WASHINGTON (AP) — By the thousands, U.S. service members are refusing or putting off the COVID-19 vaccine as frustrated commanders scramble to knock down internet rumors and find the right pitch that will persuade troops to get the shot.
Some Army units are seeing as few as one-third agree to the vaccine. Military leaders searching for answers believe they have identified one potential convincer: an imminent deployment. Navy sailors on ships heading out to sea last week, for example, were choosing to take the shot at rates exceeding 80% to 90%.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeff Taliaferro, vice director of operations for the Joint Staff, told Congress on Wednesday that “very early data” suggests that just up to two-thirds of the service members offered the vaccine have accepted.
That’s higher than the rate for the general population, which a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation put at roughly 50%. But the significant number of forces declining the vaccine is especially worrisome because troops often live, work and fight closely together in environments where social distancing and wearing masks, at times, are difficult.
The military’s resistance also comes as troops are deploying to administer shots at vaccination centers around the country and as leaders look to American forces to set an example for the nation.
“We’re still struggling with what is the messaging and how do we influence people to opt in for the vaccine,” said Brig. Gen. Edward Bailey, the surgeon for Army Forces Command. He said that in some units just 30% have agreed to take the vaccine, while others are between 50% and 70%. Forces Command oversees major Army units, encompassing about 750,000 Army, Reserve and National Guard soldiers at 15 bases.
At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where several thousand troops are preparing for future deployments, the vaccine acceptance rate is about 60%, Bailey said. That’s “not as high as we would hope for front-line personnel,” he said.
Bailey has heard all the excuses.
“I think the most amusing one I heard was, ‘The Army always tells me what to do, they gave me a choice, so I said no’,” he said.
Service leaders have vigorously campaigned for the vaccine. They have held town halls, written messages to the force, distributed scientific data, posted videos, and even put out photos of leaders getting vaccinated.
For weeks, the Pentagon insisted it did not know how many troops were declining the vaccine. On Wednesday they provided few details on their early data.
Officials from individual military services, however, said in interviews with The Associated Press that refusal rates vary widely, depending on a service member’s age, unit, location, deployment status and other intangibles.
The variations make it harder for leaders to identify which arguments for the vaccine are most persuasive. Because the vaccine hasn’t gotten final approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s voluntary. But Defense Department officials say that soon may change.
“We cannot make it mandatory yet,” Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, commander of the Navy’s 2nd Fleet, said last week. “I can tell you we’re probably going to make it mandatory as soon as we can, just like we do with the flu vaccine.”
About 40 Marines gathered recently in a California conference room for an information session from medical staff. One officer, who was not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Marines are more comfortable posing questions about the vaccine in smaller groups.
The officer said one Marine, citing a widely circulated and false conspiracy theory, said: “I heard that this thing is actually a tracking device.” The medical staff, said the officer, quickly debunked that theory, and pointed to the Marine’s cellphone, noting that it’s an effective tracker.
Other frequent questions revolved around possible side effects or health concerns, including the vaccine’s possible impact on pregnant women. Army, Navy and Air Force officials say they hear much the same.
The Marine Corps is a relatively small service and troops are generally younger. Similar to the general population, younger service members are more likely to decline or ask to wait. In many cases, military commanders said, younger troops say they have had the coronavirus or known others who had it, and concluded it was not bad.
“What they’re not seeing is that 20-year-olds who’ve actually gotten very sick, have been hospitalized or die, or the folks who appear to be fine but then it turns out they’ve developed pulmonary and cardiac abnormalities,” Bailey said.
One ray of hope has been deployments.
Lewis, based in Norfolk, Virginia, said last week that sailors on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which is operating in the Atlantic, agreed to get the shot at a rate of about 80%. Sailors on the USS Iwo Jima and Marines in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who also are deploying, had rates of more than 90%.
Bailey said the Army is seeing opportunities to reduce the two-week quarantine period for units deploying to Europe if service members are largely vaccinated and the host nation agrees. U.S. Army Europe may cut the quarantine time to five days if 70% of the unit is vaccinated, and that incentive could work, he said.
The acceptance numbers drop off among those who are not deploying, military officials said.
Gen. James McConville, the Army’s chief of staff, used his own experience to encourage troops to be vaccinated. “When they asked me how it felt, I said it was a lot less painful than some of the meetings I go to in the Pentagon.”
Col. Jody Dugai, commander of the Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital at Fort Polk, Louisiana, said that so far conversations at the squad level, with eight to 10 peers, have been successful, and that getting more information helps.
At the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Brig. Gen. David Doyle, has a dual challenge. As base commander, he must persuade the nearly 7,500 soldiers on base to get the shot and he needs to ensure that the thousands of troops that cycle in and out for training exercises are safe.
Doyle said the acceptance rate on his base is between 30% and 40%, and that most often it’s the younger troops who decline.
“They tell me they don’t have high confidence in the vaccine because they believe it was done too quickly,” he said. Top health officials have attested to the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
Doyle said it appears peers are often more influential than leaders in persuading troops — a sentiment echoed by Bailey, the Army Forces Command surgeon.
