Report: DOJ Goes Maskless, Will Not Ask Vaccination Status

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will not ask employees to confirm their vaccination status after allowing them to go maskless indoors following updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a report by the Hill.

In a Friday memo, the DOJ warned its managers not to ask employees about their vaccination status. According to the report, “The new policy, however, is a departure from DOJ guidance in February that said employers have the right to ask employees about their status.”

In an email sent to employees Friday, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for administration said the supervisors and managers “should not ask about an employee’s vaccination status or use information about an employee’s vaccination status or make decisions about how and when employees will report to a workplace instead of teleworking.”

“As we go forward, we ask everyone to respect the wishes of our colleagues and visitors and ensure that anyone who chooses to continue wearing a mask while in department buildings and facilities may continue to do so without interference,” the DOJ also said.

The Hill report indicated the email did “note that employees who would like to continue wearing masks may do so.”

The CDC released the newest updates for masks, saying, fully vaccinated people “no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance” and only must do so when “required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”

The CDC defines a fully vaccinated person as someone for whom two weeks have passed after their receipt of the second dose in the two-dose series of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots or two weeks after the single-dose vaccine Johnson & Johnson.

This comes as major business chains are revise their own guidelines. Chains such as Trader Joe’s,  Walmart, and Target have made announcements saying they will no longer require customers to wear masks without mentioning a state-by-state policy. Costco announced their policy updates would be on a state-by-state basis.