COVID-19 shot is mandated at White House, CDC and vaccine makers, contrary to a viral image

A social media post circulating online purports to expose the hypocrisy of vaccination advocates by claiming that the White House, public-health agencies and vaccine manufacturers don’t require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Aug. 19 Facebook post shows a screenshot of a tweet from a user named Mike Yoder. 

The tweet is headlined "List of employers NOT requiring their employees to get vaccinated," and then lists the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization, Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

Then it tells people to "wake up."

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The screenshot also appeared on a separate Instagram post.

It’s not clear whether the screenshot is of an authentic tweet from Yoder, a conservative lawyer who has tweeted skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines before. The tweet about employers does not appear on his page.

In any case, the claim in the post is incorrect. All but one of the employers listed in the screenshot do have COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their workers.

President Joe Biden announced on July 29 that all federal workers would have to verify their vaccination status. Unvaccinated workers are required to wear face coverings, distance themselves from other people and take weekly screening tests.

The directive applies to all federal workers, including those at the White House, and at federal agencies like the CDC and FDA.

Moderna said Aug. 19 that it would institute a vaccine mandate for all its U.S. workers starting Oct. 1. Requests for medical or religious exemptions will be considered case by case, the company said.   

Pfizer announced on Aug. 4 that it would require all of its employees and contractors in the U.S. to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or take weekly screening tests.

Featured Fact-check

X posts

stated on October 1, 2021 in a tweet

“CDC numbers” show that among children, the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have a death rate “174 times higher” than the COVID-19 death rate.

Johnson & Johnson will require all of its U.S.-based employees and contractors to be vaccinated by Oct. 4, with exemptions for people with medical or religious objections. 

The only organization on the list that doesn't have a current or planned vaccine mandate for its workers is the WHO. 

The Switzerland-based organization has workers in 150 countries, and doesn’t endorse a mandate.

"The World Health Organization does not presently support the direction of mandates for COVID-19 vaccination, having argued that it is better to work on information campaigns and making vaccines accessible," the organization said in April.

A social media post claims the COVID-19 vaccine is not mandated for workers at the White House, the vaccine manufacturers and several health organizations.

All but one of the organizations listed in the post have some form of COVID-19 vaccine requirement for their employees. In most cases, the mandates were announced before the post was published.

We rate this claim Mostly False.