Fact Check Team: The impact of the military vaccine mandate

WASHINGTON (TND) — On Monday, a federal judge allowed 35 Navy SEALs who are suing the government a pause from the military's mandatory vaccine policy as they seek a religious exemption.

It's the latest development as some service members speak out against vaccine mandates, calling it a political purge on the military.

The National Desk’s Fact Check Team has been looking into the mandate and what happens if service members don’t get vaccinated.

Some of the nation’s soldiers facing discharge claim they are being crushed by President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate and say it’s pushing out the military’s best and brightest.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made vaccination mandatory for all our armed forces with an announcementAug. 24. Each branch followed his announcement with deadlines, that have now all passed.

Since those dates, each branch has started a process to discharge those soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines that refuse to be vaccinated.

Even though about 98% of the active-duty military is vaccinated, that doesn’t include nearly 9,000 Marines and 3,800 Army soldiers, some of whom are putting in requests for a religious exemption.

The Air Force has already removed 27 airmen from service and 206 Marines have been separated.

Mandatory vaccines are nothing new for the military. The actual regulations for the Army, published back in 2013, require a host of vaccines. It isn’t a shortlist either — it includes shots for things like anthrax and yellow fever.

But pushback from service members against those mandates is now happening across the Department of Defense.

Lawmakers have also complicated the issue.

In September, the White House released a statement saying that they opposed the section of the National Defense Authorization Act that would prohibit adverse actions taken against service members declining the COVID-19 vaccine. They say that it would hurt readiness and discipline in the military.

Republican lawmakers vehemently opposed the administration's stance and fought for the provision.

Just a week ago, Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2022 into law.

One of the provisions, section 736, says troops who do not get a COVID-19 vaccine will be honorably discharged or will have a general discharge under honorable conditions. This is retroactive from August 2021 to December 2023.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.,is a former Army doctor and was behind the amendment. He says this ensures service members are protected from a dishonorable discharge.

The NDAA also has a provision that requires the defense department to “establish uniform standards under which covered members may be exempted from receiving an otherwise mandated COVID-19 vaccine for administrative, medical, or religious reasons.”

As of right now, there are no reported approvals for religious exemptions across the military.

According to Defense One, the entire military has received more than 18,000 requests for religious accommodations.

The Air Force has processed more than 10,000 requests and has disapproved a total of 2,100 so far due to military readiness considerations. They say each request is individually reviewed by religious resolution teams which are made up of chaplains, medical providers, judge advocates, and other experts.

The commander decides if the exemption can be made without hurting military readiness based on the health and safety of the unit and member, unit cohesion, and good order and discipline. If it can’t be then the request will be denied and the member can appeal the denial.

The Army has received 1,746 religious accommodation requests.

If a soldier wants to make a religious exception request, the first step is talking to their direct leadership. At that level, the leadership is responsible for setting up a meeting for the soldier with a chaplain and a health care provider.

The Army makes the health care provider available for any questions about the vaccine, and usually, this is the same provider that a soldier would see for any other medical issue they might have.

Soldiers also talk with the chaplain that is part of their unit, who asks why they aren’t willing to be vaccinated.

A chaplain then makes a recommendation based on both the chaplain’s history with that soldier and guidelines for the whole Army.

Even if the chaplain recommends approving an exception, it still goes up through multiple commanders for approval, has a legal review, and then to the Army surgeon general’s office, where it’s reviewed by a team.

Eighty-five of these requests have been denied, leaving more than 1,600 still waiting. They won’t go anywhere until that process is finished.

It is important to note that the Army already had 6,260 medical or administrative exemptions on the books for active-duty soldiers, so three times as many already had one of these exceptions and are asking for it now.

The Navy has received 2,877 active duty requests for religious accommodation and the Marine Corps has received more than 3,000.