Recruits and troops in the U.S. armed forces are routinely inoculated against a laundry list of diseases. So, if you sign on the dotted line (nobody is drafted anymore, although the Selective Service law remains on the books for national emergencies), you expect to get jabbed and more than once. (When I was in basic training, they lost my shot record, and I had to get them all again.) Either that or you’ve been living under a log.
So, wanna guess how hard it is to get exempted from being vaccinated against a highly infectious virus capable of quickly taking large numbers of indispensable personnel off duty; overwhelming military hospitals, doctors, and nurses; and killing roughly the same percentage of troops as the average war does?
Damn hard.
As of mid-January 2022, the Marines had received 3,350 requests for religious exemption from getting the Covid-19 vaccine, processed 3,212 of them, and approved 2. None of the other services — Army, Air Force, or Navy — have approved any at all.
Meanwhile, the Marines have aggressively begun discharging non-compliers. The other services are dragging their feet a bit, but the Navy also has discharged some vaccine refuseniks.
I don’t know what China does with theirs. Probably shoots ’em, or sends them to the Mongolian coal mines.
Read story here.
Update (1/27/22): The Marines have granted a 3rd exemption — and say they’ll take back Marines discharged for not being vaccinated if they get the shots (read story here).