Major Florida Corporations, Publix, Disney World, and Universal Orlando, have updated their COVID-19 policies to coordinate with the new Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.
The new CDC guidelines are due to the surge in Delta variant cases across the nation, with Florida being responsible for one-fifth of those cases.
Prior to the surge, the CDC had previously lifted the indoor mask mandate for people that were vaccinated, saying that the vaccine mitigated the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus. The CDC’s new recommendation is that people should wear a mask whether vaccinated or not.
Publix updated its guidelines on Friday citing the CDC’s new recommendation which says, “Effective August 2, Publix is requiring associates, regardless of their vaccination status, to wear face coverings over their noses and mouths while inside any Publix location. We encourage all to do their part to slow the spread of COVID-19.” The mask mandate for vaccinated employees was previously lifted.
In a letter to customers and associates regarding the changes, Publix CEO Todd Jones said, “Publix has remained in close contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal and state agencies since January to monitor developments and updated guidance on coronavirus. I’m writing to share with you the actions Publix is taking across our entire operation to safeguard the health and well-being of our customers, our associates, and our communities.”
While they did not directly reference the CDC, Disney World followed suit with the CDC guidelines, and reissued the mask mandate for vaccinated people that was previously lifted by the park in June. Disney World’s updated mask policy states, “Face coverings are required for all guests (ages 2 and up) while indoors and in Disney buses, monorail and Disney Skyliner, regardless of vaccination status. This includes upon entering and throughout all attractions. Face coverings remain optional for all guests in outdoor common areas.” Disney also includes an extensive list of requirements for a proper or “acceptable” mask.
Like Publix, Universal Orlando directly mentions the CDC in its updated policies, which states, “We encourage all our guests to follow CDC guidelines and local directives to wear face coverings while indoors across Universal Orlando Resort. Face coverings are optional while outdoors. We also encourage all guests to keep a safe distance between travel parties, and we remain focused on maintaining the highest cleanliness and sanitization standards.” It then specifies saying, “We encourage all guests – regardless of vaccination status – to wear face coverings while indoors.”
In addition to these corporations changing their policies to match the CDC, they also encourage their guests and employees to get the vaccine. As of Friday, just under 58% of the population in Florida has had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Our World in Data.
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Casey Owens is a contributing writer for The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to caseyowensreports@gmail.com
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I think all businesses should close down and see what you die from quicker – starvation or Covid. If masks were the answer then why aren’t the ruling elite following the wrong mandates. Obama‘s birthday bash, photo ops by Nancy Pelosi, AOC partying it up unmasked in a group of people. Apparently Covid doesn’t affect them.
If you’re relying on the communist controlled media to tell you the truth about infections and deaths specifically in children then you are a moron. Masking kids is child abuse. But it does accomplish the progressive communist goal which is to dumb down students so only the ruling elite children who go to schools that don’t require masks will be educated. I got the vaccine but I don’t feel any safer. And I was perfectly healthy before I got the vaccine. I did not stay at home. I shopped in Crawfordville and Thomasville which were not run by mask Nazis. I used common sense, kept my distance from strangers and washed my hands regularly. And I did not get Covid. I took care of my sick grandchildren who did not have Covid though I’m sure that if the doctors could have figured out a way to call it Covid instead of just a normal virus they would have, just to make money off the taxpayers. Great grandson was tested three times all negative but a very uncomfortable experience for a four-year-old . But all you child abusers don’t care. Now I’m worried that I may be making somebody else sick because of all the concerns about the vaccine and shedding. Those who actually had Covid have natural antibodies and should not get the vaccine because it could do more harm than good. But for you stupid people out there who are drinking the Jim Jones Kool-Aid – Keep drinking it – it will kill you eventually.
