Coast residents speak out on Meggan Gray’s departure, workplace vaccine mandates
Longtime WLOX-TV anchor Meggan Gray parted ways with the Biloxi-based news station on Sept. 30, citing the parent company’s vaccine mandate that required all employees be vaccinated or face termination.
Gray’s announcement on Facebook led to thousands of comments from residents. She received an overwhelming amount of support from viewers who have watched her for years, most recently on “Good Morning Mississippi.”
But some residents also felt Gray should have complied with the COVID-19 policy.
The Sun Herald asked Mississippi Coast residents how they felt about Gray’s departure and vaccine mandates in the workplace.
About 1,500 replied to our survey. Here are the results.
Residents split on Gray’s departure
- 55% of participants said Gray should have been allowed to keep her job despite being unvaccinated, which breaks Gray Television’s corporate policy. Gray is the parent company of WLOX.
- 44% of participants said Gray should not have been allowed to keep her job if she chose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Less than 1% of participants were not sure how they felt.
COVID testing could have been an option
- 55% of participants said that workplaces in general should allow unvaccinated employees to submit to regular COVID-19 testing rather than mandate.
- 37% of participants said workers should have to follow their employer’s vaccine guidelines, including mandatory vaccinations.
- 8% of participants were not sure how they felt.
Residents split on vaccine mandate policies
- 55% of participants said workplaces should not be able to terminate workers who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
- 42% of participants said employees who do not comply with COVID policies should face termination.
- 3% of participants were not sure how they felt.
Most who answered the survey are fully vaccinated
- 68% of participants said they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
COVID vaccines in the workplace
WLOX-TV is not the only workplace on the Coast with a vaccine policy. A mandate from President Joe Biden’s administration requires federal employees to be fully vaccinated.
The federal mandate includes Stennis Space Center in Hancock County and Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, two large employers on the Coast. Some Ingalls employees and their families protested against the mandate at a planned rally on Friday.
Where to get a COVID vaccine
State health officials and leaders, including top doctors at hospitals on the Coast and across the state, have urged residents to get vaccinated to fight the coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of more than 9,800 Mississippians, according to Mississippi State Department of Health data.
The state’s health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, has repeatedly asked the Coast to get the vaccine, especially during the COVID-19 fourth wave that wreaked havoc across the Coast, leading to more deaths and overwhelmed hospitals.
Every single mayor in South Mississippi has also urged the COVID-19 vaccine, they wrote in a column to the Sun Herald. Coast nurses have described what they’ve seen on the frontlines, and some have hit “compassion fatigue” during the the delta variant fourth wave.
Those who want to get vaccinated can find more information, including where to get the vaccine, on the health department’s website.
