Tennessee and Georgia may have lifted their monthlong shutdowns of restaurants, gyms and fashion stores during the past week, but several dozen protesters Saturday urged state and local leaders to grant even more freedom for businesses and churches to operate during the current coronavirus pandemic.
During a march on the Market Street Bridge billed as a "Reopen Chattanooga" rally, Sharon Sessoms said she is tired of all the talk about "social distancing" and wants to reopen the economy to get Americans back to work.
"People are hurting economically, and I especially want to see our churches reopen," she said. "We need to get together and go about our lives."
Saturday's rally was far smaller than a similar Freedom Rally downtown nearly two weeks ago that drew more than 150 picketers protesting local and state restrictions on the operation of many businesses. Since then, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee allowed most restaurants, stores and gyms to reopen last week and will allow beauty salons, spas and barber shops to open on Wednesday, provided operators limit the number of customers in their facilities at one time and meet other safety standards. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has moved even faster to open up salons, movie theaters and other businesses.
Such reopenings have been criticized by everyone from President Donald Trump to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke who want to see a decline in the growth of new COVID-19 cases before reopening so many public businesses and activities.
Berke had sought to limit the reopening of restaurants and some stores in Chattanooga to avoid an outbreak of COVID-19, which is easily spread when people are in close contact or in large groups. But the state authorized the county health departments to allow restaurants to reopen in Tennessee's biggest counties, if county officials decided to follow the state's lead.
"It goes against the warnings of public health experts and doctors," Berke said. "It lacks the groundwork we need to ensure that restaurant owners and managers understand their responsibilities and have the supplies they need to keep people safe."
A new survey finds Chattanoogans split on setting limits on business operations to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Among 381 registered voters in Chattanooga surveyed April 23-28 by SurveyUSA opinion research, respondents were divided on whether Chattanooga officials should follow the lead of Hamilton County and the state of Tennessee.
The poll found 30% strongly encourage the city to follow the lead set by county and state officials. But nearly an equal number, 29%, strongly encourage city leaders to make their own decisions and go their own way. Overall, 77% of city respondents said they favor what Berke has done responding to the coronavirus, compared with only 16% who opposed the mayor. The other 7% were unsure.
Republicans were three times as likely as Democrats to say the city should follow the state's lead in reopening the economy, while Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to say the city should go in its own direction.
Chattanooga's split between Berke, a Democrat, and Lee and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, both Republicans, has drawn national attention. A report last week by NBC noted Chattanooga is "at the center of growing partisan tension between Democratic city leaders in the South who want to pursue a slower approach until testing has increased and Republican governors who want the economy reopened as quickly as possible."
"Tennesseans pulled together to flatten the curve, and it is time for people to begin to get back to work and back to their businesses," he said. "We are pursuing a careful, measured approach to reopening our economy that does not depend on heavy-handed mandates but instead provides practical tools for businesses of all sizes."
Safety standard seminars
The city of Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring one-hour zoom webinars this week on how businesses can safely reopen under the governor’s executive orders.› Retail store reopenings will be discussed at 3 p.m. Monday, hosted by a local retail representative who will take questions from participants. Register for the seminar at zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bS38ct_aSfCBKcYJbLcang. The seminar will be also be recorded and available at cha.city/covid.› The reopening standards for salons and barbers will be discussed at noon Tuesday, hosted by a local representative who will take questions from participants. Register for this seminar at zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aKA3IoBxRXafp61PmuNcIg or see a recording at cha.city/covid.Additional webinars will be provided for other industries in the coming weeks.
"Going forth, we're looking for reforms that will maintain the governor's executive powers for emergencies like this but after a certain period of time require the Legislature to approve these type of measures because power in this country needs to be distributed," he said. "It feels like so much of what was done was not at the consent of the governed, and that's what we think is dangerous. "
Jennings, 64, said he has never seen Americans so fearful in his lifetime and he questioned "getting all of our directives from government." The Tea Party leader carried a sign during Saturday's protest urging Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, "to get a second opinion" in his repeated warnings about the ongoing dangers from the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Tony Balinger, a Cleveland, Tennessee, resident, traveled to Chattanooga to join the protest with a sign claiming "Freedom is Essential."
"I feel like a lot of our civil liberties have been impeded and we need a better balance to help our economy," Balinger said, claiming that COVID-19 is not that much worse than the seasonal flu.
In the 2018-2019 flu season, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 34,200 Americans died from influenza, and the CDC projects that between 24,000 and 62,000 people in the United States will die from the flu in the current season.
So far in the past four months, more than 239,000 people have died around the world from COVID-19, including more than 66,000 in the United States, and the death count continues to rise.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.