CNN fires three employees for coming into work unvaccinated

The company president said the network had a zero-tolerance policy regarding unvaccinated employees

Three staffers at CNN who were reportedly coming into work despite not having taken the coronavirus vaccine have been fired, according to a memo sent out to the company by its president, Jeff Zucker.

Mr Zucker sent a memo to staff on Thursday to alert them that the company was changing its return-to-work date, pushing it from 7 September to mid-October. The change is a result of the spike in coronavirus cases caused by the Delta variant.

The memo also included the revelation that three staffers who were apparently coming into work without being vaccinated were fired.

"In the past week, we have been made aware of three employees who were coming to the office unvaccinated. All three have been terminated. Let me be clear – we have a zero-tolerance policy on this," Mr Zucker said.

He said that he understood that "we are all feeling a mix of anticipation, anxiety, frustration, confusion and exasperation”, and told his employees to look after each other.

"Continue to take care of yourselves and each other. And I will share more updates just as soon as we have them," he said.

The terminations exemplify the tensions many workplaces face as employees prepare to return to the office. Some industries, particularly hospitals and other healthcare providers, have made it mandatory for employees to be vaccinated.

Google, Disney and the NFL have also made vaccines mandatory for staff before they return to work.

President Joe Biden has also mandated that all federal employees either take the vaccine or comply with weekly coronavirus testing.

New York City and the state of California have also enacted vaccine mandates for employees working for the government.

Some critics of the mandates have complained that it should not be mandatory to take the vaccine until it has been fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The vaccines were given emergency authorisation by the FDA in early December 2020.

Despite the complaints, health experts believe more businesses will begin mandating vaccines to ensure they are not subject to further shutdowns or staff shortages caused by outbreaks within the workplace.

Legal analysts believe that there will inevitably legal challenges to businesses firing employees for not takin the vaccines, but there is legal precedent for vaccine requirements.

Every state and the District of Columbia have previously mandated vaccines for measles, rubella, and polio for school-aged children, and New York has an existing law requiring healthcare workers to be vaccinated for a range of ailments.

As the Delta variant sends primarily unvaccinated Americans into ICUs across the country, only half of Americans have been fully vaccinated. US adults with at least one dose of the vaccine make up 70 per cent of the population.