An executive order from President Biden has prompted Ohio State University to no longer allow its employees to apply for certain exemptions to the university's vaccination requirement.
Since OSU announced its vaccination requirement in August, it has allowed for three types of exemptions: medical, religious, or personal. The university announced Tuesday that it can no longer allow its employees to have personal exemptions due to the Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors issued by the White House in September.
OSU followed guidance from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force.
The order applies to all OSU employees and student employees, as well as universities and employers across the country that have contracts with the federal government.
The Defense Supply Center (DSCC) in Whitehall is a branch of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), a combat support agency under the U.S. Department of Defense.
"All Department of Defense (federal) employees are subject to fulfilling the executive order requiring COVID-19 vaccination," DLA spokesman Michael L. Jones said in an email.
"At Ohio’s DSCC installation, that includes approximately 8,000 military and civilian employees."
At Ohio State, employees who were granted personal exemptions received a message from the university on Monday that they must get vaccinated or apply for a medical or religious exemption by November 24th.
University spokesman Ben Johnson said about 780 employees and 150 student employees applied for personal exemptions, which is out of about 6,000 total requests.
More than 95,000 students and employees at OSU have been vaccinated to date.
