Thousands of troops are on track to miss the November 28 deadline
Thousands of US Marines are on track to miss the November 28 deadline to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Reuters reported.
Thus, the Marines show the weakest compliance with the vaccination requirement of all branches of the military in the United States Army.
The Marine Corps said yesterday that by November 17, about 91 percent of active-duty soldiers had been fully vaccinated and 94 percent had been partially vaccinated.
Soldiers are considered fully vaccinated 14 days after receiving the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine or 14 days after the second dose of Pfizer or Modern vaccines. This means that it is too late for many of them to complete the vaccination process by the deadline.
The Washington Post said about 10,000 Marines would not be fully vaccinated by Nov. 28, noting that this was a worrying result for an institution built on the belief that orders must be obeyed.
In the Air Force, nearly 9,600 servicemen have flatly refused to be vaccinated, have not reported their vaccination status, or have asked to be exempted from compulsory vaccination for medical or religious reasons, confronting commanders tasked with maintaining military readiness.
The Navy has the highest level of vaccination of all branches of the US military – 96.7 percent of servicemen there are fully vaccinated. Next is the Air Force with 96.4 percent. In the ground forces, 92 percent of servicemen are fully vaccinated, an army spokesman said.
According to media reports, Secretary of the Army Christine Warmott warned last week in a memorandum that members of the National Guard who refuse to be vaccinated will not remain in service unless they have been approved for exemption from the obligation to vaccinate.
The warning came after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt refused to comply with a federal government order by Joe Biden and said he would not require National Guard members in his state to be vaccinated.
Senator Ted Cruz responded to Warmoth’s warning by saying on Twitter: “The Biden government is persecuting our troops. This is not good for America.”
