Biden's vaccine mandate:

Even Trump-friendly companies

seem comfortable with COVID

 restrictions

Ben Werschkul

·

Senior Producer and Writer

YAHOO FINANCE

Sat, September 11, 2021, 

On Thursday afternoon, President Joe Biden announced that U.S. businesses with over 100 employees will soon need to ensure that their employees are either fully vaccinated or tested weekly.

Within hours, the reaction in the political class was intense. The hashtag #wewillnotcomply was trending on Twitter, Biden was called an authoritarian and a fascist, and Republican governors and the RNC threatened legal action.

Brooke Rollins, the CEO of Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, was one of many to try to bring in the business community. “Businesses across the country should refuse to endorse this egregious violation of our most fundamental rights,” he said in a statement. JD Vance, a Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio and the author of "Hillbilly Elegy," told the business community, "DO NOT COMPLY."

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his plan to stop the spread of the Delta variant and boost COVID-19 vaccinations at White House on Thursday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

By Friday morning, President Biden still expressed confidence about his new mandate. When asked about the threats of lawsuits, the president replied, “Have at it.”

For their part, real-life businesses — including those aligned with Trump — have had a muted reaction so far to the new guidelines.

We ‘will comply’

During his speech on Thursday, Biden noted that United Airlines (UAL), Disney (DIS), and Tyson Foods (TSN) were already complying with the forthcoming rules.

Then he pointedly added “even Fox News” to that group already playing by the new rules.

Indeed, memos from the company from July and another in August lay out how the company has had detailed systems in place for weeks that likely ensure virtually all their employees will be either vaccinated or regularly tested

In contrast to the tone of much of their coverage late Thursday and Friday, Fox’s actual policy remains and shows no signs of changing. Virtually all of Fox News employees need to either provide proof of a vaccination or be tested regularly. Employees must report their vaccination status and there is testing on-site for employees in the New York office. The company even has a mask mandate in confined spaces like control rooms.

Another conservative-leaning channel, Newsmax, also offered up critical coverage of the new rule but appears to be willing to comply with it. 

The station is run by Chris Ruddy, who is a longtime friend of Trump's and a member of his Mar-a-Lago Club. His channel has long offered a platform for vaccine criticism including one notorious example of a host saying vaccines were “against nature.”

A statement to Yahoo Finance Friday said that “Newsmax has encouraged its readers, viewers and employees to get the COVID vaccine.” The statement added: “Newsmax has and will comply with all employee health requirements as set forth by the government.”

There has been at least one example of a pro-Trump outlet stating it won't comply with the Biden mandate. Daily Wire, a conservative website, announced that it will resist the vaccine requirement. "We'll use every tool at our disposal including legal action to resist," the site's CEO said in a video.

Other large companies in the Trump immediate orbit have likewise more often chosen to comply with health restrictions instead of defying public health guidelines.

Trump’s own hotels offer their guests extensive assurances online about their compliance with COVID regulations. Hotels like the Washington, DC location currently have an indoor mask mandate.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate: What top CEOs are saying about it

Brian Sozzi

·Anchor, Editor-at-Large

Fri, September 10, 2021, 

President Biden's harder line on COVID-19 vaccinations has corporate America talking about what measures they may have to implement toward employees. 

On Thursday, the president ordered new federal vaccine requirements for nearly 100 million people in the U.S. in an effort to control the Delta variant. 

"We have been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. 

The influential Business Roundtable — led by top CEOs such as Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Walgreen's CEO Rosalind Brewer — was quick to release their thoughts on the measure. 

"Business Roundtable welcomes the Biden administration’s continued vigilance in the fight against COVID. America’s business leaders know how critical vaccination and testing are in defeating the pandemic, which is why so many have invested resources in encouraging and incentivizing their customers and employees to get vaccinated, including providing paid time off. Over the past several weeks many companies have decided to implement a vaccine mandate for some or all of their employees, a decision we applaud. Business Roundtable looks forward to continue working with the administration and leaders across all levels of government to defeat the pandemic," Business Roundtable CEO Joshua Bolten said in a statement.

To be sure, the debate on a vaccine mandate inside of the halls of corporate America is now only likely to heat up.

Here's what several top CEOs said on Yahoo Finance Live about Biden's tougher stance on COVID-19 vaccines. 

Traeger CEO Jeremy Andrus

"Since the very first day, the health and safety of our team has been the number one priority above all. We certainly have programs in place to support vaccination. We encourage it. I have been vaccinated. I am glad I was. In terms of mandating vaccination, we will wait and see where that goes. We think vaccination is smart, and we are encouraging it. In some cases we will put some incentives in place to ensure that happens. We feel very good about policies in place. We haven't had meaningful COVID issues within the office on the team, we do track that. We ask employees to notify us. We feel good about where we are."

Rocket Companies CEO Jay Farner

"What we have learned is that we can perform in an excellent manner regardless of what is happening, whether people are working from home or working in the office. For us and our culture, we want people in the office as much as possible as it encourages collaboration. We already rolled out a process very similar to what President Biden has asked for a few weeks ago. So our team members are either vaccinated or tested weekly before they come into the office."

Academy Sports CEO Ken Hicks

"We encourage all of our team members to get a vaccination. We provide access. We also provide compensation to the hourly employees. And we will monitor that, and the OSHA and the Fed government guidance that comes out. Hopefully it will be something thoughtful that we can all support and live with."

PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati

"Being remote right now [our workforce] that question [on a vaccine mandate] is moot. But as we push our reopening to the start of next year, and as we kind of get into that, we will be following the national and CDC guidelines to make sure we are providing the safety for every one of our employees."

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance.