OHIO — The day after the FDA approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the Department of Defense mandated that all members of the Armed Forces be fully vaccinated against the virus.
Since that August 24th order, each military branch has worked to implement the mandate and a deadline, which varies by department.
Here is a timeline:
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Aug. 24, 2021: The Department of Defense announced it would order members of the military to get vaccinated against COVID-19
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Nov. 2, 2021: Active members of the Air Force and Space Force were required to be vaccinated
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Nov. 28, 2021: Active members of the Navy and Marines were required to be vaccinated
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Dec. 2, 2021: Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve members face COVID-19 vaccination deadline
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Dec. 15, 2021: Active duty Army members are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19
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Dec. 28, 2021: Navy and Marines reserves face a COVID-19 vaccination deadline
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June 30, 2022: Army National Guard and Army Reserve members are required to be vaccinated
The mandate was not embraced by all service members. There has been pushback, refusal, and even lawsuits surrounding this issue across the country.
“We want to take any politics out of soldiering,” said Maj. Gen. John Harris, who leads the Ohio National Guard under Gov. Mike DeWine. “There’s no place for politics in soldiering.”
He said mandatory vaccines in the military are nothing new.
“When you join the military, the first thing you do is get in line and go through your medical processing and anybody who’s ever served will tell you, you go through a gauntlet and you may get seven, eight, shots,” said Harris.
However, he said the level of resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate is a new experience.
“There’s a huge tug of war about what ‘right’ looks like regarding this vaccine and we want our soldiers and airmen to have ground truth about what we know about the vaccine, about its effects, and about the disease,” said Maj. Gen. Harris.
The Ohio National Guard is comprised of an Air Guard and an Army Guard.
There are about 11,000 members in the Ohio Army National Guard and about 5,000 members in the Ohio Air National Guard.
Harris estimates a couple hundred medical and religious exemptions have been requested so far. Any approvals for those exemptions to the required vaccine would come from the federal government.
If the exemption is denied and the service member still refuses, Harris said what happens next is up to the commanders and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“A variety of administrative measures that they can take up to and including separation if they feel that’s appropriate,” he said.
A few days before the deadline, Harris estimated more than 90 percent of Air Guard members were fully vaccinated.
With the Army Guard deadline more than six months away, he said that figure is unclear at this time.
“Across the board, the response has been very, very, very, very positive,” said Harris. “We have a responsibility as the protectors, as the responders, to ensure that we do no harm. This is a matter of readiness. I mean we have to be able to respond and it’s tough to respond if we feel that we may do harm or be dangerous to the people that we’re responding to help.”
For those who are hesitant, Harris said medical professionals and chaplains are available for counseling.
“Any time a member leaves, it should affect us and I hate that we will have members leave over this issue,” he said. “But because of so much controversy about this particular vaccine, we completely understand why it can be confusing and very challenging for our folks to make the decision.”
The Ohio National Guard has played a critical role in Ohio’s pandemic response, from deployments to nursing homes and food banks to correctional facilities.
Guard members were part of the team administering the vaccine when the shots first became available in Ohio.
“That’s what we call our ‘fight tonight’ mentality. I call you and you got to be ready to go tonight and there’s no time to sort through people, put them in separate lines. You know, you go over here you’re vaccinated I can put you on mission. You can go over here, you’re not vaccinated,” Harris.
Harris said getting the shots is a matter of national security, readiness and upholding the oath.
“You know, we take an oath and our oath says to obey the orders of the president and the officers appointed over me. It doesn’t say, you know, depending on what the president’s beliefs are. It doesn’t say depends on what that president’s leanings are. We have an order to obey our executive branch,” he said.
