Members of the military continue to decline voluntary COVID-19 vaccinations, leaving large swaths of the force unprotected as deaths continue. But the Department of Defense would not say Friday whether it would require members of the military to be inoculated.
“It’s a hypothetical. I don’t want to get ahead of FDA certification of the vaccine,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the Washington Examiner when asked if the COVID-19 vaccine would be made mandatory when and if it receives full Food and Drug Administration approval.
Kirby then went further and indicated the military’s policy of allowing personnel to decide for themselves to get the jab could change.
“If it becomes a certified, FDA-approved vaccine, then I’m sure that medical policy in the military will adjust to that,” he said. “Right now, it’s being offered on a voluntary basis, and we are going to continue to respect that.”
As of Jan. 29, the Pentagon had vaccinated 320,000 service members and civilian personnel, utilizing less than half of the COVID-19 vaccines it had on hand at the time.
The utilization of DOD vaccines has improved since then, ticking up to 76.4%.
“Clearly, we have to balance our legitimate concerns for health of the force and readiness with the fact that these individuals have a right to say that they don’t want it,” Kirby said.
The spokesman could not characterize the risk to the force of leaving tens of thousands of service members exposed to the virus.
But, on Thursday, another active-duty service member died of the coronavirus.
USS Tennessee Navy submariner, Petty Officer 2nd Class Cody Andrew-Godfredson Myers, 26, succumbed to the virus while being treated at the University of Florida Hospital intensive care unit in Jacksonville.
He had been transferred to the civilian hospital one day after being admitted to Naval Air Station Jacksonville Hospital on Saturday.
Myers was quarantined Jan. 18 for close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19.
As of Friday, 21 active-duty service members have died of the coronavirus, 1,350 remained hospitalized, and 145,586 have been sickened.
Still, since the COVID-19 vaccine only has emergency use authorization, the military cannot require service members to be inoculated.
“We’re making a very concerted effort to make the vaccines available to as many people in the workforce as we can,” Kirby said. “We want, obviously, to protect everybody in the force, and we want them to have the opportunity to make this decision for themselves.”
