In his White House speech Thursday announcing vaccine mandates for businesses, President Joe Biden cited Fox News as a company that has already implemented the kind of requirements he was unveiling for the nation.
Biden announced policies requiring most federal employees to get COVID-19 vaccines, and pushing employers of more than 100 employees to essentially force their workers to get vaccinated or be tested weekly.
"Some of the biggest companies are already requiring this: United Airlines, Disney, Tyson Food, and even Fox News," Biden said in his speech.
Fox's employee COVID-19 policy, though similar to Biden's, is not quite as far-reaching as the administration's forthcoming rule, Business Insider reported.
The conservative-leaning network does not have a full vaccine mandate.
Instead, Fox Corp. requires employees to submit their vaccination status to the company.
Employees who are vaccinated reportedly have privileges over employees who choose not to get the shot.
Fox also requires all unvaccinated employees to wear a mask and social distance at all times while working on-site.
Certain essential employees must undergo regular testing for COVID.
In a recent memo, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott detailed the company's updated policy amid the surge in cases due to the delta variant.
"All employees must enter their status no later than today, August 17th, by close of business," Scott wrote, bolding that particular sentence in her email, which was obtained by CNN Business.
Fox quietly implemented the concept of a vaccine passport as workers slowly return to the company's offices, CNN reported in late July.
The company asked employees to self-report to Fox the dates that their COVID-19 shots had been administered and which vaccines were used.
Not all companies have Fox's aggressive COVID policy.
For example, Newsmax's vaccination policies have differed from those of Fox News.
Newsmax encourages all employees to be vaccinated and grants them paid time off to do so.
But the company neither requires vaccination nor penalizes employees for not beimg vaccinated.
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