Washington Examiner Tells Employees: Get Vaxxed or Stay Out of the Kitchen

The conservative Washington Examiner is demanding that its employees become vaccinated — or face a permanent ban from the kitchen and other crucial office areas.

“All Washington Examiner and MediaDC employees will now be required to be vaccinated for Covid-19,” the publication wrote in a Sunday memo to employees obtained by Mediaite. “All employees must submit an affirmative statement proof of vaccination for Covid-19 to human resources no later than August 9.”

Going forward, the memo said, unvaccinated employees “will be required to wear a mask at all times while in the office, to include workstations and common areas.” It added, “Unvaccinated staff members will not be allowed to use the kitchen areas or be present in any conference room or training room,” the memo added.

A source familiar with the ordeal told Mediaite the demand came after a Covid-19 outbreak among staffers, and that the publication was tentatively set to demand a majority of its employees begin returning to their physical offices next month. The latter dictate stands in contrast to similar media organizations in Washington, D.C., which are mostly allowing their employees to continue working remotely for the foreseeable future.

However, it is not the first publication to require vaccinations. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, also told employees last week they would be required to provide proof they had been vaccinated as a condition of their employment.

The Examiner, a D.C.-based news website with a semi-monthly magazine, is owned by the 81-year-old Philip Anschutz, a billionaire philanthropist and Colorado resident. Anschutz also owned The Weekly Standard — which shared office space with the Examiner — until he ended the publication in 2018, after it had gained a reputation for acting as an unceasing critic of then-President Donald Trump.

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