Pentagon officials say the entire force will be vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-July, even though some service members have been offered a vaccine up to four times before they finally accept.
For months, the Department of Defense has struggled to get active-duty service members in critical national security roles and those deploying to war zones to accept the voluntary COVID-19 vaccine. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recorded a message to the force encouraging soldiers to reach out to their primary care doctor and read about vaccine safety and efficacy on the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s website. The efforts are finally starting to show anecdotal progress, but 60% of the force has yet to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
“Projecting just where we are now, in the middle of July, we think the department will be vaccinated,” Army Lt. Gen. Ronald J. Place, the director of the Defense Health Agency, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.
All service members will be offered a vaccine by May 1.
Place gave several conditions, including that the current uptake rate continues, vaccine supplies flow uninterrupted, and vaccinators are not pulled away to other tasks.
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Presently, some 3,000 active-duty members of the military are on nationwide missions with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and have administered 5 million shots to U.S. citizens.
The Defense Department said 600,000 active-duty service members have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 1.1 million eligible DOD beneficiaries, which include family members, civilians, and military retirees, have been vaccinated.
“More than half the force has not yet been offered a vaccine,” Place said. “About 60% of our military personnel are in that final tier of our vaccination priorities. That is generally young without underlying health conditions and not currently required in an operational mission.”
While Place and acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Terry Adirim projected rosy outlooks and timelines, they still claimed to be unaware of the rate at which service members are refusing to get vaccinated.
Since the three vaccines used by the military have only received emergency authorization use by the Food and Drug Administration, DOD cannot require members of the military to take them. And many are turning them down. A full FDA approval would allow military leaders to make the jabs mandatory.
California Rep. Jimmy Panetta wrote a letter to President Joe Biden this week asking him to waive the voluntary vaccine policy, citing military readiness.
Asked by the Washington Examiner if Austin agreed, DOD referred questions to the White House.
While noting that DOD closely tracks vaccine acceptance rates in the top tier priority personnel, Place did not provide data as to the percentage who had accepted. He only provided anecdotal evidence that more service members were opting for the jab when offered it multiple times.
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“When we know who’s gotten it, we circle back to those who haven’t been offered again,” Place said. “Then, as we reoffer it, many who at first just declined the opportunity are now taking us up on that opportunity.”
He added, “In some, it’s been the third or fourth time we’ve offered it — they’ve taken the opportunity.”
