Federal agencies may no longer use an employee's vaccination record as part of any employment decisions, the Office of Personnel Management said in a memo.
In September 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order mandating federal agencies to require COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of federal employment. The order was later repealed.
The Office of Personnel Management is reiterating in a memo sent Friday that effective immediately, federal agencies may not use a person's COVID-19 vaccine status, history of noncompliance with prior COVID-19 vaccination mandates, or requests for exemptions from such mandates in any employment-related decisions, including but not limited to hiring, promotion, discipline, or termination.
OPM also mandated that all information related to an employee's COVID-19 vaccine status, noncompliance with prior vaccine mandates, or exemption requests must be expunged from any employee's Official Personnel Folder and electronic Official Personnel Folder.
The memo comes after the Department of Health and Human Services announced it will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses such as COVID-19 and influenza.
Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine critic, announced in a statement Tuesday that $500 million worth of vaccine development projects, all using mRNA technology, will be halted.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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