Sept. 15 (Reuters) – U.S. Army officers refusing to be vaccinated against coronavirus could be suspended from office and possibly fired, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
After the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in August, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had ordered (https://media.defense.gov/2021/Aug/25/2002838826/ -1 / -1 / 0 / MEMORANDUM -FOR-MANDATORY-CORONAVIRUS-DISEASE-2019-VACCINATION-DEPARTMENT-DEFENSE-SERVICE-MEMBERS.PDF) that all members of the active service must be vaccinated.
The military said it had begun enforcing the order in late August, adding that soldiers could apply for an exemption on legitimate medical, religious or administrative grounds.
However, commanders, senior command sergeants, first sergeants, and officers occupying positions on the command selection list who refuse to be vaccinated and are not pending an exemption application would be subject to suspension and relief if they refuse to comply, the army said in a statement.
“While soldiers who reject the vaccine will first be advised by their chain of command and their medical providers, continued non-compliance can lead to administrative or non-judicial punishment, including resignation or discharge,” he said. to say.
“This is literally a matter of life or death for our soldiers, their families and the communities in which we live,” said U.S. Army Surgeon General Raymond Scott Dingle, who cited concern about the spread of the Delta variant, highly contagious.
Since last week, the U.S. Department of Defense had reported https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/Coronavirus-DOD-Response about 353,000 COVID-19 cases among its staff and more than 450 deaths.
The Army now expects its active-duty units to be fully vaccinated on December 15 and its Reserve and National Guard units on June 30 next year.
(Report by Sarah Morland in Gdansk; Edition by Himani Sarkar)