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Sailors and Marines now have 90 days to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk disobeying a lawful order, a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the maritime branches’ top leaders said in a series of messages released Tuesday and Wednesday.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger told their service members that they are ordering any sailor or Marine who has not received the shots to get them now.
“The order to obtain full vaccination is a lawful order,” Gilday, the Navy’s top officer, wrote in his message.
For sailors who refuse the shots, Del Toro’s message lays out a series of steps the Navy will take to convince them to get vaccinated.
First, commands should “provide counseling regarding refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine [to] include access to a healthcare professional to answer questions regarding the risks of COVID-19 and the benefits of COVID-19 vaccinations,” the message says. After that counseling, however, the person will receive a note in their service record ordering them to get vaccinated, the message adds.
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Service members who remain unvaccinated after 90 days will be referred to the COVID Consolidated Disposition Authority, or CCDA, the message explains.
The new CCDA will decide what happens to sailors who refuse the vaccine. Although this new position will be able to use “the full range of administrative and disciplinary actions,” Del Toro noted that “until further notice” he is not letting the CCDA start “non-judicial punishment, courts-martial, or administrative separation in cases of Navy Service Members refusing the vaccine.”
For Marines, the process is a bit simpler: Get the shot or your commander will decide a punishment for failing to follow a lawful order.
Although the commandant’s message did not specifically mention it, Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Andrew Wood noted that Marines will be offered the same access to medical professionals to answer their questions and concerns as their Navy counterparts.
To date, Military.com has reported on only one person who has been forced out of the service for violating COVID-related rules. A Marine corporal received a general discharge in late July 2021 after she refused to wear a face mask despite being unvaccinated.
According to the latest Department of Defense data, the Navy has fully vaccinated 85% of its sailors and the Corps has fully vaccinated 64% of all Marines.
The total number of COVID deaths in the military was at 40 as of Sept. 1, according to the DoD.
The mandatory vaccine policy marks a sharp departure from the previous approach to getting sailors and Marines vaccinated, which left it up to individual commanders. The result of that approach has been vaccination rates that vary widely between commands and services. To address lagging rates, some commands offered incentives such as four-day weekend passes for getting vaccinated. Meanwhile, some Navy commanders described reaching out to experts or doctors to assuage concerns individual sailors had over the vaccines.
Chaplain leaders in the Navy previously noted that they have seen a surge in interest over religious exemptions to the vaccine. While that avenue remains open to sailors and Marines, Capt. Richard Ryan, the chaplain overseeing the Pacific fleet, told Military.com last month that though chaplains in individual Navy commands will be charged with determining the sincerity of sailors’ beliefs, the deputy chief of naval operations for manpower, personnel, training and education ultimately will decide who gets an exemption and who doesn’t.
— Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.
Of course they say to get it, Because they are just as brainwashed as you and getting paid money from the government to keep this heinous egregious system moving forward -wake up
Stop, look and listen…..Everyone has heard this statement since the beginning of their education in kindergarten. I am 64 years old . I didn’t serve in the military. I have a nephew in the Air Force two in the Navy and a grandson in the Marines.
STOP.- They still don’t know what the long term effects of the vaccine is. Why would the government RISK the most valuable assets being compromised? Our men and women in the military are young and healthy or they would not be in the military.They have a 99..6 % chance of survival of COVID-19. That in itself is enough reason not to be vaccinated.
LOOK- If every single service person is vaccinated we are risking their lives, their abilities to defend and protect our country from all enemies foreign and domestic. From an unknown vaccine.s side effects short term and long term. Do we really want to risk our future with this decision?
LISTEN- My recommendation is to NOT vaccinate a significant amount of service people so that they’re ready to serve our country without fear of being compromised by the vaccine. At the end of the day WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE DON’ T KNOW. Are other countries military vaccinated? Are we sure they are? What proof do we have? What if they are just getting vaccinated with a placebo? And we’re gullible enough to fall for it…… 🇺🇸❤️🙏
I have a dear friend who is a scientist who words for the DCD and I have many family members who are physicians, one in medical research! All 💯 say get the vaccine!!!! It outways not getting it! It is safe and getting it just might prevent a unvaccinated person from living on a ventilator for ten days and then die! This covid is and can be a killer!
And apparently this algorithm is rigged because I did not make that comment that says I have friends who are doctors and scientists – We are living in a crazy psyop world -unbelievable, this just proved to me right here that many of these comments are rigged
Thank you! My grandson is at boot camp in Great Lakes. I worked in the Medical field and have so many friends that have told me horrifying stories about people who’ve gotten the jab. I don’t think Military should be forced to take a jab that hasn’t had the short/long term affects recorded for a period of time just for safety’s sake. Why would you FORCE our fighting forces to take a jab that we don’t know the long term effects of. Please don’t force it on them.