Nearly 40 percent of US Marines are declining COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a new report.
Some 75,500 Marines have received vaccine shots, CNN reported Friday. But 48,000 other Marines have turned the shots down. That means that out of all the Marines offered shots so far, 38.9 percent are saying no.
Another 102,000 Marines have not yet been offered vaccines.
These stats are even more grim than reports from February suggesting that overall, about a third of military personnel are declining to be vaccinated.
Back then, Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeff Taliaferro, the Joint Staff's vice director for operations, told a congressional panel soldiers need education "to help them understand the benefits" of the vaccine.
There have been 273,503 cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Defense as of April 9, according to Military.com.
Comment: Notice no mention of the case recovery rate. Fit, young soldiers are likely to come through with splendid numbers, but that wouldn't fit the narrative. Here's the full quote from the Military.com article:
As of April 9, officials said there have now been 273,503 total cases of COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus, within the DoD: 178,920 military, 27,128 dependents, 49,679 civilians and 17,776 Defense Department contractors. In addition, 171,458 military members, 26,438 dependents, 43,656 civilians and 16,285 contractors have recovered, and 335 DoD-connected personnel have died: 24 troops, 12 dependents, 224 civilians and 75 contractors.
More than 100,000 Marines have not yet been offered COVID vaccines.
Part of the reason the declination rates are so high among service members is that vaccinations for COVID-19 are not yet mandatory, and those who decline the vaccine can still be deployed.
Comment: And why? Because those paying attention understand on some level, the program is a giant experiment. "Authorized" does not equate with "approved". From Inside Defense:
While many vaccinations are mandatory for DOD personnel, vaccinations for COVID-19 are voluntary because they have been authorized by the federal government for emergency use. The vaccine could become mandatory once the Food and Drug Administration fully approves the vaccine.
"We've already demonstrated over the last year that we're fully capable of operating in a COVID environment," Taliaferro said in February.
In a statement to CNN, Marine Corps spokeswoman Col. Kelly Frushour said they were focusing on "building vaccine confidence" among personnel.
"We fully understand that widespread acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine provides us with the best means to defeat the pandemic."
Reader Comments
RC
I have to guess that their (claimed) 40% denial is likely the highest of any service, despite the idiocy of general opinion that Marines would be the most likely to follow along with authoritarian suggestions.
Semper Fi!
R.C.
I was so excited, I thought after all my searching I finally had coronavirus, but alas it is only allergies.
Seriously. Its original OTC use included the same purposes that people still use pseudoephedrine for. RC
ISomeone who I met first had alcohol (stolen from our parents) at about age 10-11, smoked the green at the age of 13, used coke at 14, first try at a cigarette was probably 17 (For surfers it was very uncool. I surely have been responsible for the end of less than 8 cigarettes in my lifetime.*) That was early on one of my great sources of confusion about the illogic of which drugs got labeled 'evil' (uniformly, as Bill Hicks said, the untaxed ones) and which did not. After all, no 'illicit' drug could ever come close to achieving the (supposed) death totals of tobacco and alcohol, and those are the same figures that they somehow use to rationalize their policies.I'll spare you my typical anti-drug war rap, but one thing that I was then optimistic about was that my big brother said that one day in our lifetimes, they would legalize all that / stop the drug war. Since he still was my big brother, I naturally mostly believed his forecasts over my innate pessimism. Sadly, though, it was me who's been right. (Yeah, they've given folks who wish to smoke pot the ability to have their personal records fucked up for life in order to not get busted, but I never liked pot much anyway. Well, since it STILL ain't worth the bust one receives for possessing coke, that reminds me, nicotine vapes - here I come. (at least until I get to S.A. )
Re ups and downs, are you old enough to have done ludes? Barbituates?**
RC
*I am considering vaping given where this has headed.
** Which are now spelled Barbiturates - Mandela Effect shit.
rc
Man, we had EVERYTHING here growing up - see the AB. Loved it and . . . All that common sense stuff that told us the drug war was a malevolent scam. Maybe folks are seeing how it opened the way - hell, dynamited the door! - for this Scamdemic.
*What a true LOSS! RIP
RC
RC