On Oct. 4, 2021, the the Secretary of Defense directed the mandatory vaccination of Service members against the coronavirus disease 2019 by signing the memorandum, “Mandatory Corona virus Disease 2019 Vaccination of Department of Defense Service Members,” on August 24, 2021.

On September 9, 2021, the President of the United States directed Executive Branch agencies to implement a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for Federal employees to ensure the health and safety of the Federal workforce and members of the public with whom they interact by signing Executive Order 14043, “Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees.”

All DoD civilian employees must be fully vaccinated by November 22, 2021, subject to exemptions as required by law. Employees are considered fully vaccinated 2 weeks after completing the second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine or 2 weeks after receiving a single dose of a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine.

New DoD civilian employees must be fully vaccinated by their entry on duty (start) date or November 22, 2021, whichever is later.

To meet this requirement, individuals must be vaccinated with vaccines that are either fully licensed or authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (e.g., Comimaty/Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen); listed for emergency use on the World Health Organization Emergency Use Listing (e.g., AstraZeneca/Oxford); or approved for use in a clinical trial vaccine for which vaccine efficacy has been independently confirmed (e.g., Novavax). Those with previous COVID-19 infection(s) or previous serology are not considered fully vaccinated on that basis for the purposes of this mandate.