The world-famous coffee giant Starbucks has come under fire for scrapping the Covid-19 vaccine mandate, with calls to ‘boycott Starbucks’ flooding social media.
Both customers and Starbucks baristas say they refuse to support a place, no matter how iconic, which does not require employee vaccinations.
“Who wants unvaccinated people handling your food and drinks?” wrote one Twitter user, while others bitterly joked with the idea of “Starbucks now serving Covid-19 with that delicious hot coffee.”
The public reaction was sparked by Starbucks’ decision to go back on its previously announced plan to require all its US workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by February 9 or submit to weekly testing. The company scrapped the plan after the Supreme Court earlier this month ruled against the vaccine mandate proposed by President Joe Biden’s administration for large businesses. Without the mandate, firms are left to decide how to counter the spread of the pandemic internally.
“We respect the Court’s ruling and will comply,” John Culver, head of Starbucks in North America, said in a note to employees on Tuesday. Culver noted, however, that Starbucks workers are still encouraged to get vaccinated. He added that the “vast majority” of Starbucks’ roughly 200,000 US employees have been fully vaccinated already, but did not give specific numbers.