President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Monday to reinstate service members who were canned from the military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccination.
Service members, whether active or reserve, will be restored to their prior rank, receiving full back pay and benefits, according to a fact sheet provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discharged over 8,000 members for refusing the vaccination, and only 43 returned to service after the vaccine mandate was lifted in 2023.
“In spite of the scientific evidence, the Biden Administration discharged healthy service members—many of whom had natural immunity and dedicated their entire lives to serving our country—for refusing the COVID vaccine,” the fact sheet reads. “Government redress of these wrongful dismissals is overdue.”
The Pentagon required all service members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under threat of pay docking and forbidding members to train with their units, with additional resistance resulting in discharges.
“It is a lawful order,” Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said in 2021 regarding the vaccination. “It is a valid military requirement to get the vaccine. And it does apply, as we’ve said before, to members of the National Guard.”
Most Americans supported COVID-19 vaccination mandates at the height of the pandemic, according to a Gallup poll from Sept. 2021. However, support for government-mandated vaccines took a nosedive after the pandemic, with only 51% supporting the policy in 2024 compared to 62% in 2019.
Trump promised to overhaul the military on the 2024 campaign trail, recently signing an executive order prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the entire federal bureaucracy, including the Pentagon.
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