The VA Is The 1st Federal Agency Requiring COVID Vaccine

The Department of Veterans Affairs is the first federal agency to require all medical personnel to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The requirement comes as the highly contagious Delta variant is spreading across the country and accounts for the vast majority of new COVID cases.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough announced yesterday (Monday, July 26th) that he will make all health care personnel who work, visit or provide direct care to VA patients to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Employees will have eight weeks to get vaccinated.

McDonough said..."We're mandating vaccines for Title 38 employees because it's the best way to keep Veterans safe, especially as the Delta variant spreads across the country. Whenever a Veteran or VA employee sets foot in a VA facility, they deserve to know that we have done everything in our power to protect them from COVID-19. With this mandate, we can once again make — and keep — that fundamental promise."

The announcement comes the same day as many major medical groups issued a statement saying that all U.S. health care workers should be required to get vaccinated, arguing the health and safety of the nation depends on such mandates to reign in the pandemic that has killed nearly 611,000 Americans.

President Biden confirmed the new requirement saying..."Yes, Veterans Affairs is going to in fact require, that all doctors working in facilities are going to have to be vaccinated."

The VA has roughly 1,000 outpatient sites, and scores of VA Medical Centers, serving more than 9 million enrolled veterans.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has determined that private employers are allowed to require the COVID-19 vaccine for employees.

Click here for more information.

We would love to hear from you with your response to the EEOC saying that private employers have the right to require that employees get the COVID-19 vaccine. What do you think?

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