Former ESPN reporter Allison Williams, who left the company after refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19, said she walked away from “the largest contract in my career” over the mandate.
“It was contingent on me getting an injection, which I was morally, ethically and medically opposed to,” Williams said Thursday in an appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show.” “So when it came down to it, I knew I couldn’t get it, and when they denied my request for accommodation, I was very surprised.”
Williams has said she was concerned about the vaccine affecting her fertility as she tries to conceive a second child. Scientists, including the CDC, have found no link between the vaccine and fertility issues.
She said that she was in the process of applying for a medical exemption with ESPN when she was told she wouldn’t be supported. Ultimately, she requested a religious exemption despite her doctor supporting her decision not to get vaccinated.
“They’re essentially taking away what they believe is best for you because of the bureaucracy and the pressure that happens when you involve politics in medicine,” Williams said. “And this is a really dangerous space to occupy. And it scares me that people are not only supporting this, but encouraging it. Medical decisions need to be for individuals, not for the population en masse.”
Williams called her job at ESPN “the dream” and said management had been good to her in the past. Initially, when she expressed her concern about getting the vaccine, her manager thought they could work something out. She said that people above him made clear that it would be impossible for her to go to events or games without being vaccinated.
As part of her job reporting on college football, Williams worked games last season before there was a vaccine.
“I tested and I masked and I wasn’t a threat to anyone when no one was vaccinated,” she said. “So why is it now that anyone who wants the vaccine has it, and should be therefore protected, why am I a threat now?”
Williams also wondered why she couldn’t have done her job virtually, an option that ESPN evidently wasn’t going to bite on.
“I had hosted virtually [in the past], so I didn’t know why I couldn’t continue to host shows virtually without causing an undue burden on the company, but they did not see it that way,” Williams said. “I have to live with that decision.”