92% of US federal workers get COVID-19 vaccine as protests spread

Update (11/24/21): Following worldwide protests related to a variety of COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates, the White House unveiled new, more specific numbers regarding compliance to President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers. The mandate required all federal workers to get vaccinated by the end of day Monday. By Tuesday, 92% of Federal workers had been vaccinated, and 95.6% had been determined to be in compliance with the policy.

The departments who led the way in vaccination include the Agency for International Development (97.8%), the Department of Health and Human Services (96.4%) and State Department at (96.1%). As feared by some, law enforcement departments lagged behind. The Homeland Security Department came in at 88.9% vaccinated, the Justice Department came in at 89.8%, and the Defense Department was at 93.4%.

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Original Story (11/22/21): Following a busy weekend that saw protests related to COVID-19 around the world, the White House COVID-19 Response team announced Monday that over 90% of federal workers have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine. Accounting for those who got an approved medical or religious exemption, more than 95% of federal workers are in compliance with the mandate President Joe Biden announced back in September. The deadline to comply with the mandate was Monday.

According to an official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, the Office of Management and Budget is expected to release a complete breakdown of agency compliance rates. For now, we know the rates for the following agencies:

• Federal Aviation Administration: 99%
• Transportation Security Administration: 93%
• Customs and Border Protection: 98%
• Internal Revenue Service: 98%
• Federal Bureau of Investigation: 99%

Nearly a quarter of IRS employees started getting vaccinated after the mandate announcement.

There had been concerns about whether federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies would comply with the mandate. A couple of weeks ago, House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Christ Stewart (R-UT) said several intelligence agencies had at least 20% of their workforce unvaccinated as of late October. Around that same time, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association President Larry Cosme estimated that 60% of the union’s 31,000 members had been vaccinated.

Monday’s announcement came on the same day Austria became the latest country to reinstate some form of COVID-19-related restrictions. The Austrian government had announced a 10-day lockdown last Friday after the average daily COVID-19 deaths tripled and some intensive care units started hitting capacity in recent weeks. This is the fourth lockdown the country has seen over the course of the pandemic.

Austria was just one of several countries that saw mass protests in recent days. The video above shows protests in England, Northern Ireland, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, and Croatia.

At Monday’s COVID-19 Response Team briefing, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients was asked if the U.S. was headed towards joining other countries in implementing new restrictions. Zients responded, “no, we are not headed in that direction”.