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Date: 1/5/2022
AMHERST – The Amherst Board of Health announced they will be delaying any action of a vaccine mandate for certain Amherst businesses such as restaurants, gyms and others during their emergency meeting on Dec. 30.
The board ultimately felt the town’s vaccination rates and tracing of cases were not cause to enforce a mandate as these public places have not been areas of spreading like household gatherings have been, as cases continue to rise.
“We will wait to watch for data and see what’s happening in town,” said board Chair Nancy Gilbert. “My thought is right now we don’t need that, we need to see where the spread is going and right now I don’t think it’s in restaurants.”
Board member Stephen George added that a decision to put in a mandate was not necessary right now and should be reserved for an emergency situation.
“To me it’s a massive unfunded mandate on local business,” George said.
Gilbert started the meeting by explaining the need for the emergency meeting coming from the rise in cases in the midst of the holiday season. Gilbert stressed the town has been and will continue following the three-prong defense of vaccination, masks and access to testing.
“Here in Amherst, we’ve done a very good job getting our residents vaccinated,” Gilbert said, adding that 94 percent of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Acting Public Health Director Jennifer Brown seconded Gilbert’s comments and added that the town was continuing efforts to get more masks and tests available to the public, as well as encouraging those who had still not received a vaccine to do so.
The omicron variant has been growing the reputation of being the most easily transmittable of the variants based on the rising cases even if it is also being considered less deadly by health officials. Brown mentioned she has seen family gatherings and close contact groups of people have been the reasons behind the rise in cases.
Board member Lauren Mills agreed with her fellow members on delaying any mandate decision saying that she felt putting in place a mandate would not necessarily be the best way of combating the spread when those who are vaccinated still contract and can spread the virus.
“To me the bottom line is that even if you have a vaccination, you can still get COVID again and still spread it after you’ve gotten a vaccination,” Mills said. “To me the best thing is to wear the masks and also to limit your exposure to crowds and crowded places.”
The board opened the virtual floor to public comments to end the meeting and received plenty of feedback from residents.
Sasha, a Northampton resident and general manager of Bistro 63, stressed the importance of the town staying as far away from a vaccine mandate for restaurants for as long as possible.
“At this point it would just cost us business and put a giant stressful toll on staff not in place to handle these things. We just can’t expect someone like a 19-year-old hostess to enforce that. No one gets paid enough to do something like that,” she said.
Tiffany, a Southampton resident who frequents the shops and restaurants of Amherst spoke against a mandate as well and felt there was no real need to enforce one based on the facts about how the virus spreads.
“A mandate of this sort seems it will only provide a false sense of security and a false sense of safety. We’ve known that vaccinated individuals can transmit the virus as easily as those unvaccinated,” she said.
Regina Roy, an Amherst resident, opposed any requirement of vaccination to engage in businesses in Amherst and said she would boycott town businesses if that were the case.
Overall town comments echoed the notion that a vaccine mandate was not needed in the community in relation to the spread of the virus. Even though the board had already decided not to pursue action on a vaccine mandate, many members of the public still let them know they were strongly against such a decision.
The board can come back to this discussion if they feel trends warrant the discussion on behalf of the town’s public safety, but a vaccine mandate does not seem to be in the cards for the town based on the numbers, tracing of the spread and public reaction.