No, FEMA isn’t forcing Ida evacuees to get a COVID-19 vaccine

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has told residents who fled the city before Hurricane Ida made landfall that it’s safe to return. But a blog post that’s being shared on social media sounds a warning. 

"FEMA forcibly vaccinating Ida evacuees," the headline of the Sept. 1 blog post says.  

A screenshot of the headline was posted on Facebook. It 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 headline comes from a blog post on a site called Real Raw News, which has made false claims that PolitiFact has checked several times before.

The site’s "About Us" page also includes a caveat: "This website contains humor, parody, and satire."

Whatever this post is, it’s wrong. 

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency deployed teams to states affected by Hurricane Ida, there’s nothing to support the claim that the agency is forcing people to get vaccinated. 

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"No," an agency spokesperson told Check Your Fact, "FEMA and the CDC are not forcibly vaccinating Hurricane Ida evacuees." 

Multiple countries have issued COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Hungary, for example, has decided to require vaccinations for healthcare workers, according to Reuters. In the United States, federal workers must provide proof of vaccination and new rules from the Biden administration mandate that employers with more than 100 workers require their employees to be vaccinated or get a weekly COVID-19 test. But the U.S. is not forcibly vaccinating citizens, and any claims to the contrary are wrong. 

We rate this post Pants on Fire.