The U.S. Army announced this week that all American soldiers who refuse a vaccination of COVID-19 without an exemption for a medical or religious reason will be discharged “immediately”! Army secretary Christine Wormuth explained, “Army readiness depends on soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars. Unvaccinated soldiers present a risk to the force and jeopardize readiness.”
This mass discharge of U.S. soldiers will not hurt Army readiness. As of January 26, the Army said 96% of its active duty troops had been “fully vaccinated.” Seventy-nine of its soldiers have so far died of COVID-19. So, about 3,500 of its troops will be discharged. Apparently, they will receive a dishonorable discharge, which goes on a person’s record and can hurt him or her the rest of their life in getting a job, etc. Thus, such people will suffer what I think is their foolish belief about what human rights are. I don’t believe a person has a right to endanger the lives of others, and that’s what anti-vaxxers do.
Yet, some Republican officials who have a lax attitude about this coronavirus are criticizing the Army for this decision. For example, former President Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said of this decision, “Troops are being involuntarily discharged for refusing Biden’s forced vaccine. The next commander-in-chief should use the pardon power to restore them all to honorable discharges and invite them to rejoin the military.”
Yet before this coronavirus pandemic, thus two years ago, the U.S. Army required that its troops be vaccinated for 17 different medical maladies, including measles, mumps, diphtheria, and influenza, which latter many present COVID non-vaxxers refuse too. The first U.S. military vaccine requirement was initiated and undertaken by the Commanding General of the Revolutionary War, George Washington, for smallpox that was taking a large toll of American lives everywhere, thus not only among those soldiers.
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