Facebook’s tens of thousands of employees will not be required to take the coronavirus vaccine before heading back to work in the social-media titan’s offices, a report said Thursday.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement when asked during an all-hands meeting Thursday how the coming vaccine would affect the company’s day-to-day operations, The Daily Beast reported, citing an anonymous source familiar with the huddle.
Zuckerberg reportedly said that the company’s more than 50,000 employees would not be compelled to get the shot as a prerequisite for returning to its offices around the world.
In fact, he said, some Facebook workers have already returned to office life in countries where the coronavirus is on the decline.
Nevertheless, Zuckerberg touted the vaccine’s roll-out as a positive development, and encouraged his employees to keep up coronavirus best practices, including social distancing, the report said.
A federal government advisory panel voted Thursday to recommend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a vaccine developed by Pfizer, meaning the vaccine could be available within a matter of days.
“Regardless of when vaccines become available, we’ve given our employees the option to work remotely at least until July 2021,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement “Our U.S. offices remain closed and we don’t expect them to open before the COVID-19 vaccines are widely available.”






