(Headline USA) After partisan officials with the Biden administration OKed both public and private institutions to impose mandatory vaccinations, Google joined the growing list of virtue-signaling groups to declare it would do so.
Google’s announcement Wednesday came as a new panic strikes over “mutant” strains like the delta variant, which—along with an influx of unvaccinated illegal immigrants—has led to an uptick in reported COVID-19 cases.
The Silicon Valley-based company said it was postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened.
In an email sent to Google’s more than 130,000 employees worldwide, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18 instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1.
The decision also affects tens of thousands of contractors whom Google intends to continue to pay while access to its campuses remains limited.
“This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” Pichai wrote.
And Pichai disclosed that once offices are fully reopened, everyone working there will have to be vaccinated.
The requirement will be first imposed at Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters and other U.S. offices, before being extended to the more than 40 other countries where the Google operates.
Compared with other major companies of similar reach and profit-generating capability, the parasitic Big Tech outlet has a relatively small workforce, and many of its engineers already may have been equipped to work remotely.
However, the announcement called to mind the lemming-like cascade of cancellations that tanked the US economy in March 2020.
Even before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020, Google, Apple and many other prominent tech firms had been telling their employees to work from home.
But the WHO’s announcement sparked a panicked frenzy that included the mass hoarding of toilet paper and drove hand-sanitizer prices into the triple digits.
Google’s vaccine requirement may likewise embolden other employers to issue similar mandates to guard against outbreaks and minimize the need to wear masks in the office.
Various government agencies, including the Veterans Administration, already have announced demands for all their employees to be vaccinated, but the corporate world so far has been taking a more measured approach.
Delta and United airlines are requiring new employees to show proof of vaccination. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are requiring their employees to disclose their vaccination status, but are not requiring staffers to be vaccinated.
Google’s vaccine mandate will be adjusted to adhere to the laws and regulations of each location, Pichai wrote, and exceptions will be made for medical and other “protected” reasons.
“Getting vaccinated is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our communities healthy in the months ahead,” Pichai explained.
Google’s decision to require employees working in the office to be vaccinated comes on the heels of similar moves affecting hundreds of thousands government workers in California and New York as part of stepped-up measures to fight the delta variant.
President Joe Biden also was considering mandating all federal government workers to be vaccinated—an announcement he planned to make Thursday.
The vaccine requirement rolling out in California next month covers more than 240,000 government employees. The city and county of San Francisco is also requiring its roughly 35,000 workers to be vaccinated or risk disciplinary action after the Food and Drug Administration approves one of the vaccines now being distributed under an emergency order.
It’s unclear how many of Google’s workers still haven’t been vaccinated. In his email, Pichai described the vaccination rate at the company as high.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