“We’re trying to figure out who the influencers are,” Bailey said. “Is it a squad leader or platoon sergeant in the Army? I think it probably is. Someone who is more of their age and interacts with them more on a regular basis versus the general officer who takes his picture and says, ‘I got the shot.’”
AP National Security writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
I will take this EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGIC AGENT when someone shoots it into my cold dead arm.
I’d ask the potential administrator of said vaccine the old, “Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?”
THAT is why i am DAM GLAD i am retired, so they cannot FORCE A vaccine on me anymore.
I know how you feel. Everytime the Army forced me to get a flu shot, I ALWAYS caught the flu within a few days after the shot. After I got out of the Army I never had a flu shot since. Yes, about once every 10 years I get the flu, but it’s usually over within a couple days, not the week long flu that I’d get in the Army. If I decide to get the covid shot I want it to be MY choice, not some one else’s.
ALL Shots, should be the PATIENTS choice. ALL.
It is reported, despite an effort to squash the truth, that the covid vaccines have very serious side effects, including allergic reactions and death. Some sources point to deliberate harmful ingredients in the first shot which set up a very bad result upon receiving the second one. According to these reports, Chinese communists (in collusion with others) designed these shots to damage &/or kill as many Americans as possible. Large numbers of our military people becoming affected by these experimental medical agents could / would weaken our defenses and give advantage to our enemies.
That is the 2nd time, someone’s mentioned all those adverse effects? Got any links to reports on them??
Am I the only one that remembers we were not allowed to buy cheaper drugs or more effective treatments from across the border because they were not FDA approved? None of the vaccines being administered today have yet received FDA approval. They are being given under an “Emergency Use Authorization” precisely because the FDA has not had time to study their long term health impacts.
I do. I remember getting a nasty gram, for TRYING to buy a penicilin generic from canada, that was NOT on the fda’s approved list (cause it was also cheeper than the US companies were selling it at)…
Mandatory communism. Why do young healthy people need the shots?
Because they only have a 99.97% chance of survival otherwise. The shot gives them an addition 0.000013% giving them a…..99.97% chance of surviving the China Flu.
How are they going to explain deploying 100% of our military to justify mandating the shots?
Getting the shot should garner the recipient hazard or combat pay.
AND if you still have to stay masked up the wazoo, AND stay socially distant etc, WHY THE HELL Did they need to give you the shot?
As of Feb. 4, 653 ☠ deaths — a subset of 12,697 total adverse events — had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID-19 vaccinations. The numbers reflect reports filed between Dec. 14, 2020 and Feb. 4, 2021.
Strange, NO ONE HAS MENTIONED a single one of them then… You’d think SOMEONE WOULD..
This vaccine was a rush job and nobody has any idea what the long term effects will be. This is very reminiscent of the vaccinations for service members prior to Gulf War one and two which are now thought to be part of Gulf War Syndrome except the military and the VA refuse to admit it while the military members and veterans suffer and die. This also reminds me of Agent Orange and all the effects the service members and veterans are dying from. No Thanks! I took enough experimental **** in my career.
And like always, it will take DECADES before someone finally gets the govt to admit culpability, IF THEY EVER do.
The government has a LONG history of denying causing any harmful issues until enough veterans die and then it admits there was an issue and work on it. All the time loyal service personnel are dying! I can remember the Atomic Vets. In the 50’s during testing of atomic bombs, troops were stationed at different distances from the blast sites. The American Soldiers were used as guinea pigs. Many of them came down with different medical issues, such as cancer. Our “beloved” government denied that the exposure to the atomic fallout was the cause. After “enough” of them had died, the US government finally decided that maybe the atomic fallout had been responsible for their medical issue and paid for medical care. Then along comes Agent Orange….Same story! There is more than like other such scenarios with our Service personnel. The American People and Service personal are nothing but collateral damage for our “leaders.
And rarely if EVER, does anyone get held to ACCOUNT for all those lies and delays…
The very first report from the CDC on Jany 29, 2021 states there were 4.45% of the approx. 13,000 inoculated DIED from the injection. A significant portion got life-altering disabilities on top of those killed. Why in the hell would you trade a morbidity rate of less than one-half of one-percent for those NOT vaccinated when the vaccine kills 4.45% of the population?
And the long term ramifications from reactions like cytokine storms could leave us without an army! This is total INSANITY!
Very well said sir.
I have never gotten the annual flu vaccine and the 2 times my husband did he got sick.
While serving as an active duty marine some years at Lejeune my son was told to go his flu shot, he told them he couldn’t get a flu shot, they told him, you’re a Marine, go get your shot. He got back to his baracks, his roommate was out of town, he passed out and they had to break down his barracks door Mon when he didn’t show up for work. He had been unconscious since he had gotten the shot on Fri.
Not everyone can take flu vaccines. The WuFlu is generally not terrible for those under 30, but many are reporting very adverse side effects. One size fits all medicine is dangerous, but our military has always done this.
