On Friday, the Trump administration instructed all federal agencies to erase any documents concerning employees’ COVID-19 vaccination status, disregard for pandemic mandates, or appeals for vaccine exemptions.

The mandate to discontinue retaining vaccine records was communicated through a memo from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to leaders of all federal departments and agencies.

According to OPM, this decision is prompted by ongoing litigation and is an element of the Trump administration’s wider strategy to roll back what it considers “detrimental pandemic-era policies” enacted by former President Joe Biden.

“Things got out of hand during the pandemic, and federal workers were fired, punished, or sidelined for simply making a personal medical decision,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement. “That should never have happened.” 

“Thanks to President Trumpʼs leadership, weʼre making sure the excesses of that era do not have lingering effects on federal workers,” Kupor added. 

Under the directive, effective immediately, agencies are barred from using an employee’s vaccine history in any employment-related decision, including hiring, promotion, discipline, or termination.  

Within 90 days, vaccine-related information “must be expunged” from both physical and electronic personnel files of all federal workers. 

Employees can opt out within those 90 days if they wish to keep their COVID vaccine history on file. 

Agencies must certify compliance with Kupor’s order by Sept. 8. 

In September 2021, Biden signed an executive order forcing all federal workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment. 

A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Biden vaccine mandate in January 2022 – by which point the administration said nearly 98% of covered employees had been vaccinated.

In April 2022, a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the injunction, but a year later, the full fifth circuit struck down the mandate.

Biden rescinded the mandate in May of 2023 — several months after he declared that the pandemic “is over” in a September 2022 “60 Minutes” interview.