COVID-19 in Utah, continued: What comedian Patton Oswalt has in common with doctors, the Utah Symphony and Counting Crows

As the COVID-19 pandemic grinds on through its second year, one of the topics that has occupied much of my recent reporting is this: Can we still go out on a Saturday night?

The reason that question looms is that several Utah arts organizations and venues have decided to require ticket holders to show a proof of vaccination, or proof of a negative COVID-19 test result, before getting in the door.

So far, that list includes the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera, and the booking agency that handles the Eccles Theater’s concert schedule. The Eccles, Abravanel Hall (where the Symphony plays) and Capitol Theatre (Utah Opera’s home) are all operated by Salt Lake County — and state law doesn’t allow government entities to set a vaccine requirement. However, the county has contracted out their venues to private groups (Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, and MagicSpace Entertainment, the booking agency for the Eccles), so they’re not covered under the state law.

Venues on the University of Utah campus — such as Red Butte Garden and Kingsbury Hall — are covered under that state law, at least when the venues are also the booking agency. That’s why the rock band Counting Crows canceled its Aug. 26 concert at Red Butte, and it’s why comedian Patton Oswalt canceled a gig on Jan. 7, 2022, at Kingsbury. (Oswalt’s case is peculiar, which I explain in the article.)

Meanwhile, the FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention has announced that all visitors, vendors, guests and staff must wear snug-fitting masks while inside the Salt Palace Convention Center. (The Salt Palace is also a Salt Lake County-operated facility, and also exempted from that state law because FanX is a private group renting the place.)

Here are more COVID-related stories I’ve worked on recently:

• I wrote about Dr. Marc Harrison, CEO of Utah’s largest hospital system, Intermountain Healthcare, who is himself immunocompromised because of multiple myeloma (which is in remission). He talked at the governor’s COVID-19 briefing about the importance of wearing masks to fend off the spread of COVID-19 — information that was later undercut by Gov. Spencer Cox at the same podium. (Cox has since walked back those remarks.)

• I assisted Tribune health care reporter Erin Alberty on a story about COVID-19 testing, and a rash of complaints that getting tested is becoming more and more of a hassle.

• I worked with Tribune breaking news reporter Scott D. Pierce on a story about how Utah hospitals and health officials were reacting to the news that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given full approval to the Pfizer version of the COVID-19 vaccine.

• And I covered the announcement from Dr. Angela Dunn, executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department, that she would institute a mask mandate for school kids from kindergarten to sixth grade. Two days later, I helped Tribune county government reporter Leia Larsen cover the Salt Lake County Council’s meeting to overturn Dunn’s order — done by a 6-3 vote along party lines, with all the Republicans agreeing with the loud, angry protesters inside and outside the council chamber, and all the Democrats agreeing with Dunn and the medical evidence.