Will Myrtle Beach, SC businesses follow President Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate?
President Joe Biden last week announced that businesses with 100 or more employees would have to mandate vaccines or require their employees to get tested for COVID-19 every week. But it might not make much of a difference in Horry County.
The majority of businesses in the county would not be affected by the order, according to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. The few businesses that would have to require vaccines or testing said they have not yet decided how to proceed.
“We’re currently monitoring this for additional guidance,” Chamber CEO Karen Riordan said in a statement. “Many employers have already encouraged their workers to receive vaccinations to keep our workforce healthy and keep our economy open.
The Sun News contacted 15 of the largest employers in the county about the vaccine or testing mandate and only about half have responded as of Tuesday. Around 66% of Horry County’s population 12 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 56% of the county’s eligible population is fully vaccinated, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Horry Telephone Cooperative, which employs 700 people, and Coastal Carolina University, which employs 2,200 both said they are still reviewing the federal mandate and have yet to make a decision. Food Lion, which employs at least 1,000 people, said the same. Pirate’s Voyage, which has locations in multiple states, said it didn’t want to speculate on what it would do before the final details of the mandate became clear in the coming weeks.
When asked if it will mandate vaccines, the Hard Rock Cafe didn’t say but instead detailed its health and sanitation programs for its properties and said it “will continue to comply with official mandates in the communities where they apply.”
The region’s biggest employers also include Tidelands Health, Conway Medical Center, Grand Strand Medical Center and McLeod Health. Tidelands mandated vaccines weeks ago and fired one employee last week who refused to get vaccinated.
Grand Strand Medical Center and McLeod Health did not say when or if they would be mandating vaccines or COVID testing.
Conway Medical Center, however, said it is still waiting for details regarding the mandate from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, which is in charge of enforcement.
When details from OSHA arrive, “We will immediately update our communications to our staff and head toward full compliance,” spokeswoman Allyson Floyd said in an email.
The City of Myrtle Beach has roughly 1,000 employees but hasn’t tracked vaccinations.
“If this rule does come down from Washington, we’ll certainly comply with it,” city spokesman Mark Kruea told WMBF News Friday. “We’re not in a position to pay a $14,000 fine for every employee who isn’t vaccinated. That would not be a good use of city money to be paying a fine to the federal government for something as simple as getting a vaccine.”
Other large companies, including Hilton, Marriott, Choice Hotels, Walmart and electronics manufacturer AVX Corporation have not responded to repeated requests for comment on the mandates. OSHA has also not responded to questions regarding whether franchised companies, like McDonalds, would be covered beyond the corporate level. The Sun News has also contacted Margaritaville, which owns restaurants on the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and Broadway at the Beach, and has not heard back.
Opposition, concerns about vaccine mandates
Vaccine mandates have been a testy subject for much of the year, with Democratic states steadily expanding them and Republican states calling them an infringement upon personal freedoms.
“Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian,” Gov. Henry McMaster tweeted minutes after Biden announced the vaccine and COVID testing mandate last Thursday.
But enforcement of such a mandate could be tricky. Fake versions of the vaccine cards created by the CDC have proliferated in the last year. In critical industries like education and health care, some have also raised concerns that vaccine mandates could cause employees to quit, leaving already understaffed schools and hospitals in even worse condition.
And while vaccines are readily available for much of the population, many vulnerable populations have struggled to get them since they became widely available in April. People who can’t leave home, and those who fear missing work for either the shot itself or any side effects afterward have been unable to get vaccinated.
Another issue complicating any decisions is the legal action threatened by Republican lawmakers in South Carolina and across the country. State Rep. Russell Fry told WMBF News he wants to see the mandate stopped by the courts.
“Mandates are a lazy way of governing, this could be dealt with by educating people. We don’t need to be over reaching beyond the scope of authority,” said Fry, R-Surfside Beach.
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 3:25 PM.