But just like Jim Jones followers who believed that everything he did was in their best interest, keep doing what you are told to do until it does kill you. Use common sense, protect yourself without Nazi mask mandates and Nazi vaccine papers. Ask the French how that worked for them during World War II without the US having a to bail them out. Papers had to be shown to the Germans at that time. Not vaccine papers but accomplish the same thing -control people and had them living in fear. There is no guarantee that we will be safe from everything including disease. freedom is something worth fighting for. For those of you who want to give it up so easily, go to Communist China or Cuba or Russia or some other dictatorship where you can live in fear of your life all the time. A virus will be the least of your concerns but at least you will be happy living in a place where your every move is controlled by tyrannical dictator who knows what’s in your best interest. Let the rest of us live our lives and freedom. To respect those who died fighting for our freedom. Why did they waste their lives for people who want to be controlled by a tyrannical regime like the one we have now in Leon County and in Washington DC. And I mean all politicians on both side of the aisle. Most are corrupt and don’t give a damn about anybody – it is about power.
Our children aren’t dying from Covid. Our children are dying in democrat controlled cities like Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and so on. They are being slaughtered and no one is doing a thing about it. And most of them are minorities that the president says he cares so much about. He doesn’t care, BLM doesn’t care, antifa doesn’t care, The tech Giants don’t care, the Obamas don’t care, the Clintons don’t care, and San Francisco’s drug dealer Nancy Pelosi doesn’t care. When is somebody going to start caring about their lives. No just shut up put your mask on and die a slow death from lack of oxygen. More children committed suicide due to this tyrannical regime. But that’s OK with all of the mask Nazis. suicide deaths don’t count, all the Covid deaths. If you feel safe behind a mask, wear it. Breath your own CO2 on a daily basis and potentially get infections from that petri dish you’re wearing on your face.
And for those who think the CDC is The gospel and Fauci is God. They have lied so many times I am not sure how anybody with half a brain would believe anything They say. It is all political. And they listen to the WHO which is controlled by the communist government which gave us this wonderful virus with the help of Adolph Fauci and US taxpayer money. I know his name is Anthony but I think Adolf is more appropriate for someone who is so in tune with Hitler.
On a bright note I no longer worry about getting the flu since it has been eradicated by Covid. I know I can’t die from cancer, heart attacks or any other diseases that we used to die from. Because they have all been eradicated by Covid.
Kathi Whitfield and Lena, thank you both for recognizing the urgency of the situation and eloquently expressing your thoughts. I’m sure you both understand your words are of little efficacy, given that you are addressing them to mostly idiots. These are the same people that beg for the vaccine AFTER they’re admitted to the hospital.
Oh boy don’t you love the “ live free or die”? Geez this state is full of selfish me me me’s . Dumbo the leader is surly trying to weed people out by their own stupidity!!!?????
And yet, John… you’re here.
Thanks for your input. 🙂
If you don’t like the mask policies of businesses then don’t do business with them.
Nobody cares what you think about vaccinations or mask requirements and I can assure you nobody is going to change their mind based on what opinion you express or article you cite with a Tallahassee Reports comment.
Biden and Harris are the biggest joke of the century
@ Lena,
If only you put as much energy into having Vince Long and Biden secure our border. You are disingenuous.
You people are horrifyingly so misinformed. You can’t even go to the correct places to get real facts. I’m neither Republican nor Democrat, but I listen to the Doctors and nurses that are begging for help. Their hospitals are overloaded, their staff is overworked, and even the children’s hospitals are admitting 6 X the normal daily amount! For the sake of the children, PLEASE, look at REALITY!!!! Go to a hospital and tell them you don’t believe it…ask them to show you their Covid Ward! Ask them the numbers because the reason you’re not seeing them is because our Governor, who I thought would be responsible stopped reporting them. As soon as the # went over 21,000 on Friday, he’s reported none since..Zero, Zilch, Nada!!
Florida is the laughing stock of the country, yet families are crying because their parents, children, siblings are suffering or dying!! People that are at the point of having to go on ventilators are begging f or the vaccine but it’s too late for them! Please, whatever your political views are, protect your children!! Wearing a mask isn’t taking a way your rights, it’s protecting the rights of children as well as adults! The media is NOT exaggerating…go…see for yourself!!! Talk to a real doctor working on covid patients right now…go to the children’s hospital…see for yourselves! But for God’s sake, wear a damn mask when you do.
