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Brian Lehrer: Now listeners a call in for anyone who owns or works at a business that's temporarily closing or changing its policies because of the Omicron variant, what's happening at your store, or restaurant or other business, 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. You know the world has actually changed quite a bit since our last show on Friday, with three days in a row of record positive COVID tests in New York State, 21,000, 22,000, and there already have been some high-profile closures and cancellations.

You've heard about some of these, the Radio City Music Hall, Christmas Rockettes Show, canceled for the rest of the season, Saturday Night Live this weekend canceled the in-person audience, and sent home much of the cast and crew as well. It's affecting some sporting events around here, a growing number of restaurants and bars across the city closed temporarily, not exactly due to COVID fears, but due to suspected COVID-19 exposures among their workers, so they didn't have enough staff.

Now we're going to open up the phones for listeners to help us report this story at 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. If you work in a restaurant or any business that is now closed, call in to share how the new wave of infections is impacting your individual business or your industry and how you're navigating the surge on a case-by-case basis. 212-433-9692. It's really different this time around, at the beginning in March of 2020, government was shutting things down. Government is not shutting things down now, and for the most part, I think they won't, but what that means is individual businesses, individual institutions are making their own decisions. That means a patchwork, as different places have different standards, different places have different values maybe, or opinions, different places have different rates of COVID right now. Let's start with Josh in Teaneck. Josh, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in.

Josh: Hi. I work for a foreign government, and so we have a very rigid policy about closing the office because oftentimes they're going about what happens in their home country, but this week, we have an outbreak in our office in New York, 13 cases, so we're actually only open 50%. It would be helpful if the local government close things down because that would help us close. Not until there's a mandate from the mayor or something, they won't do that.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Listeners, that's an interesting piece of it. People want a mandate from the government. Do you want a mandate from the government? Help us report this story with what your bar or restaurant or other institution is doing. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Elizabeth in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: Hi, Brian, can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Can hear you just fine.

Elizabeth: Yes. [unintelligible 00:03:31] a bar in Brooklyn called [unintelligible 00:03:33] we're open. [unintelligible 00:03:36] so we actually closed for about a year and have been open since about April. It's going great. [laughs] There's a lot of changes, and then recently, it's just been very difficult. We're trying to weigh the actual health risks of this current wave, which I have to confess not being a epidemiologist versus shutting down and putting people on unemployment, some of whom live paycheck to paycheck, and there just seem to be the extra generous paid sick leave for COVID ended at the end of September, I believe. You're looking at people who could have made hundreds of dollars a night, suddenly getting $15 an hour for sick pay. There's a total lack of safety net first of all businesses I feel, in the restaurant industry especially, which is what I know but I don't know about others. It feels really bad.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. The tensions they caused on either side of a decision is so high. Have you considered at the restaurant instituting a testing mandate in addition to the vaccine mandate that's required by law?

Elizabeth: Currently the restaurant isn't instituting a testing mandate. You mean for like customers coming in like-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Yes, few places we've heard are doing that.

Elizabeth: That's something that we are considering, but it hasn't been implemented yet. It's always a reaction. It's fair to think about it in advance.

Brian Lehrer: Absolutely. All right. Good luck. Thank you very much.

Elizabeth: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Let's go next to Julia in Manhattan. Julia, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Julia: Hi, thanks for taking my call, long-time listener, and I honestly don't remember if I've called in. I've gotten on the air before, but I try.

Brian Lehrer: We've to make a new T-shirt for you that says something like, "Might have been first-time caller. I'm not sure."

Julia: Right. I told the screener of the fact that I just last week bought three tickets to three different shows Broadway, off-Broadway, and a concert for me and my friends coming in from Italy, they just canceled and I'm in the midst of trying to get my money back because I don't want to go, I have a mother that's pretty vulnerable. I'll see her right after the weekend. Pretty nervous about that, have no idea. The shows haven't been canceled yet.

The other thing is, I'm producing a live podcast show in Boston in mid-January for my brother's podcast, and we're in the midst right now. He wants to cancel it right now and I'm telling him to wait, but we don't want to be a super spreader event either, so it's not plucking in.

