• Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary, stated Sunday that he did not anticipate the federal vaccine mandate to have an impact on travel.
• Federal employees, including TSA workers, must be vaccinated by Monday.
• Insider was told by the TSA that it did not anticipate any disruptions to Thanksgiving travel due to the mandate.

Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary, stated Sunday that he has not seen any indications that the COVID-19 mandate for federal employees, which is set to take effect Monday, will cause travel problems.

Buttigieg stated Sunday that he had not seen any indications that the vaccine requirements would impact travel, especially in terms of federal government's ability to provide the services needed.

Federal workers will be subject to a vaccine mandate that includes medical and religious exemptions, but not a weekly alternative. It will take effect Monday, three days before Thanksgiving.

According to the transportation secretary, approximately 99% of the people in his department (which does not include Transportation Security Administration) had been vaccinated against COVID-19 and were either in the process of getting vaccinated or submitting a request to be exempted from the mandate.

According to David Pekoske, TSA Administrator, approximately 60% of TSA workers were vaccinated last month. This was according to CNN's October interview.

Later in October, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was informed by the agency that its employees might have been more than 60% vaccinated because some employees hadn't submitted paperwork to confirm their vaccination status.

Insider was told by a spokesperson for TSA that while they don't have all the data, they can tell you that compliance rates for federal employees are very high.

The spokesperson stated that TSA does not expect the federal mandate to immunize federal employees will have any impact on the agency's ability staff for Thanksgiving travel. "We will continue to work diligently in order to implement the vaccine mandate, including by encouraging vaccination and ensuring that every TSA employee uploads their attestation information."

According to the agency's website, 273 TSA employees have COVID-19 active infections. According to the agency, TSA has seen 11171 people test positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic. 32 of them died.

Buttigieg stated on Sunday, "Let's recall what this is fundamentally about, which is ending that pandemic." We are all ready to end this pandemic. Not only with the deaths and hospitalizations and the grim headlines but also with the restrictions, the requirements, and the masks. All that means we must get everyone vaccinated.