One-Third of U.S. Troops Have Declined Covid Vaccine, Pentagon Says

They likely will just make it mandatory once the FDA approves it. The hesitation for any higher HQ to give out perks or whatever for taking the vaccine right now is due to the unknowns of it. The absolute worst case scenario would be if high brass was out there handing out free 4 day passes or something to convince troops to take it and then years later it turns out this vaccine had some health effects they didn't know about. It would be royal hell to pay and no higher up would want to be the one who started that trend. That's why they are leaving it completely up to us at this point with absolutely zero incentives given to take it. That way if anything is "wrong" with this vaccine then the military brass can wipe their hands of it because they didn't pressure anyone to take it and didn't try to "convince" you to take it either. You chose to take it on your own.

 

They're already sort of doing something like that. Well they can't make the passes conditional on a vaccine but taking the vaccine relieves some of the royal PITA process of taking leave. You can still take leave without a vaccine but it's a whole bunch of paperwork to fill out, once you get the vaccine I THINK you can just take leave without all of that extra paperwork. And I believe having the vaccine cuts down on your mandatory post leave quarantine time. That's sort of an incentive I suppose even though most people love the mandatory post leave quarantine time because it's free leave on the backend where you get to just hang out at home lol.

 

Well another point of note is that the vaccine just became available for the troops where I currently live. The city received the doses first for the locals and those who signed up to take it in the military were on a waiting list until the local civilians got theirs first. Last week everybody who signed up in the military got bumped to the top of the list because the locals by and large refused to take it so the city had a massive amount of doses left over. I don't think the weariness of the vaccine is just a military thing, only reason we even have the option to take it in the military here is because the locals mostly said they don't want it. That also is probably going to have a negative effect on vaccination numbers going forward. The talk around the office now is that the only reason we even have doses for us is because the locals don't want it, and if the locals don't even want it then a bunch of Soldiers have already stated they sure as hell don't want it either.

 

They are doing a fairly good job and providing all of the information they can and educating Soldiers. Emails every few days, flyers, briefings, etc. That's why we even have at least 1/3rd taking it as it is. With mass media information Soldiers have access to endless amounts of research on their own as well and as long as the vaccine is "controversial" to the public it's going to be controversial to the military as well. Nobody complains about the annual flu shot requirement in the Army because society itself isn't isn't skeptical about the flu shot. If they were then the military would have a problem with that as well.

Those in leadership are people as well and they have their own opinions regarding this vaccine. Some have taken it and some haven't and refuse to take it unless they have to. I know some will argue that military leadership all SHOULD take it in order to set the example for subordinate troops but that's not how it is. Brass are people too they aren't robots and with the amount of controversy surrounding these vaccines I don't judge anybody's personal decision as to whether they take it or not.

 

Perhaps but the same can be said regarding anything health related. People with advanced lung cancer I'm sure regret smoking, people with liver failure likely regret drinking so much, people with obesity dying of heart disease likely regret not being more active and eating better etc. All of which are also self induced health issues stemmed mostly from the decisions people made earlier in life. Everyone is fully aware of the health risks associated with the aforementioned but millions make those decisions anyway. At the end of the day someone's personal health choices are their own choices to make, not ours.

 

Yup, and when the vaccine becomes mandatory then that's what they will do. As long as the vaccine is optional then the chose to take it is on the individual alone and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

Now regarding COVID's danger to units, well that's certainly an issue but not one they are overly concerned with. I can tell you with 100% certainty that the majority of the "COVID restrictions" civilians read about regarding military operations are simply smoke and mirrors to keep the general public off our back. The only thing different about day to day operations is the fact that we all walk around wearing masks now, besides that you would have no idea there was a pandemic going on and this was even during the breakout height of this thing last spring/summer. "Social distancing" lol, yeah ok. This is the Army....

As briefed by the lead MEDAC Physician a few months ago "Maintaining mission readiness is more important than COVID". We've been conducting business as usual for a year at this point and no unit has been even remotely close to being crippled by COVID....just saying.

If anybody seriously believed that the military stopped acting like the military because COVID hit then I have a beach house to sell you in Montana.

 

Well I am nowhere near high enough up the food chain to have any input whatsoever about COVID guidelines in the military so it's a moot point. There's what they "should" do and there's what they actually do.

As you said, this is the military. If you get told to saddle up and lock and load then that's what you do. During COVID we get told to put a mask on and get your ass back into this building full of hundreds of other people and that's what we do. The only person who I believe even has ANY say so in that around here is the guy with the 2 Stars on his chest and that's pushing it. This stuff comes from way above, if civilians are genuinely concerned about COVID and the health of the force then they need to be fussing at Congress and the Pentagon.

 

True, but as with everything else regarding these vaccines the actual answer seems to be "we don't really know yet". A quick google search asking whether vaccination stops the person from transmitting the virus ranges from "no, maybe slightly, we have no idea it's still too early to tell". I would like to assume that it's probably better than nothing but how much better? Nobody knows, the data isn't there yet. The government needs the publish more conclusive data if they expect the public to all just rush out and line up to take this thing. People like information prior to making decisions and that information isn't out there yet. It's a risk vs reward decision.

Now if conclusive data is published stating that the vaccine significantly reduces the rate of transmission then that's a different story. But as of right now we have no idea if that's the case at all so we have no reason to be upset at people for "putting others at risk" before we even know if they are actually doing so by not taking the vaccine.