A Pentagon watchdog evaluate of the navy’s COVID-19 vaccine exemption course of discovered that every of the branches largely complied with insurance policies and, in some circumstances, even went past what was required to think about service members’ requests for non secular lodging.
Whereas rejecting numerous accusations that the providers hadn’t correctly reviewed waiver requests, the Pentagon’s inspector common did fault the Army and Air Power for taking too lengthy to course of the requests and wrote in a report launched Thursday that discharges had been inconsistent, leaving some service members with full advantages whereas others had been left with partial advantages.
The exemption course of turned the topic of political and authorized scrutiny amid the peak of the pandemic after some service members filed authorized challenges that in the end made their technique to the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
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The investigation was kicked off in February 2022 after the inspector common “obtained complaints by means of the DoD Hotline between August 2021 and June 2022 alleging that the Navy Providers had been improperly processing COVID-19 vaccination exemption requests,” the report stated. “We continued to obtain complaints and, on June 2, 2022, the Appearing DoD Inspector Normal issued a memorandum … to the Secretary of Protection.”
That memo advised Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin that the watchdog “discovered a pattern of generalized assessments” and “denial memorandums we reviewed typically didn’t replicate an individualized evaluation.”
It was an allegation that was key to the arguments of a number of court docket circumstances filed by service members that had been largely profitable in halting discharges over a refusal to adjust to the coverage.
Nevertheless, the inspector common in the end discovered no proof that the providers had been “rubber stamping” denials, declaring that investigators “discovered no proof of a scarcity of particular person evaluate by the choice authorities.”
Investigators stated that the officers that they interviewed mentioned the circumstances “intimately,” however they created approval and denial letter templates to each streamline the method and ensure all of the required info was being conveyed to service members.
The allegations of “rubber stamping” even made it to not less than one of many places of work and prompted discussions amongst staffers about whether or not the wording ought to be altered. Finally, the unnamed workplace saved the templates out of a need to offer consistency for the denials and out of a concern that extra custom-made letters would recommend service members weren’t all being reviewed below the identical commonplace.
The report additionally famous at one level that some requests had been thought-about by the providers, although they did not must be. The report cited 4 requests by Army troopers whose chaplains “decided that 4 Service members didn’t have sincerely held non secular beliefs to assist a spiritual lodging, as required by DoD coverage.”
“In every case, the Army determination authority acknowledged that they thought-about the Service member’s request whatever the chaplain’s evaluation,” the report stated.
The Army and Air Power’s delays in assembly their 90- and 30-day processing deadlines, respectively, had been chalked as much as the massive quantity of requests — greater than 16,000, as of January 2023.
Out of the requests reviewed by the inspector common, the Army’s circumstances averaged 192 days to obtain a call whereas the Air Power’s requests averaged 168 days.
Staffers within the places of work that sometimes deal with exemption requests advised investigators that they usually dealt with just some requests per 12 months and on less complicated matters reminiscent of grooming or clothes — not one thing as advanced as vaccinations.
Investigators additionally faulted the providers for discharging service members below various discharge varieties or reentry codes. Whereas the report defined that “this occurred as a result of the DoD didn’t have department-level steering requiring uniformity,” they however identified that “service members skilled totally different impacts to their instructional advantages and eligibility to reenlist in navy service after discharge.”
The report beneficial that the Pentagon evaluate its exemption course of to attempt to enhance its effectivity “in periods of high-volume requests” and create a greater coverage to standardize reentry codes. It additionally famous that each suggestions had been accepted by the Protection Division, which has already begun making modifications.
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