The Army has discharged its first three soldiers who refused to get vaccinated against COVID, the service announced Friday. The Army is the last of the three military branches to begin kicking out healthy troops who refused to receive the experimental shots.
The three soldiers were separated for “refusing a lawful order” to receive the vaccine, according to the Army. To date, 2,692 soldiers have refused the vaccine and the branch has issued 3,251 reprimands over the mandate. The branch had previously relieved six service leaders from command — including two battalion commanders — and issued 3,251 general officer written reprimands to soldiers for refusing the vaccination order.
The announcement comes more than three months after the Army’s Dec. 15 deadline to get vaccinated, and about six weeks after Army Secretary Christine Wormuth ordered service commanders on Jan. 31 to begin the process of involuntarily separating vaccine refusers “as expeditiously as possible.”
The Army said it would begin separating those troops who failed to comply on Feb. 2.
“Army readiness depends on Soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars,” Wormuth said in January. “Unvaccinated Soldiers present risk to the force and jeopardize readiness. We will begin involuntary separation proceedings for Soldiers who refuse the vaccine order and are not pending a final decision on an exemption.”
To date, about 702 active-duty soldiers have been denied a religious exemption, while 3,943 soldiers are awaiting decisions on their religious exemption requests. To date, the army has granted only two exemptions, according to an Army statement released Friday.
In contrast, the Navy had discharged 519 sailors as of March 16, and the Marine Corps said it had separated 1,038 Marines as of last week. The Air Force had separated 212 airmen as of March 15.
It is unknown how the Army substantiates its position that remaining unvaccinated affects military readiness. It has been shown COVID vaccines neither prevent COVID nor transmission of the virus. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control has failed to identify a single case of COVID caused by an unvaccinated person with natural immunity.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered all military service members to receive the COVID vaccine in August, but allowed each service to determine their own timelines.
The Army said Friday that 96% of the Army’s active-duty soldiers have been fully vaccinated and another 1% were partially inoculated.
Both Pfizer and Moderna last week requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sign off on fourth doses of their COVID vaccines for adults, with Pfizer requesting authorization for those over 65 and Moderna requesting authorization for all adults over 18. The requests stem from the failure of the first three doses to provide long-lasting protection against severe disease (as it has already been acknowledged COVID vaccines do not actually prevent COVID).
Judge takes position that COVID vaccine mandate violates service members’ constitutional rights
A U.S. District Court Judge in February granted a preliminary injunction for an Air Force Reserve officer to the COVID vaccine mandate calling the Service’s process for granting a religious exemption “illusory and insincere.”
Judge Tillman E. Self III ordered the Air Force to refrain from taking “any adverse action” against the officer on the basis of “this lawsuit or her request for religious accommodation, specifically including forcing her to retire.”
“Given ‘the Nation’s essential commitment to religious freedom[,]’ Plaintiff’s harm — a constitutional injury involving her right to freely exercise her religion — is not a mere trivial grievance,” Self wrote in a strong rebuke of the mandate.
The judge said the Air Force likely violated the officer’s First Amendment rights when it denied her request for a religious exemption and subsequent appeal she filed in December.
“All Americans, especially the Court, want our country to maintain a military
force that is powerful enough to thoroughly destroy any enemy who dares to challenge
it,” the Judge wrote. “However, we also want a military force strong enough to respect and protect its service members’ constitutional and statutory religious rights. This ruling ensures our armed services continue to accomplish both.”
Only COVID vaccines available in U.S. are experimental
Although the FDA has fully approved both Moderna’s SPIKEVAX COVID vaccine and Pfizer’s COMIRNATY, neither vaccine is available in the United States. The only COVID vaccines available are the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccines, which are still classified as experimental and are only authorized under emergency use authorization (EUA).
As The Vault Project has previously reported, as long as a COVID vaccine is authorized under EUA, it must be voluntary, according to 21 U.S. Code Sec.360bbb-3(e)(1)(A)(ii)(III).
The Department of Defense is essentially mandating COVID vaccines under the guise that they are fully approved and prevent both COVID and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, when in reality the vaccines being given are entirely experimental and do no such thing.
It would appear that having a reduced military force would be much more of a threat to “military readiness” than the failure to receive a COVID vaccine.