The Air Force has granted a handful of religious exemptions for the coronavirus vaccine, marking the first time it has approved such requests.
The service branch announced on Tuesday that it had granted nine exemptions on the basis of religion, one of which was approved through the appeals process. These nine airmen bring the grand total of service members to get such a request approved to 12, the other three being Marines.
More than 5,700 airmen requested a religious exemption, 2,556 of which are still pending. Of the 3,222 requests that have been denied, 732 are still in the appeals process, and 443 appeals have been denied, per Air Force data. The nine airmen who were granted the exemption represent less than 0.2% of Air Force applicants.
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“The Department of the Air Force determined the service members’ accommodations could be supported with no impact to mission readiness,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told the Washington Examiner. “We don’t have any additional information for release on these approvals.”
These requests represent a significant minority of the Air Force branch and the military at large. The active-duty Air Force component has a vaccination rate of 97.8%, while an additional 0.1% are partially vaccinated. The vaccination rate among the entire branch, reserves included, dips slightly to 96%.
Even though each service branch has a similar vaccination rate in the mid-to-high 90s, there has been a spotlight on the lack of approved religious exemptions.
In total, the Navy has not approved a single religious exemption request after receiving 4,061 of them, while the Army has the same rate for its 3,498 requests. The Marines have received 3,538 requests, and three have been approved. The 12 approved religious exemptions come from a total of 16,875, representing roughly .07%. All of the data come from the most recent updates from each service branch.
A handful of service members who have refused the vaccine have sought legal remedies.
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Last 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. The lawyers for the SEALs later filed another complaint alleging the Navy had retaliated against them.
To date, 469 Marines, 142 airmen, and 96 sailors have been discharged for refusing the vaccine, while the Army plans to start discharging these soldiers “immediately.”
