Trump admin directs federal agencies to delete employee COVID vaccination records
The Trump administration has made a significant move by ordering all federal agencies to eliminate any records related to workers’ COVID-19 vaccination status, noncompliance with pandemic-era mandates, or requests for vaccine exemptions. This decision was announced by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in a memo to all federal department and agency heads.
The rollback of vaccine record retention requirements is a response to recent litigation and is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to reverse what they see as “harmful pandemic-era policies” imposed by former President Joe Biden. OPM Director Scott Kupor emphasized that federal workers should not have been fired, punished, or sidelined for simply making a personal medical decision during the pandemic.
Effective immediately, agencies are prohibited from using an employee’s vaccine history in any employment-related decision, including hiring, promotion, discipline, or termination. Within 90 days, vaccine-related information must be expunged from both physical and electronic personnel files of all federal workers. Employees have the option to opt out within those 90 days if they wish to keep their COVID vaccine history on file.
Agencies must certify compliance with Kupor’s order by September 8th. This directive comes after President Biden signed an executive order in September 2021 requiring all federal workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment. However, a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking the mandate in January 2022, and the full fifth circuit struck down the mandate a year later.
In May of 2023, President Biden rescinded the mandate, following his declaration in a September 2022 “60 Minutes” interview that the pandemic was over. The Trump administration’s decision to eliminate vaccine records from federal agencies is seen as a step towards ensuring that personal medical decisions do not have a lasting impact on federal workers.
