The Office of Personnel Management has issued a directive that significantly alters the landscape of federal employment policies regarding COVID-19 vaccination.
The OPM has instructed all federal agencies to cease using an employee’s vaccination status in any employment-related decisions. This directive effectively nullifies the previous executive order signed by President Biden in September 2021, which had mandated COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of federal employment.
The memo, distributed on Friday, explicitly prohibits the use of an individual’s vaccine status, history of noncompliance with prior mandates, or requests for exemptions in matters of hiring, promotion, discipline, or termination. Furthermore, the OPM has ordered the expungement of all such information from both physical and electronic Official Personnel Folders.
This development follows earlier reports that the Department of Health and Human Services plans to cancel contracts and withdraw funding for certain vaccine development projects. The evidence suggests that approximately $500 million worth of mRNA technology-based vaccine research aimed at combating respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 and influenza, will be halted.
These policy changes raise important questions about the future of public health measures in federal workplaces and the government’s approach to vaccine development.
