In compliance with President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan mandating vaccination as a condition of employment for federal contractors, the College of Medicine will require all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or file a valid request for a medical or religious accommodation.
Penn State announced its mandate in University Park Oct. 12 followed by the expansion to six more campuses as of Oct. 19. It has become evident that the College of Medicine must align with Penn State in its decision to require full vaccinations where work is being conducted under federal contracts. The vaccine requirement applies to all employees, including part-time faculty, staff and technical service workers, even if they are working remotely. This requirement also applies to graduate students supported on wage payroll, as well as all students supported on graduate assistantships.
All College of Medicine employees are required to become fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to continue their relationship with Penn State. At this time, a booster is not required to be considered fully vaccinated.
The College of Medicine must be able to report to the federal government that as of Wednesday, Dec. 8, we are complying with its mandate. Therefore, all employees must be fully vaccinated by that date. Individuals are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.
Under the umbrella of the executive order, all Penn State employees will need to be vaccinated unless they are approved for a medical or religious accommodation. Information on the accommodation request process for faculty and staff is available on the Vaccine Information page.
Medical and physician assistant students are not a part of this requirement at this time.