County Health Official: Michigan’s Bars and Restaurants Are ‘Silly Things’

A county-level health administrator referred to Michigan’s bars and restaurants as “silly things” in a July 30 MLive story about hopes of reopening schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We need to close the bars and restaurants and other silly things we don’t need to be doing so we can reopen schools,” said Mark Cheatham, health officer for the Mid-Michigan District Health Department, according to MLive. “Our priorities are a mess.” The district includes Clinton, Gratiot and Montcalm counties.

In 2019, there were 393,970 people in the food preparation and serving-related industry, accounting for 1 out of 11 workers in this state. There were 4.3 million workers in Michigan in 2019.