In an email to staff (as reported by Deadline), CNN president Jeff Zucker wrote:
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. You need to be vaccinated to come to the office. And you need to be vaccinated to work in the field, with other employees, regardless of whether you enter an office or not. Period. We expect that in the weeks ahead, showing proof of vaccination may become a formal part of the WarnerMedia Passcard process. Regardless, our expectations remain in place.
An employer has the legal right to mandate the Covid vaccine as a condition of employment. Employees who lie about their vaccine status, present fraudulent proof of vaccination, or otherwise violate a vaccine mandate by going to work unvaccinated should be fired, period. The employment relationship is one based on trust. Once that trust is broken, the relationship between the employer and that employee is irreparably damaged. Termination is the only option.
No matter where you stand on the issue of vaccines in general and employer vaccinate mandates specifically, lying is lying. If you're anti-vax or anti-mandate, ask yourself how you'd handle the situation in which an employee is dishonest about any issue of significance other than the Covid vaccine. If you're being honest, you'd agree that termination is the correct decision in this case.