Nearly 10,000 service members requested religious waiver for COVID vaccine
(Worthy News) – Nearly 10,000 U.S. military personnel have applied for religious waivers to avoid the COVID-19 vaccine but so far not a single one has been approved, publicly available Pentagon data show. This potentially paves the way for thousands of service members to be booted from the force in the coming months.
The stunning number of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines arguing that their faith — or a deeply held moral conviction — should allow them to skip the shot underscores just how controversial the coronavirus vaccine remains both inside the military and in American society as a whole. Faith-based exemptions from vaccines, grooming standards and other military policies have been in place for decades, but each service has acknowledged that the number of men and women seeking religious waivers for COVID-19 immunization far exceeds anything seen before.
The Navy released its most recent numbers late Tuesday following its Nov. 28 vaccination deadline. Just over 97% of sailors have received at least one dose of the vaccine, figures show, leaving more than 9,000 unvaccinated. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]