At Sumter County’s largest industrial employer, 1,300 workers were never closed, unable to remotely run a tire-making workshop for a global company. On Thursday, 292 of them went through a different type of assembly line, this one to protect them from the virus that changed our world a year ago.
Prisma Health set up a mobile vaccine clinic off Continental’s campus, which assembles passenger tires and light trucks, on Thursday, and the event that meant the state’s expansion for Phase 1B eligibility with essential line workers forward receiving his vaccines was visited by the governor.
“We are very proud of our manufacturers in South Carolina,” said Governor Henry McMaster, noting one of his pandemic slogans that business is South Carolina business. “We appreciate them being here. We want more to come, but above everything, we want our people to be healthy and happy. “
McMaster took a brief tour of the on-site vaccination facility and clinic before speaking with Prisma and Continental leaders and media.
He credited the Trump and Biden administrations for their efforts to secure vaccines and said supply remains the main obstacle. He also highlighted the Prisma itinerant health unit, which was used during the pandemic, first to carry the test and now the vaccine to rural and underserved areas in the state.
According to Dr. Kerry Sease, a physician at Prisma Health and leader of the communities responsible for the system that is leading the mobile vaccination effort, Prisma has administered nearly 250,000 injections across its service area. Data from the state public health department show that about 522,000 people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Part of the mobile vaccination effort is to make it as easy as possible for people to have access to the vaccine. Prisma used the Johnson & Johnson / Janssen vaccine, the third in the United States to have been approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration and the only one so far to require only one dose.
Benny Harmse, vice president of manufacturing for Continental Tire the Americas, said he hopes to maintain another clinic on the US 521 campus to offer injections to people who may be hesitant until they see their co-workers doing so.
People need to come to work, he said, “in order to feel safe.” He said he is happy with the workforce’s cooperation last year and that getting the vaccine to them is a way of serving them and their community.
One of the 300 employees and spouses who took advantage of the initial opportunity was Erica Carpenter. The raw materials warehouse manager said she signed up immediately when management told the team about the clinic.
“You don’t think of tires as a front-line worker, but we worked throughout the pandemic too, and we had to come to work and be close to people. And it is a very important segment. We are creating the tires that will take vaccines to the places they need to go, right? So this is very important for us to be recognized as the essential people that we really are, “she said.
She said she thinks events like this will boost internal morale. The “shop floor” requires people to be in close contact with each other and to be touching the same surfaces.
“Throughout the past year and part of this year, you know, we have been struggling, and many of us have some anxiety about just being exposed, and it has given us a better sense of security,” she said.
She said that everyone should make their own decisions, but that getting the vaccine was the right choice for her and her family. She has a 5-year-old son at home, whom her elderly parents help to care for. She and her husband, who was not a Continental employee but also eligible for Phase 1B, received the injection on Thursday.
Carpenter has worked at “Conti” for four years and said he appreciates the camaraderie with his co-workers and the opportunities that come with working for a global company. She noted that the company has always prioritized employee health, offering programs like mobile mammograms and other initiatives.
“They care,” she said, “and they show it all the time.”