WASHINGTON (AP) – Prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center may now begin obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine, a senior defense official told the Associated Press on Monday, months after a plan to inoculate they were defeated by the outrage that many Americans were not eligible to receive the shots.
The new schedule coincides with President Joe Biden’s deadline for states to make vaccines more widely available in the United States Starting Monday, anyone 16 years of age or older can qualify to sign up and get a virtual vaccination line. se.
The defense official said the 40 men detained at the Navy base in Cuba will be offered the vaccine to meet legal requirements regarding the treatment of prisoners and to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Strict quarantine procedures had already drastically reduced activities at the base and stopped legal proceedings for prisoners facing war crimes trials, including the men accused in the September 11, 2001 attack. .
“Obviously, we don’t want an outbreak of COVID on a remote island with the challenges it would present,” the official said, on condition of anonymity to discuss the effort ahead of an official announcement.
The announcement in January that the military intended to offer the vaccine to prisoners sparked intense criticism, especially among Republicans in Congress, at a time when COVID-19 vaccines had just been released to troops and civilians. at Guantanamo and were not widely available in the United States.
Several Republican members of Congress supported legislation that would have prevented Guantanamo detainees from receiving the vaccine until all Americans had a chance to receive it.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy criticized the decision on Twitter. “President Biden told us he would have a plan to defeat the virus on day one,” the California Republican said Jan. 30. “He never told us it would be to give the vaccine to terrorists before most Americans.”
While the decision to vaccinate inmates may still be controversial, a key difference now is that the vaccine is now available, both at the grassroots and in the United States. Half of all adults in the country have received at least one dose of the shot. .
At Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, 56% of the total population of about 5,700 people, a mix of military personnel, contractors and dependents, has been vaccinated and the shot is available to any adult who wishes, said Dawn Grimes, an official public affairs of the base hospital.
There are about 1,500 people assigned to the working group that runs the detention center at the base. No cases of COVID-19 have been reported or among any of the prisoners.
Medical staff have already discussed the vaccine with the inmates. The military has no plans to disclose how many eventually decide to accept it, the official said, citing medical privacy regulations.
Ramzi Kassem, at least some of the men detained at the base, may be skeptical about the vaccine, given its treatment over the years by the U.S. government, but others are eager to be inoculated and were disappointed when the vaccine was suspended. ‘initial effort. , a law professor at New York City University representing prisoners.
“While the government has for years claimed in the courts that prisoners receive health care comparable to grassroots soldiers, the policy defeated the first vaccination effort,” Kassem said. “I am relieved that reality is finally recovering legal obligations in a small way.”
The Biden administration announced in April that it could conduct a full review of the detention center’s operations with the goal of finally closing the facility, which opened in January 2002 to detain suspects. of links with al-Qaeda and the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks. .
At its peak in 2003, the detention center at the base of the Navy, in the southeastern tip of Cuba, contained about 680 prisoners and generated widespread condemnation for the treatment of men detained there, the majority free of charge.
Closing it has proven to be a challenge because the United States has tried to continue detaining and prosecuting some prisoners, but Congress has prevented the transfer of anyone detained there to facilities in the country for any reason.
Among those still detained is Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, who, along with four other people, is facing trial on charges including murder and terrorism for the 9/11 attacks. The case, stalled for a long time, remains in the preliminary stage and no hearings have been held in more than a year due to the pandemic.
___
This story has been corrected to show that the vaccine in the United States is now available to everyone 16 years of age or older and not 18 years of age or older.