President Joe Biden’s federal agencies are dodging on whether or not Afghans arriving in the United States are mandated to receive one of the three available coronavirus vaccines that millions of Americans are now being required to take.
Last week, as Breitbart News reported, Biden ordered that the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) develop a rule requiring all private companies with 100 or more employees mandate the vaccine or be subjected to weekly coronavirus tests.
Biden also ordered the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to require vaccines for all health care workers who work at facilities receiving federal Medicare or Medicaid funding.
At the same time, local reports have indicated that tens of thousands of Afghans being housed at U.S. military bases by the Biden administration are merely being offered the vaccine rather than being required to take it.
“Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy in western Wisconsin are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for free if they choose, among other precautions to prevent spread of the virus,” the Wisconsin State Journal reported last week.
When questioned by Breitbart News whether Afghans arriving in the U.S. as part of Biden’s massive resettlement operaton are required to take the vaccine, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby referred the question to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
HHS officials then punted the question to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“For questions regarding Afghan evacuees, we refer you to our colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security, as it is the lead agency for the Operation Allies Welcome mission,” the HHS Office of Communications wrote to Breitbart News.
DHS has yet to respond to the inquiry at the time of this publication.
Despite no clear explanation on the vaccination of Afghans arriving in the U.S., there have been coronavirus outbreaks in recent weeks at military bases as Afghanistan has vaccinated very few of its citizens. The latest Reuters data suggests that only about 2.6 percent of Afghans in Afghanistan have been vaccinated against coronavirus.
Biden is requesting Congress to authorize at least $6.4 billion in American taxpayer money to provide assistance and resettlement support to about 95,000 Afghans that he hopes to bring to the U.S. over the next 12 months.
Afghans are being extracted from Afghanistan and flown to third safe countries like Germany, Spain, and Qatar before they eventually are flown into Dulles International Airport in Virginia and Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania.
Most Afghans arriving in the U.S. have not completed their immigration processing.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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