Nearly 40% of Marines Decline COVID-19 Vaccine – Biden Considering Making it Mandatory for Military
Of the 123,500 Marines who have had access to the vaccine, 75,500 Marines are either fully vaccinated or have received one dose, and about 48,000 have declined it, Communication Strategy and Operations Officer Capt. Andrew Woods told USA TODAY.
“We fully understand that widespread acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine provides us with the best means to defeat this pandemic. The key to addressing this pandemic is building vaccine confidence,” he said, confirming a statistic first reported by CNN.
Woods said the Navy and Marines were working to ensure that soldiers have accurate information about the safety of the vaccine.
Woods said service members may have declined the offer for any one of a variety of reasons, including wanting to allow others to get the vaccine before them; having already received the vaccine through other channels; or waiting until the military makes receiving the vaccine mandatory, which it has yet to do.
Because the Defense Department has only emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for the COVID-19 vaccine, the department can’t make receiving the vaccine mandatory for service members, but President Joe Biden could issue a waiver.
Seven Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Biden asking him to issue a “waiver of informed consent” to require all U.S. military service members to get the vaccine.
The letter, obtained by CNN, said that while the Pentagon has “made admirable efforts to educate service members on the safety and efficacy” of the vaccine, those efforts have been “outpaced by disinformation dominating social media.”
Based on data shared with CNN by the Marine Corps, the refusal rate at one prominent Marine base, Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, was significantly higher: 57% of Marines there refused the vaccine.
Of the 26,400 Marines at Camp Lejeune who have been offered the vaccine, 15,100 chose not to get it, including members from the II Marine Expeditionary Force and Marines Corps Installation East.
More than 100,000 Marines have yet to be offered the vaccine, Wood said.
I belive the should look into longterm effects of the vaccine its been told that one of the pushers for the vaccine is wanting to control the American population that could mean it could effect child birth.
Hey Joe, why not make the vaccine mandatory for teachers? Oh, I forgot the government is afraid of the powerful Teachers Union. They controll the government. The government doesn’t want to let our military act like the primadonna teachers union. Time to brake-up this group they are to powerful
In 26 years as a military member no one ever gave me a choice of getting shots or not, you either were marched there as a unit or you received a card to report to the hospital for your shots. The fact that no military in the entire world is a democracy it is always a dictatorship organization, where you do as you are told by those above you, or you get punished in some way.
Woods said the navy and marines are working to ensure that soldiers have accurate information about the safety of the vaccine. It’s very good that Woods cares so much about our army, but the vaccine should be tested for several years, only then will scientists receive accurate information – is this vaccine dangerous or not.
Biden should stop pussy footing around and address the border crisis. Are all the aliens vaccinated?
Everybody in the military needs to follow orders but I got a shot in 1975 by a afes that damn shot almost killed me I was in Berlin Germany on a field trip that was still a communist country around that I made it the doctor said don’t ever get another shot Jimmy Carter pulled those shots because it was killing people I haven’t got 1 since
I do not agree with Robert no one should have to be mandated to take a vaccine that is not 100% that is their choice! There are many people whom refuse the vaccine including me I am a 70 year old female! Sorry that you followed orders to the T, we all have our own beliefs.
Maybe the military and the President should tell those who do not want the vaccine, the side effects of it. I haven’t heard the President speak to the public and explain the good and bad aspects of the vaccine. We still have free choice in this country. Military oaths should be followed at all times, but the President wouldn’t understand that. When I entered the military in 1969 I took my oaths and they continue to be part of my life even now So many of our elected leaders have taken oaths, and it lasts only as long as their hands are raised, then forget what they are sworn to keep and defend. This President, if asked, couldn’t tell you the oath he took the Office of President of the United States, because he doesn’t believe it.
I challenge you to explain what was wrong with my post
Biden is a stupid idiot. The vaccine cannot be trusted completely