On Monday, Jeremy Barr of The Washington Post reported that Fox News is updating its COVID-19 policy to require all of their employees in their New York City office be vaccinated.
Previously, the right-wing network had a policy that those wishing not to be vaccinated could instead submit to regular testing for COVID-19 — but under the new policy, this is no longer a substitute for being vaccinated at the New York office.
NEW - Internal memo for Fox staff: "All workers in NYC who perform in-person work at an office location, including Fox employees, must show proof of receiving at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine" by Dec. 27.\n\nTesting will no longer be alternative to getting vaccine in NYC.— Jeremy Barr (@Jeremy Barr) 1640031912
This comes as New York sees a record spike in COVID-19 cases, driven primarily by the spread of the ultra-infectious Omicron variant — but hospitalizations are still under control in large part because of the state's high vaccination rate. At least 90 percent of Fox News employees are already vaccinated.
Despite its own newsroom policies, many Fox News personalities and anchors are railing against vaccine mandates on their network, with Laura Ingraham calling vaccine mandates an "anti-freedom" agenda pushing an "experimental drug on Americans against their will," and Tucker Carlson falsely claiming there's "no difference" in transmission between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. One analysis by the left-wing media watchdog group Media Matters found that from April to September, Fox News aired vaccine-critical content every day except two.
