Even though Fox News’ requirements for unvaccinated workers are stricter than those recommended by the Biden administration, network hosts continue to attack vaccination policies and compliance protocols.

Fox personalities and guests have insisted that vaccine mandates and testing requirements for the unvaccinated are akin to Jim Crow laws, apartheid, eugenics, forced sterilization, and discrimination against those affected by HIV/AIDS. The Biden administration policies Fox has spent months demonizing require companies with 100 or more employees to ensure their staff is fully vaccinated or provide a negative COVID-19 test once a week. By contrast, Fox Corp.’s extremely restrictive vaccination policy mandates employees either be vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 every single day. Additionally, all employees are required to enter the vaccination status into an online portal.

With more than 90% of Fox employees reporting that they are vaccinated, Fox hosts’ willful crusade to foment vaccine hesitancy among the general public exposes their view of American lives as disposable. In the face of criticism over their attacks on vaccine mandates, Fox hosts are now insisting that the vaccination and testing requirements at Fox Corp. are not actually a mandate at all.

During an October 13 podcast interview, prime-time host Tucker Carlson punted when confronted about the conflict between Fox’s public messaging and the rigorous standards of its vaccination policy. Carlson cackled into the camera while telling co-host Jason Nichols that he was “not qualified to speak for the company” and insisting, “Employers are not empowered — in fact, they’re not allowed — to ask employees what their status is.”

Days before, Carlson told viewers of his show that it is “completely untrue” that there is a vaccine mandate at Fox, lambasting “cynical authoritarians” like the Biden administration for doubting that “Fox News defends this country's most basic civil liberties.”

On Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade said that Fox’s vaccination policy for employees was somehow not a mandate since the network allowed for a testing option for unvaccinated people. Co-host Peter Doocy explained,  “We don’t have a mandate — we have a protocol.”

Host Jesse Watters told viewers that “not a single person has been fired from Fox for refusing to get vaccinated.” The on-screen chyron claimed, “Let’s Be Clear: There Is No Vax Mandate At Fox.”

This comes as Fox's Neil Cavuto, who contracted a breakthrough case of COVID-19, returned to the air and begged viewers to get vaccinated.