Walt Disney Company requiring vaccinations for salaried and non-union hourly US employees
Employees must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, provide verification of vaccination
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The Walt Disney Company is mandating its U.S. employees to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by the end of September.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIS | THE WALT DISNEY CO. | 115.67 | +0.94 | +0.82% |
All current salaried and non-union hourly employees, as well as all newly hired employees, will have until Sept. 30 "to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide verification of vaccination," the company's recruitment team said in an email.
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"We are taking a responsible approach to creating environments that allow us to do what we do best – entertain and inform millions around the world," the recruitment team wrote.
Any new hire that has a start date after Sept. 30 will have to "provide verification of vaccination for COVID-19 at least seven days prior to their start date," the email continued.
The new policy comes just weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Disney Store in Paris. (iStock / iStock)
Prior to getting full approval, hundreds of millions of Pfizer doses had been administered in the U.S. under emergency provisions since December. In going a step further and granting full approval, the FDA cited months of real-world evidence that serious side effects are extremely rare.
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The move by the FDA helped to pave the way for companies, like Disney, to make vaccinations mandatory at U.S. locations.
However, even before the FDA awarded full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot, the corporate world began requiring masks and COVID-19 shots for employees in order to combat the delta variant, which is fueling infection surges and threatening efforts to stamp out the pandemic.
This includes financial institutions such as Citigroup Inc, tech companies like Facebook and Google and even airlines such as Delta.
Moderna has also applied to the FDA for full approval of its vaccine. Johnson & Johnson, maker of the third option in the U.S., said it hopes to do so later this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.