In Horry, local governments unsure how to answer Biden’s call for a vaccine mandate
In Horry County, it remains unclear how local government bodies will respond to President Joe Biden’s call for a COVID-19 vaccine mandate last week, and if they’ll require their employees to get a shot, or undergo weekly testing.
Official federal rules have not been released yet, and several officials said they’d need to wait for those rules before deciding if they’d comply with Biden’s call. Biden mandated for employers with 100 workers or more to require those workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing and quarantine procedures.
“The bottom line: We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers,” Biden said during remarks on Thursday. “We’re going to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by increasing the share of the workforce that is vaccinated in businesses all across America.”
Already, some local hospitals have said they’ll require employees to be vaccinated.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told McClatchy newspapers on Wednesday that Biden’s vaccine order would apply to some state and local governments, but not others, depending on whether and how those governments are subject to federal labor standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
“State and local governments will make decisions. Some of them have OSHA requirements and laws and others don’t,” Psaki said. “We are still recommending that states, where they can, mandate vaccines. Obviously leaders will make decisions on their own. But it’s really state to state on whether it’s applicable under OSHA requirements.”
In short, that means it is not yet clear if Biden’s order would apply to state and local governments with more than 100 employees. At least one city government, though, said it’s willing to comply with the order.
If the order does apply to governments, that would mean the Horry County government with more than 2,200 employees, the City of Myrtle Beach, with nearly 1,000 employees, the City of North Myrtle Beach with over 400 employees and the City of Conway with nearly 300 employees would all be subject to the order.
In response to Biden’s order, Gov. Henry McMaster said he would fight such mandates “to the gates of hell.” Psaki told Columbia’s WISTV News on Monday that McMaster and other South Carolina politicians resisting mandates should “get out of the way.”
Robert Kittle, a spokesperson for South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson told The Sun News on Tuesday that his office was still “studying” Biden’s order and could possibly look for ways to block it.
“It looks like probably government overreach but we’re still studying it,” Kittle said. “I’m sure there’s some kind of action we could take.”
Myrtle Beach is one city in Horry County that plans to follow the guidance if Biden’s order applies to local governments, according to city spokesman Mark Kruea.
“We already encourage our staff to get vaccines, although it’s not a requirement at this time,” he said.
Lisa Bourcier, a spokesperson for Horry County Schools, told The Sun News that the district would wait for more guidance from state leaders before deciding if the district would require school employees to be vaccinated, or test negative each week.
“At this point, we will wait for further guidance from the South Carolina Department of Education as more information becomes available,” Bourcier said.
WMBF News on Tuesday reported that the state Dept. of Education is interpreting Biden’s order as applying to public school districts in South Carolina.
It’s not clear how many Horry County Schools employees have been vaccinated. The district, though, currently has a quarantine procedure in place that requires students and staff to stay home if they test positive for COVID-19, or if they come into contact with someone who has.
For Horry County government, County Administrator Steve Gosnell said Tuesday he had “no idea” if the county would ultimately comply with Biden’s order. Spokesperson Kelly Moore said the county was waiting for additional guidance before making a decision.
“The County has not yet received any update to the current guidance provided by the US Department of Labor,” she said. “It would be premature for us to offer any comment on the matter.”
A number of county employees, though, have already been vaccinated. Earlier this year, when the COVID-19 vaccine became more widely available in South Carolina, the South Carolina Dept. of Health and Environmental Control distributed 7,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine to Horry County Fire Rescue, which gave the doses to county employees. That program eventually caused a spat between the county and DHEC, when The Sun News and other news outlets reported that the county administered the vaccine to friends and relatives of county employees, which DHEC said violated its policies.
If all 7,400 doses were used, that would mean 3,700 employees and others were fully vaccinated through the program, though Moore said Tuesday that it’s possible some employees or other people may have only gotten one shot. Moore said she didn’t know how many county employees were fully vaccinated.
Some leaders in Horry County’s cities offered similar responses when asked if they’d mandate vaccines or weekly testing.
A North Myrtle Beach official is not sure how they will proceed since the Occupational Safety Health Administration has not yet released anything on the matter. The agency, which is under the United States Department of Labor, is responsible for enforcing standards to ensure safe working conditions for employees.
“OSHA does not appear to have any concrete guidelines at this point,” said Pat Dowling, a city spokesman. “We will see what transpires.”
Conway Mayor Barbara Blain-Bellamy didn’t return a message seeking comment on Tuesday.
Biden’s order would not apply to Loris, Aynor, Surfside Beach, Atlantic Beach or Briarcliff Acres as those municipalities have less than 100 employees.
Todd Harrelson, the mayor of Loris, said even though nearly every city employee is vaccinated, he’s against mandates like the one Biden is pushing.
“I wouldn’t be about it, but I don’t have to be now,” Harrelson said. “But I’m not in agreement with it regardless.”
Mandates of any kind, whether for face masks or vaccines, have been a hotly debated subject throughout the pandemic. Though several local governments, including Horry County, Conway, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach mandated face coverings in government buildings and businesses, those requirements were ultimately repealed. Horry County’s face covering mandate, for example, lasted only four months.
The City of Conway has since begun requiring face coverings in government buildings, and several dozen residents last week protested mask and vaccine mandates outside Conway City Hall. One man at the protest said he was afraid of getting the vaccine and afraid of losing his job if he refused the shot.
“We want everyone to have as much information they can about where they can be vaccinated if they choose to, where they can get their masks if they choose to,” Jeanette Spurlock, a local business owner and candidate for Congress said at the protest. “But what this is about is we don’t want to be told that we have to do it. We’re looking at medical freedom and what everything that that entails.”
In schools, South Carolina has banned face mask mandates. The latest federal COVID-19 relief package includes aid for schools whose states strip funding for requiring masks, though Horry County Schools leaders haven’t yet said whether or not they’d require face coverings.
Timothy Winslow, the executive director of the South Carolina Association of Counties, said Tuesday that his group, like the local governments it works with, is still waiting for more information from the federal government before advising counties if they should comply or not.
“We’re looking into the same thing you’re asking, we want to know how it will affect us too,” Winslow said. “We’re still kind of at a wait and see, there’s a lot of moving parts.”
Winslow said it’s likely legal for the federal government to mandate vaccines, and that there may not be many legal tools states or counties could use to fight back. Still, he said, he’s waiting to hear more.
“We need to see what the executive branch does, we’ll see what the legislative branch does,” he said. “We’re getting calls from the counties saying, ‘What should we do?’ And we’re saying, ‘Wait and see.’”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional comment from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
