Military commanders have been barred from offering service members incentives such as days off for getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but the head of the Defense Health Agency said on Wednesday that some crucial troops are increasingly changing their minds after initially refusing the jab.
For months, the Defense Department has labored to communicate that coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective, but “Tier 1A” and “Tier 1B” service members, including medical professionals, deploying soldiers, and those in critical strategic areas, have still turned down the voluntary vaccine. The Pentagon has taken to increasing transparency about how many service members have been vaccinated with a new website and regular briefings. Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, the Defense Health Agency’s director, said the messaging is beginning to penetrate as DOD nears a “tipping point” in its vaccine rollout efforts.
“We know who’s vaccinated, and we know who’s not,” Place told the Washington Examiner. From ambulance crews to emergency ships, Place said members who previously turned down the vaccine are turning up “en masse” to get vaccinated.
“In some cases, we’ve seen entire organizations say, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right. I was worried about it before. Now I’m not so worried about it,’” he added. “We’re seeing it happen as the data continues to come in.”
MILITARY HAS VACCINATED LESS THAN ONE-THIRD OF THE FORCE AS MANY TROOPS REFUSE COVID JAB
DOD’s new website indicates that 3.2 million doses have been delivered and 2.6 million have been administered, a rate just under 81%.
The Pentagon is also now reporting vaccinations per service, with 280,667 service members partially vaccinated and 459,921 fully vaccinated.
Place said he has weekly phone calls with the directors of vaccination sites to learn the best practices that are reaching service members in order to share communications products across the department.
One strategy that is not allowed, however, is offering incentives such as days off to service members who get vaccinated.
Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Terry Adirim cautiously explained a staff judge advocate decision that the incentives are not allowed because they negatively affect service members who choose not to be vaccinated while the doses remain voluntary under FDA emergency authorization use.
“Right now, the policy is no additional incentives,” she said.
Place added: “This is a voluntary vaccine, which means that commanders have to be very careful not to exert what we call undue command influence, and so the right and left limits for them is informing their service members.”
Adirim stressed the lifesaving benefit of vaccination, but she also said a DOD policy change means that vaccinated people no longer have to quarantine before travel.
“That’s an example of a benefit of getting vaccinated,” she said.
Place said that as of Monday, any member of the DOD community can sign up for a vaccine.
“We are very close, or perhaps we’re there already, from a tipping point to this being a supply limited environment, to some other factor,” he said, noting that vaccination rates and the number of people who get vaccinated elsewhere may soon affect DOD’s throughput rate.
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Overseas, DOD’s efforts are more effective despite a disruption of vaccine distribution due to the recent spoilage of Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which were quickly replaced by additional shipments of Moderna vaccines. The military’s global combatant commands are still experiencing higher vaccination rates versus stateside locations, the officials said.
“I don’t know what the new normal is going to look like, but we live in a changing environment all the time,” Place added. “If [it’s] OK for you, based on the feedback that you get from your healthcare provider, get vaccinated. Whatever that new normal is going to look like, we’re going to get there faster, and that’s if we do it together.”
