WILKESBORO, N.C. — More private companies are requiring their workers to get the coronavirus vaccine.
Tyson Foods is the latest to enforce the requirement. They have several facilities across our state including a plant in Wilkesboro.
Tyson Foods said all of its office workers are to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1 of this year. Plant workers who work in facilities like Wilkesboro are to be vaccinated by Nov. 1.
The food company announced almost half of its U.S. workforce is vaccinated. Now it's offering incentives to employees to get the vaccine, a vaccine the company will soon require.
One Tyson Plant worker who works at the facility in Wilkesboro says she believes it should be your own choice to get the vaccine, but understands why the company made the decision.
"It's an American right to protect each individual, but I also feel like it's your right whether or not you want to put something inside of your body. So, if Tyson Plant feels like they need to do this to protect the people, then if you want to work for Tyson then you should do it," Amy Biddix said.
Just last year over 500 workers tested positive for COVID-19 at the Wilkesboro facility. Biddix says she was working there during that time.
"It was scary, I mean it really was. Because I mean when you come in the building you don't know if who has it, who don't, all you can do is wear your mask and pray. That's what I did," explained Biddix.
Tyson Foods said to date, it's spent more than $700 million to fight the spread of COVID-19.
In a statement, Dr. Claudia Coplein, Chief Medical Officer of Tyson Foods said:
"Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the single most effective thing we can do to protect our team members, their families and their communities. With rapidly rising COVID-19 case counts of contagious, dangerous variants leading to increasing rates of severe illness and hospitalization among the U.S. unvaccinated population, this is the right time to take the next step to ensure a fully vaccinated workforce.”
Other employees we spoke with but chose not to be on camera had mixed reactions. Some support the decision, while others said they're afraid of what the vaccine could do to their body.