TV host, meteorologists among those who resign because of the vaccination mandate

A news anchor on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and a meteorologist in Nebraska are among a handful of Gray Television employees quitting their jobs instead of getting their COVID-19 vaccine.

An 18-year-old employee Meggan Gray stepped down from her role as co-host of WLOX-TV’s “Good Morning Mississippi” last Thursday, a day before a full immunization mandate went into effect on the 1st. October, according to a local newspaper, the Sun Herald.

Gray Television, the parent company of the Biloxi-based station, was demanding that all employees, guests, contractors and tenants be fully vaccinated against the virus, Gray posted on Facebook. “I have done everything possible to keep my job, including offering to be tested once a week. My requests have been refused,” she wrote.

“I may have lost my job, but I kept my integrity,” she added.

WLOX chief executive Rick Williams told the Sun Herald he couldn’t comment on a personnel issue. His email included a statement from Gray Television saying that its vaccination policy is intended to ensure a safe working environment and that the exceptions were limited to “certain medical conditions and / or religious objections. “

The policy also led to the ouster of meteorologist Tim Jones from another Gray Television station in Hastings, Nebraska. Jones took to YouTube to protest his dismissal from a job he had held for nearly eight years.

“It all sucks, but bigger and better things to come,” Jones told viewers in the video he dedicated to “colleagues who have also lost their jobs because of this unfair policy.”

Similar words were spoken by Dave Platta, a sports presenter at an ABC affiliate in Columbus, Georgia.

“My departure was not my choice. It was also not WTVM’s choice. It came from an edit by Gray Television,” said Platta, who has been with the job for 36 years.

“Dave Platta will be missed at WTVM and we appreciate his many contributions to the station’s success,” the station said in an article about his departure on its website.

In addition to Jones, Gray and Platta, two other Gray employees have gone public with their dismissal due to their refusal to be vaccinated, including Linda Simmons, 14-year-old employee, reporter in Springfield, Missouri, and Karl Bohnak, meteorologist at Marquette. , Michigan.

“I appreciate the freedom we all have to make our own informed decisions,” Simmons said on Facebook. She also defended her decision not to get the vaccine in a radio interview, saying “I really believe God was showing me reasons why I didn’t need to do this,” according to a Kansas account. City Star.

Simmons said she was one of three people in her post who were fired because of the police.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Bohnak, 68, said he was wary of “these injections,” writing that his own chances of dying from COVID-19 were slim and that he was unwilling to “risk” serious side effects ”of the vaccine.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccines are very effective in preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 and are the best way to reduce a virus that has killed more than 700,000 Americans. Serious side effects from the vaccine are extremely rare, the CDC said.

Atlanta-based Gray Television, which owns and operates television stations in more than 100 markets, did not respond to a request for comment from CBS MoneyWatch. The company employs around 6,900 people, according to estimates.