Written by: Amanda Angulo
On Monday, the Pentagon announced that they will require service members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, now that Pfizer’s vaccine has been fully FDA approved.
John Kirby, the spokesman for the Pentagon, claimed that Lloyd Austin, Defense Secretary, has made good on his vow from earlier this month to require the COVID shots, once approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
According to Kirby, they are currently developing guidance and a timeline will be provided in the next few days.
On August 9th, Austin had written in a memo that he would seek President Biden’s approval to mandate the vaccines by mid-September at the latest or upon FDA licensure, “whichever comes first.”
Additionally, Kirby said that the mandate of vaccinations is to ensure the safety of our service members and troops. While there are concerns regarding military members being exposed to COVID-19, there is simultaneously a concern with our troops’ freedom of choice. The Biden administration’s dominant strategy is forcing our service members to either get vaccinated or stop serving.
With the recent approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine from the FDA, the Pentagon did not hesitate to require vaccinations from service members. Surely this is an indicator for more vaccination requirements to come throughout the country.
Picture from: Carl Court | Getty Images