Brian Lehrer: Again, the tension that nobody's exactly sure how to resolve right now. I'm sorry to hear that canceling your show plans, even if those shows go on, and you'll see about that podcast event. Listeners, there's another example of how weird a moment this is. Let's go to Marianna in Bushwick, you're on WNYC. Hi, Marianna.

Marianna: Hi, Brian. Yes, big fan of the show by the way. I just wanted to say I am [unintelligible 00:07:12] and I just tested positive on Friday. I'm boosted, so did my roommate. My restaurant closed for the weekend, we're still trying to figure out if it'd be open this week. If we're going to reopen next week. It just all feels very familiar at this point. I think we're all trying to just figure out what the next step is.

Brian Lehrer: Without getting too personal, so only answer as much as you're comfortable with. As a boosted person, how do you think you got it? Was it from being confident as it turns out with Omicron maybe a little overconfident, that you wouldn't get it because you were boosted or certain kinds of exposures? I think people are starting to look back again now and saying, "Oh, where are these exposures coming from? Are they in bars and restaurants? Are they in stores? Are they in [unintelligible 00:08:03]? You know what I mean? Or only if I've had a particular close contact?

Marianna: Yes, for sure. When I was working at the restaurant for the last two weeks without a mask, and dealing with diners who were also maskless, that's definitely a possibility. I don't know, movie theaters-- I definitely got overconfident about the booster, and I was like, I can't get it.

Brian Lehrer: Right. Good luck, Marianna. Thank you for calling in. Very informative, even as it adds to the confusion. Gerard in Wayne, you're on WNYC. Hi, Gerard.

Gerard: Hey, Brian, how are you? Thanks for taking my call. I work for a very large global third-party property management company, and the client that I'm assigned to is a very large global energy company. On both sides, there's these two companies that I'm very much front and center with. A lot of confusion on what the masks protocol should be and preventative measures and tracking people's vaccinations.

I think that companies don't want to make the wrong decision in terms of employee engagement, they don't want to upset people. I think having government mandates in a pandemic situation is very helpful to large organizations that can't seem to make a decision to get out of their own way. They need the guidance, and they need it to come from the top.

I will shamelessly say that if it had been controlled from the top from the beginning, back in 2020, early 2019, then we wouldn't be in the boat that we're in now. Thanks again for taking my call.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks again for making it. Folks, there's two now callers who work for large institutions of various kinds. The one, Gerald, was just talking about in the real estate industry and the earlier one who said he represents a foreign government, that wish that local government here would make a decision to just close things again, to help as Gerald just put it, this institution get out of its own way and others. I'm sure not everybody feels that way, but that's a very interesting point of view to hear. Gabriel in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hello, Gabriel.

Gabriel: Hey, Brian. Thank you so much for doing the show. I'm a longtime listener, and I really appreciate what you do. I manage a small bar in Brooklyn, and businesses has just been absolutely devastated this past weekend by this variant.

Brian Lehrer: People are suddenly more fearful than they were?

Gabriel: Yes, and we have no positive cases, nobody in our staff has tested positive, so we decided to stay open. Now we're open and nobody's coming. Effectively, last week was relatively new normal, and this past weekend, we made $0, and everyone on staff made $0. There's no government help for that, and it's extremely frustrating.

Brian Lehrer: It stinks. One of the things that I wonder if we're going to hear from President Biden when he gives a speech on this tomorrow is whether they're going to have to go back to stimulus checks, whether we're going to have unemployment again at the level that we had at the beginning of COVID, this time because people are just afraid not because the government is ordering things to shut down. I don't know how that's really going to shake out from place to place, or what government's role in it is, but that's [crosstalk] certainly a new conversation.

Gabriel: None of those is [crosstalk]. The sad thing is that once again, the government is behind the curve. You and I shouldn't even be have to asking these questions.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want the government to shut things down?

Gabriel: I personally do not, but if business is going to be like this, there's got to be some program to help people. How do they expect people to earn a living while we're all not going to work?

Brian Lehrer: Gabriel, thank you very much. Thanks to all of you who called-

Gabriel: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: -on this troubling but illuminating segment. Obviously, we're going to continue to follow this super closely on the show and help everybody try to get through it. Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

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