Companies are reviewing their vaccination requirements after the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling, with some dropping them, some sticking with them, and some reinstating them.
A General Electric Co. spokesperson said on Friday that it will stop requiring the U.S. employees to be vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Epoch Times reached out to General Electric for comment.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which started in Wuhan, China, and spread to the world. The pandemic has cost over 5.5 million lives and infected over 300 million people globally.
General Electric is a Boston-based maker of jet engines, wind turbines, and medical scanners. It had about 56,000 employees in the United States at the beginning of 2021.
The company’s decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Thursday blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates for private businesses while upholding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’s vaccine mandate for health care workers.
However, another vaccine mandate on federal contractors imposed by the White House may affect General Electric. The federal contractor vaccine mandate is currently suspended while litigation is proceeding.
Companies took different approaches after the ruling, some choosing to stick with vaccine mandates at the company level.
Citigroup Inc., a company with around 65,000 employees, is still urging the U.S. employees to meet the vaccination mandate deadline—Jan. 14.
“Going into the last day [of the deadline], we expect the number of employees who have not complied will decrease even further. Our goal has always been to keep everyone at Citi, and we sincerely hope all of our colleagues take action to comply,” Citigroup human resource chief Sara Wechter said in a LinkedIn post.
Wechter said the company had reached 99 percent compliance with the vaccine mandate on Jan. 14.
By Allen Zhong
