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Mandatory COVID19 Vaccines for the Troops

 
 
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 08:14 am
Here's the story with some background.

Quote:
President Joe Biden said he has not ruled out requiring all U.S. troops to get the coronavirus vaccine after the shots win final clearance from federal regulators, but cautioned that such a decision would be a “tough call.”

“I don’t know. I’m going to leave that to the military,” Biden told NBC News’ Craig Melvin in an interview that aired Friday, in response to a question on whether he would mandate the vaccine for U.S. service members once it is fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

“I’m not saying I won’t. I think you’re going to see more and more of them getting it,” Biden said. “And I think it’s going to be a tough call as to whether or not they should be required to have to get it in the military, because you’re in such close proximity with other military personnel — whether you’re in a quarters, where you’re all sleeping, or whether you’re out in maneuvers.”


Apparently 1/3 of troops are refusing the vaccine right now.
 
engineer
 
  3  
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 08:20 am
@engineer,
My take as a former Navy guy is that you get all the vaccines required by the government. In my early days in the military, I got a ton of vaccines courtesy of the Navy. A small pox vaccine (and some bad post shot instructions) gave me a swollen arm for a week. I've even been inoculated against the black plague. It's all in the name of preventing biological warfare and ensuring military readiness. We've already seen Covid 19 take down an aircraft carrier so this isn't a hypothetical.
engineer
 
  1  
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 08:36 am
@engineer,
Here's an interesting article about the mandatory use of the Anthrax vaccine in the military. It also discusses military rules of informed consent.
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  3  
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 12:02 pm
@engineer,
Yeah, I don't recall the Army giving anyone a choice. They had two killer shots when I was 10 days from ETS. Had to get them anyway.
BillW
 
  1  
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 07:51 pm
@roger,
I remember we would run, get the vaccination and then run back. No walking in boot camp.
roger
 
  1  
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 08:07 pm
@BillW,
I forgot about that part.
BillW
 
  0  
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 08:51 pm
@roger,
We ran to our graduation ceremonies. Our class Commanding Officer got his ass chewed out. Troops are not allowed to run in Class "A" uniforms!
0 Replies
 
glitterbag
 
  0  
Reply Fri 30 Apr, 2021 10:59 pm
@engineer,
engineer wrote:

Here's the story with some background.

Quote:
President Joe Biden said he has not ruled out requiring all U.S. troops to get the coronavirus vaccine after the shots win final clearance from federal regulators, but cautioned that such a decision would be a “tough call.”


“ “And I think it’s going to be a tough call as to whether or not they should be required to have to get it in the military, because you’re in such close proximity with other military personnel — whether you’re in a quarters, where you’re all sleeping, or whether you’re out in maneuvers.”


Apparently 1/3 of troops are refusing the vaccine right now.


I was never a member of the Armed Forces, but I was a civilian member of DOD...I spent most of my career at Ft. Meade and managed many enlisted personnel and also some officers. I can't recall anytime when the military got to make a choice about where they were stationed or what vaccines they had to receive. If I had to travel for DOD, I was required to receive the inoculations necessary because if I refused, they wouldn't let me on TDY. If I refused to go where I was instructed to go, I could have been terminated (however, I don't know of that rule ever being enforced) Military personnel don't have to re-enlist when their tour is over, but they don't get to skip basic training and they are subject to military rules of conduct. It's not for everybody, it can be a terrific career.......but there is no compulsory service right now, so if you decide to join you better familiarize yourself with the program before you sign up.
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  2  
Reply Sat 1 May, 2021 04:59 am
Ah yes, the vaccination line in basic training...there were medics on either side of the line using those newly-developed (late '60s) jet injector guns. We moved through, shirtless, and it was like trying to run a gauntlet, BANG! one in the left arm, BANG! one in the right arm. Move on and repeat. I think we received a dozen different vaccines. Some guys flinched and had blood running down their arms. That afternoon we had to beat each other with pugil sticks. Good times!

Thing is, I can't imagine any soldier being allowed to choose what injections he or she won't accept. So, it's just an option? Man, the military sure has changed.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Reply Sat 1 May, 2021 06:53 am
When I was in the navy (as a conscript), everyone had actually received all the protective vaccinations while still at school.

However, I did not have the smallpox vaccination. Which actually wouldn't have been a problem ... if my boat hadn't taken part in a large manoeuvre in the Atlantic, if I hadn't been the only navigator on board (my colleague was "unfit for sea"), if my hometown hadn't been in a neighbouring town to a smallpox area (I was therefore only allowed to deploy abroad with a vaccination), and if my father had allowed the vaccination (at that time the age of majority was still 21 - my father was a doctor, by the way, and also vaccinated for the health authorities himself).

