The Department of Defense (DoD) has issued new/updated guidance concerning the COVID vaccine mandate. The latest memo, dated October 18, 2021, reinforces the requirement that all "DoD civilian employees" must be fully vaccinated by November 22, 2021. It further clarifies that "employees" includes anyone working remotely or teleworking.  The memo also makes clear that the vaccine requirement does not apply to individuals accessing DoD facilities for ad hoc or non-official purposes such as delivery drivers (e.g., UPS and FedEx), taxi services, residents of DoD housing, or anyone accessing DoD facilities to "receive a public benefit" like the commissary or BX, to attend an airshow or visit a museum, to attend a DoD medical facility, or to access MWR resources.

Time is running out. Depending on which brand of vaccine you plan to take, for some the time has already passed in order to meet the deadline. Below is the list of vaccines and the dates by which you should have received the first dose in order to comply with the November 22nd target date:

• October 11: first dose deadline (if receiving the Moderna vaccine)
• October 18: first dose deadline (if receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech/COMIRNATY vaccine)
• November 8: second dose deadline (if receiving the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech/COMIRNATY vaccines)
• November 8: first (only) dose deadline (if receiving the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine)
• If DoD civilian employees use an authorized vaccine other than those listed above, they are responsible for being fully vaccinated by November 22, 2021

Reasonable Accommodation

Absent from the latest guidance is a process/procedure for how DoD and its subordinate agencies will evaluate reasonable accommodation (RA) requests for exemptions to the vaccine mandate. The best we can surmise is that anyone who submits an RA request will be allowed to continue to come to work as long as they comply with the masking and testing requirements of the DoD memo dated July 2021.

If you are seeking an RA exemption for either a religious or medical reason you should have already began that process. Even though there is no current guidance on how to process such a request that does not mean you should delay initiating the RA process until they issue guidance, and you should definitely not wait until November 9th to claim or request a reasonable accommodation. There is no specific form or method for you as an employee to initiate the RA process. All it takes is that you notify a management representative, usually your immediate supervisor, that you're seeking a reasonable accommodation for either religious or medical reasons. The notice can be either verbal or in writing, but we do recommend that you at least submit your request via email. 

Please be aware that, as of today, the only recognized religion that has allowed for an exemption from the vaccine is the Catholic Church, and that the statement technically applies to "service members" of the military only, not civilian DoD personnel. Also, DoD has not explained how they will apply the exemption.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has some very detailed resources on reasonable accommodation. Feel free to visit the links below:

• EEOC Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship under the ADA
• EEOC Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination

National Guard Technicians

The National Guard Bureau (NGB) released guidance to the field on October 8, 2021, regarding the COVID vaccine mandate. However, the guidance only applied to Title 5 employees. That is because, according to NGB's interpretation of the Executive Order (EO) issued by President Biden, the order does not consider technicians to be civilian employees of the DoD. So, since they are not covered by the EO then they are to be treated as members of the military for purposes of the vaccine and will be required to meet whatever deadline for vaccination applies to them in their military capacity.

NGB's interpretation is flawed and confusing. Technicians are most definitely civilian employees of either the Army or Air Force, period. Anyone with a basic command of the English language would be able to figure that out. Why they came to this conclusion no one knows. Perhaps someone has a personal agenda. Perhaps those involved in the administration of these types of issues/matters are in over their heads and utterly unqualified for the job they hold. Frankly, it is anyone's guess. The one thing that is certain is that it reinforces the long-standing tradition of erring on the side of incompetence by those running and working within NGB's Technician Branch. All they have done is cause confusion at the implementation level (something they are extremely good at, in fact experts) with some states moving forward with a November 22nd deadline for technicians while others have pushed it out to as late a June 2022.

At this time we are awaiting clarification from DoD as to whether technicians are to be treated as civilians or military members for the purpose of the vaccine mandate. For now, technicians should abide by whatever guidance is being issued by their individual state/territory concerning the deadline for vaccination.