Pentagon Gives Civilian Employees Until Early November to Get Fully Vaccinated

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Sept. 28, 2021. Patrick Semansky/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The Department of Defense (DOD) said all U.S. civilian employees need to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Nov. 22, giving them only a few weeks to get the shots. The workers are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

For employees opting to receive the two-dose Moderna vaccine, they would have to receive their first shot by Oct. 11, said a DOD memo. Individuals who are slated to get the two-shot Pfizer vaccine would have to get their first dose by Oct. 18.

The second dose deadline for both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is Nov. 8. Employees who get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is only a single dose, will have to receive the shot also by Nov. 8, according to the memo.

“To defend the Nation and protect the American people, we need a healthy and ready Total Force,” the DOD said. “To accomplish this, the Secretary of Defense directed the mandatory vaccination of Service members against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by signing the memorandum” in August, the memo continued to say, adding that President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Sept. 9 that requires federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

A similar directive was issued over the weekend by the White House’s Office of Personnel Management, saying that federal workers have until Nov. 8 to get both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“Employees who refuse to be vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination are subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including removal or termination from Federal service,” the agency said. “The only exception is for individuals who receive a legally required exception pursuant to established agency processes.”

Last month, several federal employees filed a lawsuit against Biden, arguing that his vaccine mandate unfairly affects workers who belong to the Christian faith. Lawyers for the plaintiffs also stated Biden’s order fails to take into account “natural immunity” afforded by a prior COVID-19 infection, noting that some studies have found it provides protection against the Delta variant.

One of the plaintiffs, identified as a U.S. foreign service officer, belongs to a faith that “also instructs him that vaccination is not morally obligatory in principle and therefore must be voluntary,” the lawsuit said. There is, his attorneys argued, “a general moral duty to refuse the use of medical products, including certain vaccines, that are produced using human cells lines derived from direct abortions.”