I got the vaccination exactly on my 21st birthday - I couldn't celebrate my birthday (with alcohol) either, because we were on guard duty the day before.

At the medical station I was isolated in my room, but it was a single room, usually used for officers.

I was supposed to stay there for a fortnight and then be taken by helicopter to my boat on the island of Borkum.

As I had no side effects at all, I was told that I could then fetch drinks, chocolate etc. for the ward from the canteen. When going to ask who wanted what, I discovered that a schoolmate was lying in the next room (suspected of having TB, was discharged on that very day).

The helicopter was also cancelled because I didn't have to stay there for the two weeks and got a lift on another navy ship.

0 Replies
 
snood
 
  3  
Reply Sat 1 May, 2021 07:03 am
Vaccinations were never optional during my 20 years in.

You could refuse but you’d face UCMJ action. An Article 15 can mess with your pay, your rank, your down time and remains on your record.

I don’t remember anyone thinking it was worth all that to refuse a shot. We all just got in line.
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Sat 1 May, 2021 07:44 am
@snood,
Since quite a few years members of the German forces have the obligation ("Duldungspflicht") to get a necessary vaccination.
The obligation to tolerate ("Duldungspflicht") means that soldiers are obliged to tolerate all instructed vaccination and prophylactic measures. Vaccination is only unreasonable if there is objectively a considerable danger to the life or health of the soldier.

This has been confirmed recently by a Military Service Senate of the Federal Administrative Court: "Since soldiers are required by law to be vaccinated more than other citizens, refusal to be vaccinated as ordered can be punished as a service offence." (BVerwG 2 WNB 8.20.)
0 Replies
 
glitterbag
 
  3  
Reply Sat 1 May, 2021 01:36 pm
Since military service is all volunteer and has been for years, I think many of our citizens have forgotten exactly how structured the military has to be. There was a time when everybody understood the basics, but apparently there is a belief creeping in that military personnel can operate under the same freedoms that civilians can.

Mame
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 May, 2021 05:31 pm
@glitterbag,
Do you remember, GB, when we went to kindergarten we had to produce our Immunization Card? At least, in Canada we had to. We weren't allowed in unless it was uptodate. And then, we got shots by the nurse in school (smallpox, for one). There was no option. You either got a vaccine or you were home-schooled. I was too young to know if there was an outcry, but I highly doubt it.

And some cities, Vancouver, for example, wound up fluorinating their water. No choice in the matter.

My mother was deathly scared that we'd get polio, such a debilitating disease, that we were definitely getting that DPT shot. And I hear that measles is on the rise in many countries. And I also heard that the measles vaccine is only about 50% effective in not contracting it, but it sure made a difference if you got it.
glitterbag
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 May, 2021 05:57 pm
@Mame,
I lived in Iceland until I was about 4, my Dad was an Air Traffic Controller at the Airport. This first part I don't recall, but my mother would talk about the polio panic that sweep the globe. I probably got most of the required vaccines at the Air Force Base with all the other American kids. What I do remember is the news about Dr. Salk and his polio vaccine, and also getting my first dose on a sugar cube at a local health center. There was no vaccine for measles, mumps or chicken pox until years later, and I got all three while still in the early years of elementary school, but so did all the other kids in my neighborhood.

I was lucky because I didn't suffer any long term consequences, but many kids did including deafness, blindness or even death. I remember being really sick with the measles, and I don't think anybody would willingly experience any of it just because they didn't want the vaccine.

roger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 May, 2021 06:01 pm
@glitterbag,
Oh, do I ever remember polio. In the '50s, if you wanted to clear out a movie theater, just roll in a kid with a leg brace.
Mame
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 May, 2021 06:20 pm
@roger,
I have a friend who's in her late 70s. She and her brother both got polio in the 1950s and they've had no end of issues - very sad. She was a concert pianist but because the polio eventually affected her bowels, she can't sit properly - she has to rest on one buttock. Brilliant woman.

I have a sister (one of 6) who is an anti-vaxer - I just don't understand. But then, she howls and dances at the full moon and is a conspiracy-theorist. It's a wonder we're still friends, actually Smile But I do love her and don't we all ignore other people's peccadilloes?
Mame
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 May, 2021 06:24 pm
@glitterbag,
The only thing I ever got as a kid was a mild case of mumps. Some sisters may have contracted measles, I don't remember.

I know of a Professor where I worked whose 6 month old healthy boy died of Whooping Cough. In this day and age. I worked at a Pediatric Hospital at the time and asked the ICU docs what happened. They sent a chopper to get him (they were skiing at Whistler) and they couldn't intubate him because everything had swollen up so much. Tragic. Whooping cough has been making a comeback.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 May, 2021 09:39 pm
@Mame,
I vividly remember when polio was in our town, because I had to stay in house. Two children in my age died.
0 Replies
 
 

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