Soldiers on active duty have three months to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or face a possible downsizing, the army announced on Tuesday.
The 485,900 active duty soldiers must be vaccinated before December 15th. But the 336,500 members of the National Guard and 189,800 of the Reserve have until June 30, 2022 to be completely inoculated.
As of Tuesday, about 80 percent of active duty soldiers had received at least one dose of vaccine, according to an army spokesman. However, the Guard and the National Reserve do not have exact numbers as to the amount of their forces vaccinated, as many of these troops receive vaccines outside the army.
“This is literally a matter of life and death for our soldiers, their families and the communities in which we live,” Lieutenant General R. Scott Dingle, the U.S. Army’s general surgeon, said in a statement. “The count of cases and deaths continue to be worrisome as the Delta variant spreads, making protection of the force through compulsory vaccination a priority for the health and readiness of the entire army.” .
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The largest branch of the army issued its mandate after the other services announced similar deadlines. So far, only the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration and, as such, is the one with the official mandate. But troops are allowed to look for other available vaccines if they prefer.
This means that if troops receive one of the two vaccine varieties, they must have received the second vaccine and have exceeded the vaccine waiting period of two weeks before the December deadline.
Along with other vaccines, the Department of Defense has a long list of health-related mandates for troops. Service members who are not vaccinated can cause many complications to orders, as they can be unusable.
Soldiers who reject vaccinations will be advised by their chain of command. This advice usually involves starting a paper trail and having a discussion with the service member about the orders they are breaking; it is not always followed by a punishment.
But continued non-compliance with the order “could lead to administrative or non-judicial punishment, including relocation or expulsion,” according to an army statement.
Commanders will request a General Officer Warning Memorandum, which is largely considered career killers, for any soldier who refuses inoculation without an exemption.
A casualty can cost a soldier its benefits, including the GI bill.
Military.com recently reported on a Navy corporal who refused to comply with an order requiring unvaccinated troops to wear a mask inside. She was expelled from the force within a week after violating the order and was given a general leave on honorable terms.
Those seeking waivers to avoid vaccination have basically two options: medical or religious exemptions, according to Houston-based law firm Tully Rinckey, Sean Timmons.
The military is a relatively young and healthy community whose members have already received numerous vaccines, so most people “will not have the ability to receive a medical waiver,” Timmons said.
There was more likely to be a religious exemption if the person can show that their religious practice compels them to morally oppose vaccination. However, no major religion has come out against the COVID-19 vaccine or vaccines in general.
Joe Seiner, a professor at the University of South Carolina Law School, said soldiers will have to prove the vaccine conflicts with a sincere religious belief or has received previous waivers.
“You’d probably want to show them that you haven’t received certain vaccines or, if you’re new to the service, that this would be consistent with your previous history,” Seiner said during an interview.
However, if the military denies a request for a religious exemption, the rejection may provide a basis for a lawsuit, Timmons said.
“Lawyers may work with an admission to say there is a good faith objection,” he explained.
Timmons said service members contacted his company to express interest in filing lawsuits against the warrant.
Seiner said he expects lawsuits to be filed, but warned troops doubting the vaccine not to wait for immediate court action or temporary rulings to stop the program.
“There is no guarantee that a judge will do that,” he said. “For a judge to issue that order, it must be a lawsuit that is likely to succeed, at least in the mind of the federal judge.”
– Steve Beynon can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.
– Patricia Kime can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.
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