President Joe Biden did not rule out ordering all members of the military to get the COVID vaccine


‘It’s going to be a tough call’: Biden is considering ordering all military members to get COVID vaccine after data shows 40% of Marines refused

  • Biden did not rule out ordering all members of military to get the COVID vaccine 
  • Military data showed that 40% of Marines refused to get a shot 
  • ‘I don’t know,’ he told NBC’s Today Show. ‘I’m going to leave that to the military’
  • Biden added: ‘I’m not saying I won’t’ but noted he hopes they will take it
  • Pentagon officials said Marines might be refusing as they are young and healthy and want to let others go ahead of them
  • But officials at Camp Lejeune said they are fighting vaccine hesitancy 

President Joe Biden did not rule out ordering all members of the military to get the COVID vaccine after data showed that 40% of Marines refused to get a shot.

‘I don’t know,’ he told NBC’s Today Show. ‘I’m going to leave that to the military.’

Nearly 40% of the 123,000 Marines who have had the chance to receive COVID vaccine have turned it down, according to force-wide data obtained by Military.com.

‘I’m not saying I won’t,’ Biden said. ‘I think you’re gonna see more and more them getting it.’

He acknowledged it would be a tough order to give. 

‘It’s going to be a tough call, as to whether or not, they should be required to get in the military, because you’re in such close proximity with other military personnel,’ he noted.

President Joe Biden did not rule out ordering all members of the military to get the COVID vaccine

President Joe Biden did not rule out ordering all members of the military to get the COVID vaccine

About 102,000 Marine personnel have not yet been offered the vaccine, Capt. Andrew Wood, a spokesman at the Pentagon, told Military Times.

He said there were plenty of reasons a Marine may turn it down, including the fact they are a young and healthy force so they might be giving it up so others can get the shot first.

Military personnel and frontline workers were among the first groups offered the vaccine. 

He said they still have the option of getting it.  

‘Service members who decline one day can change their mind and become vaccinated when the next opportunity presents itself,’ Wood said.

Nearly 40% of the 123,000 Marines who have had the chance to receive COVID vaccine have turned it down, according to force-wide data obtained by Military.com - above Marines at Camp Pendleton in California

Nearly 40% of the 123,000 Marines who have had the chance to receive COVID vaccine have turned it down, according to force-wide data obtained by Military.com – above Marines at Camp Pendleton in California

President Biden, boarding Marine One with first lady Jill Biden, said it would be a 'tough call' to order all troops to get vaccinated

President Biden, boarding Marine One with first lady Jill Biden, said it would be a ‘tough call’ to order all troops to get vaccinated

The Biden administration has been fighting vaccine hesitancy and social media misinformation when it comes the vaccines. 

‘It is a challenge to combat misinformation that Marines are seeing on social media,’ Lt. Col. Thomas B. Turner, who is leading vaccination planning for active-duty personnel at Camp Lejeune, the Marines’ largest East Coast base, told Carolina Public Press.

‘But that is one of our principal lines of effort here. We have to inoculate the force from the virus, and we have to inoculate the force for vaccine misinformation.’

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin released a video urging troops to get vaccinated.

Vaccine hesitancy is not just among the military. A CNN poll out this week found 26% of adults said they will not try to get a coronavirus vaccine shot.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

“It was the most agonising experience of my life”

A Nigerian researcher, Aliyu Sufi, who was injured in a fire caused…

This House of the Dragon Scene Makes Daenerys’ GoT Death More Sad

The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode…

Kanye West’s 10 year old daughter North West shows off diamond grills after he debuted $850K titanium dentures

North West showed off her new diamond grills on TikTok after her…

Biden calls critics of transgender surgeries and care ‘hysterical’ and ‘prejudiced’

President Joe Biden reiterated his support for transgender Americans and the broader LGBTQ+ community…