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Here are the companies requiring workers to get vaccinated

30 July 2021
Dan Ackermann

Life for the unvaccinated could get more difficult as bosses increasingly move to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory.

The big picture: The Federal Government in May said that it is legal for companies to require employees to get vaccinated for coronavirus.

By the numbers: 64% of Americans said in June or July that they would support federal, state or local governments requiring everyone to get vaccinated, according to a survey conducted by The COVID States Project.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Caitlin Owens: Many vaccinated Americans appear to be losing patience with people who are still unvaccinated, which will probably make them all the more tolerant of mandates.

The companies:

Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to employees announced that those going back to the office needed to be vaccinated. The company is also extending its work-from-home policy through Oct. 18.

Facebook said that anyone going back to work in their U.S. campuses must be vaccinated.

Netflix is requiring that the casts for all of its U.S. productions be vaccinated, as well as everyone who comes in contact with them, Deadline reports.

Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said that the retailer's corporate workers and managers must be vaccinated, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.

BlackRock says that only fully vaccinated workers are allowed to return to the office, a company spokesperson told CNN.

Morgan Stanley is prohibiting all unvaccinated staff and clients from entering its headquarters in New York, CNN notes, citing a memo sent to workers.

Saks Fifth Avenue is requiring that all workers be inoculated, per the New York Times. The company says it will be returning to in person work in September.

The Washington Post informed its employees earlier this week that it will require all of them — including contractors and guests who wish to enter the newspaper's offices — to show that they have received the vaccine.

  • Publisher Fred Ryan said the requirement will be "a condition of employment" starting on Sept. 13.

Ascension Health, one of the largest private health care systems in the U.S., said that all employees must be vaccinated.

Lyft employees who work in the company's offices must be vaccinated as of Aug. 2, according to an email shared with CNN.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that employees wishing to return to the office must be fully vaccinated. He added that people going into the office must also wear masks, regardless of vaccination status, Insider reports.

Twitter had been requiring that employees get vaccinated, but earlier this week, the company said it would shutting down its offices in New York and San Francisco due to the recent increase in coronavirus cases.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.