On Saturday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memo that rescinded the COVID-19 shot mandate for all military service members. The action follows the passage of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by Congress – which includes a provision ordering the DoD to rescind the mandate.
Section 525 of the NDAA required the Secretary of Defense to rescind the mandate that members of the U.S. Armed Forces receive COVID-19 shots. Sec. Austin issued a memorandum on August 24, 2021, directing all service members to receive the COVID shot.
Sec. Austin angrily objected to Congress overriding his order stating in the Public Affairs Guidance memorandum issued from the Department of Defense states that the Secretary “stands by his decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccination in August 2021.”
The DOD memo states that “Secretary Austin continues to encourage all of our Service members, civilian employees, and contractor personnel to get vaccinated and boosted to ensure the readiness of our Total Force.”
Alabama Today spoke with Dr. Stewart Tankersley, who was asked to testify before Congress to urge the Senate to overturn the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Tankersley is a former Colonel with the Alabama National Guard and a doctor who practices in Montgomery, Alabama. Tankersley has been an outspoken skeptic of the effectiveness and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine and is a member of the Concerned Doctors of Alabama.
“It was long overdue and shameful,” Tankersley said of the mandate. “He didn’t read any leadership manual that I did.”
“They fought tooth and nail,” Tankersley said of the Defense Department’s resistance to overturning the mandate.
Dr. Tankersley believes that the vaccine is both ineffective and not safe.
“It is abundantly clear that they do not care,” Tankersley said. “According to their own data there were 83 COVID deaths, however 127 servicemembers died within 48 hours after getting the shot. Suicides are up because of the stress they have put servicemembers under over this. This was a self-inflicted wound.”
“The vaccine is far more dangerous to people at that age,” Tankersley said when asked if the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the side effects. “There have been many, many injuries, and some of those will be with them (service members) for a lifetime.”
Tankersley was appointed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to the state’s COVID-19 emergency response task force. He was very critical of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute of Health (NIH), and Alabama Department of Public Health’s (ADPH) response to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“What did the government do right?” Tankersley said. “It is unequivocal that it has done more harm than good.”
Multiple courts have ruled that the DOD and the various military branches violated the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) by denying requests for religious accommodation.
Despite the widespread criticism, Austin said in the memo that the DOD “will continue to encourage all personnel and family members to stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters.”
Liberty Counsel, which has represented servicemembers who have requested religious exemptions to the mandate, wrote that, “Every option used aborted fetal cells in their testing and/or development (Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax). In addition to aborted fetal cells, many religious requesters objected to the experimental mRNA shots of Pfizer and Moderna. The DOD continues to misrepresent the facts and has continually violated the law.”
COVID-19 vaccines, including the updated bivalent booster, will continue to be widely available at DoD military medical treatment facilities.
There remains a great deal of disagreement within the medical community about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Alabama Department of Public Health wrote recently, “COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at protecting you from serious illness, hospitalization, and death. Since every COVID-19 infection gives the virus a chance to mutate, being vaccinated helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its variants in our state and world.”
Even though the COVID vaccine mandate has been rescinded, all other vaccination requirements in the military are still in effect.
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