When President Biden issued his edict mandating vaccines for all federal employees and contractors, along with employees in private-sector companies with 100 or more employees, there were a lot of questions about how the order would be implemented. We now know the answers to some of the more pressing questions that have been raised and one thing has become abundantly clear: The Biden administration is using 1984 as an instruction manual.
The White House issued “Guidance for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors” on Friday detailing the new vaccination policy. The COVID-19 workplace safety protocols “will apply to all covered contractor employees, including contractor or subcontractor employees in covered contractor workplaces who are not working on a Federal Government contract or contract-like instrument.” The goal, according to the guidance, is to “decrease the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which will decrease worker absence, reduce labor costs, and improve the efficiency of contractors and subcontractors performing work for the Federal Government.”
Working remotely from home will not save you from the federal vax police.
An individual working on a covered contract from their residence is a covered contractor employee, and must comply with the vaccination requirement for covered contractor employees, even if the employee never works at either a covered contractor workplace or Federal workplace during the performance of the contract.
The goal is to get shots in arms, not to protect federal employees in the workplace, which is weird, since the Biden administration is citing an obscure provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations to force vaccines on millions of Americans.
The mandatory protocols include COVID-19 vaccines for covered contractor employees, “except in limited circumstances where an employee is legally entitled to an accommodation.”
Masking and physical distancing will be required in covered workplaces, despite the fact that employees will be fully vaccinated.
Will remote employees be required to mask at home?
A covered contractor employee’s residence is not a covered contractor workplace, so while in the residence the individual need not comply with requirements for covered contractor workplaces, including those related to masking and physical distancing, even while working on a covered contract.
Well, thank you for that, o gracious Joe Biden! You’re violating the privacy and bodily autonomy of 4.1 million federal contractors, but at least you’re not forcing (fully vaccinated!) employees to wear masks in their homes—but only because it would be impossible to enforce. You know Biden would do it if he could.
Related: Joe Biden Has Mandated a Vaccine for 80 Million Employees. Now Let Him Enforce It.
Employees of federal contractors have until Dec. 8 to be fully vaccinated. Individuals are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 “two weeks after they have received the second dose in a two-dose series, or two weeks after they have received a single-dose vaccine,” according to the guidance.
The onus will be on the employer to demand the papers—i.e. the private health information—of their employees or risk losing their contracts with the government. And an “attestation of vaccination” by the employee is not going to cut it in Biden’s America.
Covered contractors must require covered contractor employees to show or provide their employer with one of the following documents: a copy of the record of immunization from a health care provider or pharmacy, a copy of the COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card (CDC Form MLS-319813_r, published on September 3, 2020), a copy of medical records documenting the vaccination, a copy of immunization records from a public health or State immunization information system, or a copy of any other official documentation verifying vaccination with information on the vaccine name, date(s) of administration, and the name of health care professional or clinic site administering vaccine. Covered contractors may allow covered contractor employees to show or provide to their employer a digital copy of such records, including, for example, a digital photograph, scanned image, or PDF of such a record.
Companies will be required to designate a COVID enforcement officer to make sure everyone complies with the edicts.
If you were hoping the federal government would follow the science on recovered immunity—and there’s lots and lots and lots of science showing that it’s superior to double-vaxxing—prepare to be disappointed. Employees who have had a prior COVID-19 infection must still be vaccinated, and employers will not be permitted to accept a recent antibody test in lieu of the jab.
And if you thought you’d be safe because you live in a state with a science-following governor like Ron DeSantis or Kristi Noem who would protect you from this overreach by the federal government, think again:
These requirements are promulgated pursuant to Federal law and supersede any contrary State or local law or ordinance. Additionally, nothing in this Guidance shall excuse noncompliance with any applicable State law or municipal ordinance establishing more protective workplace safety protocols than those established under this Guidance. [Emphasis added]
Here at PJ Media, we were under the impression that our private medical decisions were between us and our doctors—my body, my choice, and all that. Turns out that was only about killing babies. Apparently, it’s ok for the federal government to make medical decisions on your behalf unless you want to abort a child in your womb.
Biden may be on solid ground when it comes to mandates for federal employees, but it’s not at all clear that these mandates for private employers that do business with the federal government will pass muster with the courts—or whether the federal government can supersede state laws regarding health regulations.
Really, it doesn’t matter. Biden doesn’t care if the mandates are unconstitutional. His administration is going to run out the clock, betting that by the time all the lawsuits work their way through the courts, people will have “bowed their knees and rolled up their sleeves,” as my colleague Kevin Downey Jr. likes to say. They are assuming, probably rightly, that people will take the shot rather than forgo the ability to feed their families. By then it will be too late. It’s a cynical ploy, using the jackboot of the federal government to force people to get shots they don’t want and, in many cases, don’t even need.
Read the full document below:
Draft Contractor Guidance Doc_20210922 by PJ Media on Scribd