Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek will be at the White House on Wednesday to meet with President Joe Biden, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Chapek will be part of a panel of business leaders set to discuss the White House’s vaccine mandate, which instructs OSHA (the Occupational Health and Safety Administration) to require companies with at least 100 employees to have their workers either receive a vaccination against COVID-19 or be tested for the virus regularly.
Other executives at the meeting will include Microsoft CEO Brad Smith and Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer.
“The President will discuss their leadership on putting into place strong COVID-19 requirements that help keep a safe workplace,” according to a White House official. “This event will also serve as a rallying cry for more businesses across the country to step up and institute similar measures.”
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According to the White House’s official schedule for Wednesday, the meeting will take place at 1:30 p.m. in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building library, and there will be a brief media opportunity in the form of a pool spray.
Disney has already said that employees that work on-site at its offices or parks will be required to be vaccinated. WarnerMedia will also require vaccines for staff working in offices, while Fox Corp. is requiring that employees verify that they have been vaccinated. In a memo to Fox employees Tuesday, Fox HR chief Kevin Lord said that 90 percent of employees said they were vaccinated, and that the company would soon be releasing a testing plan for those who were not.
“Since the President’s announcement last Thursday, we continue to see broad-based support from across the country for vaccine requirements and similar efforts,” the White House official adds. “The reason is simple: vaccine requirements are good for the economy and they work — they get more people vaccinated and accelerate the path out of the pandemic.”
