Hollywood’s COVID vaccination mandate gets an expiration date

Officials have announced that Hollywood’s COVID policy will expire for the film and TV industry next month – including the mandate that required all cast and crew to be vaccinated to receive employment.

The policy began in September 2020 per an agreement between the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers and Hollywood’s unions. The procedure allowed film and TV sets to start working again after an industry-wide lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic.

The policy was supposed to end on April 30, 2021. Still, it was prolonged multiple times, including that same year in June, when set producers were asked, “to implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crew in Zone A on a production-by-production basis”. Zone A is where unmasked actors work in a restrictive area on set.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers released a statement on Friday (March 31), announcing that its decision aligns with the US Department of Health and Human Services, which also recently announced its new policy.

“The date coincides with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ end to the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration on May 11,” they said.

Over the last few months, the mask mandate has become controversial. In February, Woody Harrelson mocked the policy and called it “absurd” in an interview with the New York Times.

“I don’t think that anybody should have the right to demand that you’re forced to do the testing, forced to wear the mask and forced to get vaccinated three years on,” he said. “I’m just like, let’s be done with this nonsense.”

Tim Robbins backed up his statement by saying: “Woody is right. Time to end this charade.”

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher also spoke against the vaccine mandate. In an interview with Variety, Drescher said: “I think that when it comes to what we do with our bodies, that should be a personal choice.”

Any production with a vaccination mandate in effect as of May 11 will continue to implement the procedure throughout the duration of filming.

Employees will still get five COVID sick days if they become ill while working on a production. However, COVID testing stations will continue to be implemented, but only for actors involved in “intimate scenes,” according to a press release from the entertainment union.

In other news, Tilda Swinton also disagreed with wearing a mask while on set for her new film. The actor claimed that she is “full of antibodies and very healthy.”

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