The Marine Corps has moved aggressively to discharge service members since its vaccine mandate deadline of Nov. 14, having reviewed many of the a number of thousand claims for non secular exemptions and to date granting none.
In response to the Corps’ newest replace, it has separated 206 Marines so far with the vaccine refusal discharge code.
The weekly updates from the department present that the separations started with 103 Marines on the week of Dec. 16.
Conversely, the Air Power, whose vaccine deadline arrived on Nov. 2, introduced it had solely discharged 27 folks for failing to get the shot that very same week. In the meantime, the Navy has not introduced any discharges stemming from its vaccine mandate regardless of it sharing the identical Nov. 14 deadline.
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The fast tempo additionally extends to the assessment of claims for non secular exemption. The Marines say that they’ve now reviewed and adjudicated 3,080 of the three,192 requests – greater than 96%.
In distinction, the Air Power’s final replace mentioned it had 4,652 non secular requests in progress whereas the Navy’s replace mentioned it acquired 2,844 however didn’t specify what number of have already been dominated on.
Requests for exemption are selected by the Manpower and Reserve Affairs command headed by Lt. Gen. David Ottignon – a deputy commandant – and never a Marines’ direct commander.
No department of the navy has but to approve a spiritual exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine, and spokespeople for the Navy and Marine Corps have beforehand instructed Navy.com that neither department has granted such an exemption for any vaccine in at the least seven years.
The Marine’s vaccination charges have been notably decrease than the remainder of the branches. Whereas the ultimate figures for absolutely vaccinated service members on the time of their respective deadlines for the Navy, Army, and Air Power had been round 96%, the Marine Corps reported a charge of 92%.
The elimination of service members comes at a time when there was rising dialog within the navy in regards to the hazard the brand new Omicron variant poses to the armed forces and the necessity for booster pictures.
The Pentagon introduced this week that it’s recommending the extra vaccine shot to everybody eligible on the Division of Protection. Troops, civilians and dependents who’ve accomplished an preliminary vaccination towards COVID-19 — both the one shot or two-shot collection — are eligible for a booster shot after six months.
On Dec. 20, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby instructed reporters that just about 100,000 active-duty service members had already acquired boosters.
That announcement got here amid studies {that a} Navy ship was preventing an outbreak of COVID-19. A part of the Navy’s response has been to advocate and supply the crew booster pictures.
The Navy has not mentioned whether or not the outbreak on the Milwaukee is from the extremely contagious Omicron variant of the virus, however Kirby has mentioned that “given its fast unfold in the US, we’d anticipate Omicron circumstances will proceed to rise inside DoD within the close to time period.”
— Konstantin Toropin may be reached at konstantin.toropin@navy.com. Observe him on Twitter @ktoropin.
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