Do you! Your body your choice, for everyone, it’s your body your choice, for everything! I mean everything!
@ Lena
“My Body; My Choice”… remember that one?… it’s not just for killing innocent babies anymore.
@ Lena, I know Democrats that dies from it and NO, they are NOT smarter. In FACT, Democrats are the reason the US has Covid as bad as it does. Trump tried like hell to ban all flights from China, the Democrats said NO. Trump fought to close the Border, Democrats fought him daily against it. Biden campaigned on Opening the Border on his first day in Office if he won, to ALL who wanted to come here. The Democrats cheated to make sure Biden won. The Open Border is the ONLY Campaign Promise Biden has kept. ALL of the people pouring over the Border WITH Covid is the Democrats fault, those IN Office and those that PUT THEM in Office. All of this belongs to the Democrats. Deal with it.
Lena only knows Republicans who are affected by it. What a miracle!
And only Democrats are smart? Those comments are what I call ‘misinformation’.
Live Free or Die….I’m not wearing a mask. And I always avoid shops whose employees actually enforce Corporate orders. And I will avoid Publix.
Which brings us to the fact that schools should REQUIRE MASKS! They are the protect your unvaccinated kids as much as the ones who are safer because they got the vaccines. Right now, there are kids at TMH who are reportedly in serious condition due to COVID.
That’s going to be your unvaxxed kid this year. Last year it was a milder strain. So, don’t think it will be the same this year. This year, the Delta strain has sent young people straight to the ICU.
Get your heads out of the sand. It’s been a year of this but you wouldn’t know it by the lethal levels of denial by the Republicans.
Some Republicans I know have already died of it. I know of no Democrats because they were smart enough to get the vaccine and live safely.
Lemmings all… Neither Dr.Fraudci, The Communist Collusion on Disease (CDC), nor the Dementia Joe Biden Sadminstration have any standing whatsoever on the importance of Public Health.
Fraudci is a fraud and looks more like Joseph Mengele, the CDC is owned by the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex, and DJ Biden is purposely infecting and killing Americans via his illegal alien free-for-all at our border.
These corporations are taking the path that best protects them from lawsuits, trivial and legit. I can’t really blame them.
But I can blame the narrative. For so many months the narrative was the death count. Now that the virus has mutated to something that’s not so easily controlled with the “vaccines” the narrative is infections. In fact, I haven’t heard anything about the death count, or rate, in months. Vaccination and infection rates, and changes in rates, but the silence on the death rate suggests that we’re being played.
Well said POC.
I hope Mike Lindell is vindicated during his cyber symposium on Aug. 10-12th. Most people know there was massive election fraud in 2020 and this whole totalitarian nightmare is a scam.
Just think if you were an employee and got vaccinated to get back to normal and breathe fresh air for the first time in over a year. Nope, no fresh air for you, thanks Fauci and the Coronabros.
@ POC: Forget THAT. I am thinking about hiring M&M to go after Amazon. Just about every Day I either get a Phone Call from a scammer pretending to be Amazon allowing a Charge on my Account for $375 to $4,500 or it will be an Email letting me know the same thing only that the Email is using actual Amazon logo’s. I am sure that Amazon know about it and just doesn’t care. So to ME, that is a crime, “Accessory After The Fact”. I should also go after Norton for the same thing.
How many dead employees and patrons are attributable to Publix remaining open as an “essential” business from the rise of Covidstan? How many dead tourists are directly connected to Disney and Universal when they relaxed their previous Covidstan dictates? How much real liability have these coward companies suffered following the dictates of Covidstan? Where is Morgan and Morgan, we the people, in fighting for employees being abused by these despicable companies? Where are any of the gutless unions fighting for worker’s rights? Where is the public union fighting for government employee’s health rights?
All you hear are crickets while Covidstan makes another assault on basic human rights, especially the right to breathe and not be a human rat experimented on.