As Some Applaud NC Reopening Measures, Health Officials Urge Vigilance

North Carolina enters the first phase of its plan to gradually reopen today. This comes as pressure has mounted on state leaders to let people go back to work and help the economy recover. But health care professionals and others warn that this is a time to move cautiously, and passions on all sides of the argument are running high.

Roughly 1,000 protesters assembled in downtown Raleigh last month for the first of what have since become weekly demonstrations. They're fed up with the lockdown, and for organizer Ashley Smith it boils down to one word. 

“What we want to see is our personal liberty restored,” says Smith. “Never in at least 100 years in our country have we shut down over any type of a viral outbreak or contagion of any kind. I think we could have handled things very differently so as not to suicide our entire economy, which is what we're seeing in many sectors of the business world.”

Smith says, “Open your businesses. We can't wait.” And she takes issue with counter-protesters in scrubs and lab coats who also demonstrated.

“For one, I want to say, if you believe that people should be staying at home, why are you here counter-protesting? If hospitals are so busy, how do you have time to be here? You know, it's very easy with this kind of elitist mindset of, ‘I'm in the right. My way of thinking is correct, and now I'm going to come out here and kind of be on my high horse and tell you that you shouldn't be doing what you're doing.'”

Nego Crosson, a Cone Health registered nurse for 15 years, traveled to Raleigh from Greensboro for the same protest. Tired after working three shifts in a row, she arrived to unmasked protesters holding signs up against her forehead, standing practically on her toes, and screaming inches from her face.

She says it was worth it.

“I wanted to be there because I felt like it was important for the media and therefore the broader public to see images of healthcare workers and professionals taking a really strong, very clear stance that just a free-for-all reopen is not a safe thing to do,” says Crosson.

In Guilford County, where she works, patient numbers are lower now. But she says it's due to hospital policies across the Triad that have made room for emergency procedures only, creating a backlog in elective surgeries.

But putting herself in the shoes of the protesters, Crosson says she gets it.

“You know, they're really upset,” she says. “They feel like their individual liberty is being infringed upon. And you know, in a way that's true. I mean this is not about our individual liberties, this about the collective good, and that's a hard shift to make I think just culturally. We're not really wired like that in this country.”

So, Crosson and her colleagues are calling for Governor Roy Cooper and North Carolina lawmakers to maintain the stay-at-home order and keep nonessential businesses closed. But economic leaders are getting ready.

Greensboro Chamber of Commerce CEO Brent Christensen has been preparing from the beginning of the pandemic to reopen businesses. 

“We've gone from the ‘shock and awe' phase, right, where we all went home and now what do we do? How do we work remotely? How do we sell online? Can we entice people to buy gift certificates online?" says Christensen. “And restaurants, can we entice people to come out of their homes and pick up food to go?”  

The Chamber helped connect financial resources, federal assistance programs, and negotiated rent with landlords. As the state enters the first phase of reopening, Christensen says there's a whole new set of questions to address during their daily phone conferences with local business owners. 

“And our call today was about cleaning your workspace down to the nitty-gritty of, you know, what do I use to clean my keyboard, my display?" he says. “What are high-trafficked areas that I need to be on the lookout for? So, if a business is going to reopen they need to make sure that their employees are comfortable and their customers are comfortable in that space.”

Christensen says providing information, from distancing and sanitation requirements to sourcing PPE supplies, helps pave the way for local businesses to begin reopening safely. But he adds that it will take the continued cooperation of consumers as well.

Novant Health infectious disease specialist Dr. David Priest says as we increase our interactions with each other, there will invariably be a rise in the spread of coronavirus — which has already taken twice as many lives in the U.S. as the flu did in all of 2019.

“The concern in the medical community is if the opening is too hasty, and we don't have a controlled opening, that we run the risk of running the number of cases up to the point where our healthcare system can't handle it,” he says.

What's encouraging to Dr. Priest is that hospitals are prepared right now because of the social distancing measures that have been taken. But as the state enters this first phase of reopening, Priest warns we have to remain vigilant, keeping enough interventions in place to continue the slowdown in the weeks and months ahead. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Crowd noise from the April 21 protest in Raleigh was provided courtesy of WUNC.

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