The number of Navy sailors who have been discharged for refusing to receive a coronavirus vaccine is up to 45, the Navy announced Wednesday.
Twenty-two of the discharged sailors were entry-level separations, meaning they were within their first 180 days of active duty, while 23 active-duty sailors were also separated with an honorable discharge.
There are still roughly 5,000 active-duty sailors and nearly 3,000 reserves who remain unvaccinated as of Wednesday, even though the deadline was weeks ago. The percentage of active-duty sailors who are unvaccinated is less than 2% of the force.
The Navy has granted 10 permanent medical exemptions, 266 temporary medical exemptions, 83 administrative exemptions, most of which went to active-duty sailors, and no religious exemptions, despite roughly 4,000 requests.
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The lack of approved religious exemptions has garnered attention, particularly from conservatives who have alleged that the military is violating its personnel’s First Amendment rights. Only two have been granted across all military branches, both of which were granted to Marines.
Earlier this month, a judge ruled in favor of roughly three dozen Navy SEALs who sued the Department of Defense alleging that their religious exemption requests were not legitimately considered before getting rejected.
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“The fact that the military continues to demonstrate hostility to anyone who expresses religious objection to the vaccine mandate shows that the Biden administration does not care about religious freedom,” Mike Berry, general counsel for First Liberty Institute, said this week after amending the complaint to make it a class-action case. “The lawsuit seeks to protect as many service members as possible from further punishment. We have to put a stop to this before any more harm is done to our national security.”
