Disney has become the latest big American company to make vaccination against coronavirus mandatory as concern grows about the rise of a third wave of the pandemic.
The media conglomerate will require all salaried employees at any of its sites in the United States to become vaccinated against the disease. The retail giant Walmart, America’s biggest private sector employer, also said that all corporate staff must get jabbed.
America’s largest businesses are increasingly taking a tougher line on Covid-19 jabs amid worries about the highly infectious Delta variant.
In Britain, there has been pushback against plans to make jabs mandatory for certain activities, with Tory MPs saying it infringes civil liberties. Boris Johnson announced last month that from the end of September people would need to be fully vaccinated to enter nightclubs in England.
Worries about low take-up of the jabs in the US prompted President Biden to set out rules requiring federal staff to show they are vaccinated or else face regular Covid testing.
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Corporate America is shifting in the same direction. The internet giant Google has said that vaccinations will be mandatory for employees entering its US offices. Facebook and Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, have also followed suit.