fellow workers know someone is speaking up for them.”