WASHINGTON – For thousands of people, members of the U.S. service reject or postpone the COVID-19 vaccine as frustrated commanders shoot to overthrow Internet rumors and find the right launch that will persuade troops to fire.
Some army units see only a third agree with the vaccine. Military leaders seeking answers believe they have identified a possible compelling factor: imminent deployment. Navy sailors sailing to sea last week, for example, opted to shoot at a rate of over 80% and 90%.
Air Force Major General Jeff Taliaferro, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress Wednesday that “very early data” suggests that only two-thirds of service members who offered the vaccine have agreed .
This is higher than the overall population rate, which a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation put at around 50 percent. But the significant number of forces diminishing the vaccine is especially troubling because troops often live, work, and fight closely in environments where social distancing and the use of masks are sometimes difficult.
Military resistance also comes as troops are deployed to administer shots at vaccination centers across the country and as leaders seek U.S. forces to set an example for the nation.
“We continue to struggle with what the message is and how we influence people to opt for the vaccine,” Brig said. General Edward Bailey, the surgeon in command of the army forces. He said in some units only 30 per cent have agreed to take the vaccine, while in others they are between 50 and 70 per cent. The Command of the Forces oversees the main units of the army, which encompass about 750,000 soldiers of the army, the reserve and the national guard at 15 bases.
In Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where several thousand soldiers are preparing for future deployments, the vaccine acceptance rate is 60 percent, Bailey said. This “is not as high as we would expect for front-line staff,” he said.
Bailey has heard all the excuses.
“I think the funniest thing I heard was,‘ The army always tells me what to do, they chose me, so I said no, ’he said.
Service leaders have campaigned vigorously for the vaccine. They have held town halls, written messages by force, distributed scientific data, posted videos and even posted photos of vaccinated leaders.
For weeks, the Pentagon insisted it did not know how many troops declined the vaccine. On Wednesday they provided few details about their first data.
However, individual military service officials said in interviews with The Associated Press that denial rates vary widely, depending on a member’s age, unit, location, deployment status, and other intangibles. of the service.
Variations lead leaders to identify which arguments are most compelling for the vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration has allowed emergency use of the vaccine, so it is voluntary. But Department of Defense officials say they hope it can change soon.
“We still can’t make it mandatory,” Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, commander of the Navy’s 2nd Fleet, said last week. “I can tell you that we will probably make it mandatory as soon as we can, just as we do with the flu vaccine.”
About 40 Marines recently gathered in a California conference room for a medical staff briefing. An officer, who was not allowed to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity, said sailors are more comfortable asking questions about the vaccine in smaller groups.
The officer said a member of the Navy, citing a widely held false conspiracy theory, said, “I heard this is really a tracking device.” Medical personnel, the agent said, quickly dismissed that theory and pointed to the Navy’s cell phone, noting that it is an effective tracker.
Other frequently asked questions revolved around possible side effects or health issues, including pregnant women. Army, Navy and Air Force officials say they feel the same way.
The Marine Corps is a relatively small service and the troops are generally younger. Similar to the general population, younger service members are more likely to decline or ask to wait. In many cases, military commanders said, younger troops say they have had the coronavirus or have known others who had it and concluded it was not bad.
“What they don’t see is that 20-year-olds who have really gotten very sick, have been hospitalized or die, or people who seem to be fine, but it turns out they have developed lung and heart abnormalities,” Bailey said. .
A ray of hope has been the deployments.
Lewis, based in Norfolk, Virginia, said last week that sailors on the US-operated USS Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed to get the shot at an 80 percent rate. USS Iwo Jima sailors and sailors from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who are also deploying, had rates in excess of 90 percent.
Bailey said the military sees opportunities to reduce the two-week quarantine period for units moving to Europe if service members are heavily vaccinated and the nation agrees. The U.S. military in Europe could reduce the quarantine time to five days if 70% of the unit is vaccinated and that incentive could work, he said.
Acceptance figures are declining among those not being deployed, military officials said.
General James McConville, chief of staff of the army, used his own experience to encourage troops to be vaccinated. “When they asked me how I felt, I said it was a lot less painful than some of the meetings I go to the Pentagon.”
Colonel Jody Dugai, commander of Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital in Fort Polk, Louisiana, said so far the squadron-level talks, with eight to ten comrades, have been successful and that more help information.
At the Joint Preparation Training Center in Fort Polk, Brig. General David Doyle has a double challenge. As a base commander, he has to convince the nearly 7,500 soldiers at the base to get the shot and he has to make sure the thousands of troops who come in and ride bikes to do training exercises are safe.
Doyle said the acceptance percentage at his base ranges from 30 to 40 percent and that most of the time it is the younger troops that are declining.
“They tell me they don’t have much confidence in the vaccine because they think it was done too quickly,” he said. Top health officials have certified the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
Doyle said it seems that comrades often have more influence than leaders when it comes to convincing troops, a sentiment echoed by Bailey, the Army Forces Command surgeon.
“We try to find out who the influencers are,” Bailey said. “Is he a squad leader or a platoon sergeant in the army? I think probably yes. Someone who is older than their age and interacts with them more regularly compared to the general officer who takes the picture and says, “I have the picture.”