Please thank your son for his service from a fellow vet. I never get the flu or pneumonia shots, but my wife always does. I don’t get the flu or pneumonia, but my wife occasionally gets both. Exception was a few years ago we both got the Type-A; joint pain, fever, mild headache, digestive tract issues, but not that big a deal. Hung out in bed for about a week, took the prescribed drugs, ate chicken soup, drank tea and plenty of water, read, snoozed and generally relaxed. She no longer gets flu or pneumonia shots and neither of us are getting the Dos Equis Virus shots. We’ve both tested negative recently and our doctor isn’t really insistent about the vaccine.
When i was in, i got SICK 19 times out of the 20 years i was FORCED to take that bloody flu shot. 19 OUT OF 20!! I’ve been retired now, since 2012, and NOT ONCE have i gotten the shot since leaving the military, AND NOT ONCE have i gotten the flu..
TO me, that tells me “NEVER AGAIN get it”.. The numbers do not lie.
“The officer said one Marine, citing a widely circulated and false conspiracy theory, said: ‘I heard that this thing is actually a tracking device’ The medical staff, said the officer, quickly debunked that theory, and pointed to the Marine’s cellphone, noting that it’s an effective tracker.”
What is the proof the officer cited to “quickly debunk” the “false conspiracy theory”? Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are very highly involved in promoting this scam and nano-chips, which can be added to the vaccine, are invisible to the naked eye and will pass through a 28ga. needle can be read using the same technology as credit card scanners, RFID devices and the scanners that are used to read implanted chips in pets. Yes, one can be tracked by ones cell phone, but if the phone is left at home, that’s as far as the tracking goes when one goes out.
See “Plandemic InDoctornation” and decide for yourself. I fact checked the data on lobbying expenditures of the pharmaceutical industry and the reference to Rockefeller’s “American Cancer Society” and they both came up positive.
PROOF, you expect them to have to show PROOF to debunk that claim??
25 states for Republicans. 25 States for democrats. Problem solved.
You’re Welcome.
AND who exactly gets to determine WHICH states become which? AND will travel between the two sides, be halted, so liberals CAN’T FLOOD INTO conservative states (LIKE THEY ARE DOING NOW at incredible rates), to TURN THOSE 25 ‘republican’ states blue?
First, a man made virus. Then, a man made vaccine, with no testing. This is beyond horrible. And, the leaders blindly follow. Good way to get rid of our military. And a lot of the “overpopulation” the libs resent so much.
I’m for giving it to the antifa and blm ASAP. If this is so safe, why aren’t they, which are rioting and spreading virus all over, being given it?
Good point. IF THEY CAN RIOT in mass, WHY ARE THEY not being forcd to get vaccinated enmass?
A healthy twenty year old appears to not be much at risk to die from COVID-19 and it should be voluntary up to a certain age. However, for a seventy year old male, like myself, with several serious underlying medical issues, this vaccine may literally be a life saver. I am feeling very vulnerable and scared right now and won’t hesitate to accept my shots. I believe that we will be forced to live with this pandemic for quite some time and we just need to surrender to this “new normal”.
ANY Vaccine, for any reason, SHOULD NEVER ever be made mandatory. PERIOD.
Sorry you are such a gullible, misinformed, coward, and you believe all the lies you have been fed about covid 19. The fear you have was instilled by the media. You are in FAR less danger of dying from the covid than you are of dying in a car accident. Are you going to stop riding in cars?
I too am 75 with several underlying conditions, but wouldn’t touch it. The true statistics are that only 6% of those who supposedly died FROM it, really died WITH it and it has not been demonstrated that it was the true cause of death. See the CDC’s own report here: Out of 455,247, 27,314 died FROM it .
Scroll down to Table 3.
“Comorbidities and other conditions
Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 3.8 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of mentions for each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups.
Starting December 23, 2020, the data file will also include the number of deaths that mention the listed conditions. The new column, “COVID-19 Deaths” represents the number of deaths that mention one or more of the conditions indicated. The data file’s existing “Number of Mentions” column represents the number of total conditions mentioned for each age group.”
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm
I work from home, but go out when I need to and don’t wear a mask, was tested
negative about two weeks ago.
I had to be hospitalized during covid. Not covid, but major heart issues. I was also on a ventilator. Ventilators need cleaning out, maybe often, or you wind up chocking and no one is there to suck out the phlem. So, pneumonia. Nursing, was very lax. They don’t keep you on medications, that you were taking at home. At least, for the first few days. What do you think happens to someone that has all their meds withheld for a few days. Crash. If you go in on friday, you need to wait until monday to be helped with your problem. They won’t allow a person with you to advocate for you. Only the grace of GOD will bring you out of the hospital, alive. I think most people aren’t dying from covid. They are dying from lack of care.
What’s the bet, HAD You passed, they’d have counted that as a “Covid death”
The left was a big proponent of “My body, my choice” when it came to killing babies in the womb, but it’s “your body, my choice” when it comes to vaccines. Typical hypocrisy.
More like YOUR body, NO CHOICE.