'Thanks to Trump's leadership': US administration targets 'harmful pandemic-era policies', orders records purge

The Trump administration on Friday ordered all federal agencies to eliminate any records related to workers’ COVID-19 vaccination status, noncompliance with pandemic-era mandates, or requests for vaccine exemptions.

The rollback of vaccine record retention requirements was announced by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in a memo to all federal department and agency heads. OPM explained that the move is in response to recent litigation and is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to reverse “harmful pandemic-era policies” imposed by former President Joe Biden.

“Things got out of hand during the pandemic, and federal workers were fired, punished, or sidelined for simply making a personal medical decision,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement.

“That should never have happened.” “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we’re making sure the excesses of that era do not have lingering effects on federal workers,” Kupor added. Employees can 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 8. In September 2021, Biden signed an executive order forcing all federal workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment.

A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Biden vaccine mandate in January 2022 – by which point the administration said nearly 98% of covered employees had been vaccinated.

In April 2022, a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the injunction, but a year later, the full Fifth Circuit struck down the mandate. Biden rescinded the mandate in May 2023, several months after he declared that the pandemic “is over” in a September 2022 “60 Minutes” interview.