OPM orders deletion of federal workers’ vaccination records

The Office of Personnel Management on Friday ordered federal agencies to “expunge” all records of federal employees’ COVID-19 vaccination status or past noncompliance with the Biden administration’s defunct vaccine mandate for the federal workforce.

The saga dates back to the fall of 2021, when President Biden issued an executive order requiring all federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as the virus’ Delta variant was gaining steam. Though the measure included medical and religious exemptions, a group called Feds for Medical Freedom challenged the edict in federal court, arguing that federal agencies delayed religious accommodations and were enabled to discriminate employees who sought an exemption.

The order was blocked by the courts in 2022 and ultimately revoked in 2023. At the time, the Biden administration said the measure was no longer necessary, because nearly 270 million Americans had gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, including 98% of federal workers.

Although OPM issued guidance shortly after the edict’s rescission ordering agencies to cease requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination from the federal workforce, the agency published a new memo Friday “expanding” the earlier instructions.

“Effective immediately, federal agencies may not use an individual’s COVID-19 vaccine status, history of noncompliance with prior COVID-19 vaccine mandates, or requests for exemptions from such mandates in any employment-related decisions, including but not limited to hiring, promotion, discipline or termination,” wrote OPM Director Scott Kupor.

Additionally, Kupor instructed agencies to “expunge” any references to a federal worker’s COVID-19 vaccine status, prior noncompliance with the mandate or their past request for an exemption from their personnel records. Employees may elect to opt out from this information deletion within 90 days, Kupor wrote.

The memo comes just hours after the Trump administration and Feds for Medical Freedom saw the latter group’s lawsuit dismissed from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The Supreme Court in 2023 had instructed the lower court to dismiss the legal challenge in light of the Biden administration’s revocation of the vaccine mandate, though it was not until September 2024 that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had passed that directive down to the district court.