With Thanksgiving on the horizon, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg assured the nation on Sunday that federal worker vaccine mandates will not impact holiday travel.
Federal vaccination mandates for civilian federal employees kick in Monday. And Buttigieg said he expects no travel disruption because of it, noting his agency’s employees have been very cooperative.
“I have seen no indication the vaccine requirements are going to impact travel in any way, certainly in terms of our ability as a federal administration to provide the services that are needed,” he said.
He said 99 percent of the Transportation Department’s employees have submitted their vaccine status, are in the process of doing so or have received exemptions. Numbers are likely similar across the board elsewhere, he added.
Buttigieg defended the vaccine requirements as necessary measures to end the pandemic and protect employees. ”It’s part of a process to make sure that everyone in the federal workforce is safe,” he said.
“All of us are ready to be done with this pandemic — to be done, not just with the death and the hospitalization and the grim headlines, but also to be done with the restrictions and the requirements and the masks,” he said. “Putting all that behind us means getting everybody vaccinated. That’s what these requirements are about.”
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