December 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 13
Disease Control and Prevention,
it's unknown how long the
vaccinations protect against the
worst effects of COVID-19,
though they're estimated to
remain effective for about a year,
and many service members were
vaccinated in early 2021.
For now, the Air Force, Navy and
Marine Corps are in a holding
pattern on removing troops
due to court challenges. Some
1,200 Coast Guardsmenare part
of a class-action lawsuit due to
their religious exemptions being
denied.
Troops are already required
to maintain at least a dozen
other vaccinations for ailments
including the flu, hepatitis and
smallpox. But COVID-19 was
instantly politicized, and the
vaccines embroiled in conspiracy
theories and misinformation.
Army officials interviewed by
Military.com have said that most
religious exemption requests are
spurred by disinformation about
the vaccine and that if a soldier
had no objections to previous
vaccines, their request would
likely face a swift rejection.
Roughly 1,000 soldiers sought a
medical exemption, and 65 were
approved across the active-duty
force, National Guard and reserve.
Meanwhile, the Army National
Guard has yet to suspend any of
the 37,000 part-time troops who
have not been vaccinated, though
commanders are supposed to
forbid unvaccinated Guardsmen
from attending any training or
deployments. Army Secretary
Christine Wormuth has not
issued guidance on separating
Guardsmen since July, when that
ban on training went into effect.
Guard officials interviewed
by Military.com, including
two adjutants general, say that
sidelining those troops hit a major
hurdle without clear guidance
from Wormuth. While those
troops will not be paid, they still
take up space on a unit's roster,
meaning they potentially hold
onto jobs and can make it harder
for soldiers below them to be
promoted.
Some have pointed to the Pentagon's
recent recruiting struggles as
being partly attributable to the
vaccine mandate, though virtually
all evidence points more to
widespread problems such as
obesity, difficulty passing the
military's SAT-style entrance
exam and tougher scrutiny of a
candidate's medical background.
"There was not accurate
information out early on and it
was very politicized, and people
make decisions and they still have
those same beliefs. That's hard
to work your way past, really
hard to work," Marine Corps
Commandant Gen. David Berger
told Military.com on Sunday.