Noncompliant healthcare workers will not be replaced by unvaccinated FEMA workers
Noncompliant healthcare workers will not be replaced by unvaccinated FEMA workers
(Reuters) - Social media users are falsely claiming that noncompliant healthcare workers are being replaced with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers who are not required to be vaccinated themselves.
Examples can be seen here and here .
The text in one post reads: “BREAKING: The FEMA healthcare workers replacing the noncompliant nurses and doctors are NOT required to get vaccinated via CDC.”
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order (here) on Sept. 9, 2021 requiring federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
FEMA is a federal agency and therefore falls under this requirement and its employees are required to be vaccinated.
While controversial, the mandates have been effective at convincing many hesitant workers to get vaccinated against the virus, which has killed more than 700,000 people in the United States. Some 77% of eligible Americans have received at least one shot of a vaccine, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters last week (here).
Caitlin Justesen, a spokesperson for FEMA, told Reuters via email that the claim is false.
“Unvaccinated FEMA employees aren’t replacing noncompliant health care workers,” Justesen said. “FEMA is required, just like all federal agencies, to comply with the President’s mandate requiring all employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine.”
VERDICT
False. Unvaccinated FEMA workers are not replacing uncompliant healthcare workers. FEMA employees are required to be vaccinated under U.S. President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate.
