Ninety-nine percent of officials working in the White House have been vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus, The Hill reported Monday. This statistic came the day of the deadline set by President Biden requiring federal employees to be vaccinated.
Reportedly, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday that the Executive Office of the President already hit a 99 percent vaccination rate. This includes Biden, members of his staff, and staffers for councils and offices that operate within the White House.
The deadline, which was Monday, Nov. 22, for federal workers to comply with Biden’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, offered few exemptions for religious beliefs or medical reasons.
As I covered yesterday, more than 90 percent of federal workers have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Another 5 percent of federal employees are in compliance with the mandate by having a valid exemption from the vaccine or an extension request. Overall, the mandate required a total of 3.5 million federal workers to get inoculated.
“Part of the process here will be different agencies through HR processes counseling with employees to move towards being 100 percent compliant. That’s our objective,” Psaki told The Hill. “It is certainly not a cliff where we are going to look for decreasing of the workforce.”
However, as I noted in yesterday’s report, The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force’s website states that employees who are not in compliance with the vaccine mandate will eventually face termination from their positions.
“Employees covered by Executive Order 14043 who fail to comply with a requirement to be fully vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination and have neither received an exception nor have an exception request under consideration, are in violation of a lawful order. Employees who violate lawful orders are subject to discipline, up to and including termination or removal,” the website states. “Consistent with the Administration’s policy, agencies should initiate an enforcement process to work with employees to encourage their compliance.”