The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis announced Wednesday that it will require its employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine before the end of August.
With free doses “widely available, there are virtually no barriers to individuals being vaccinated,” it said.
All 1,100 employees at the bank must “be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of August as a condition of continuing employment, with accommodations only provided to those who cannot get vaccinated due to medical conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs," the Fed’s president and chief executive Neel Kashkari said in a statement.
Kashkari said that although the Fed switched to remote working during the pandemic, they will have employees move back into the office now that case numbers have dropped in the U.S., noting that “in order to fulfill our public-service mission, we need more face-to-face contact than remote work allows, but there is no way for us to bring a critical mass of our staff back into our facilities and maintain social distancing. Hence, we need our employees to be vaccinated.”
While more than 82% of employees at the Minneapolis Fed have been fully vaccinated and 18% have plans to get vaccinated, “a small percentage have indicated they do not plan to get vaccinated,” which means that “bringing everyone back into the office could put our staff at unnecessary risk.
“First, unvaccinated employees could infect other unvaccinated employees while at work; outbreaks continue to happen worldwide, largely among those who are unvaccinated. Second, some employees cannot be vaccinated due to health conditions,” Kashkari said.
“Those who can receive a vaccine but choose not to put these employees at unnecessary risk. Finally, some vaccinated staff have expressed concern about getting infected by an unvaccinated colleague and then passing it on to a family member who cannot be vaccinated. While there remains a lot that experts don’t know about COVID-19, the science is clear that everyone’s safety is enhanced the closer we can get our vaccination rate to 100 percent.”
“Now that free vaccines are widely available, there are virtually no barriers to individuals being vaccinated," he added. "And, we have given employees ample time to be fully vaccinated before we return to the office.”
Kashkari also noted that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission previously confirmed that employers are legally allowed to require all employees who enter the workplace get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus due to the threat it presents to health and safety.
"If our vaccination rate were lower, say 50 percent, this would be a more difficult decision," Kashkari said. "But with so many of our employees voluntarily doing their part to keep us safe, asking our remaining colleagues to also do their part just makes sense. While some staff may be unhappy with this new requirement, we believe most will appreciate the actions we are taking on our collective behalf. We hope our remaining staff get vaccinated so we can all get back to our important mission of serving the public.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.