Biden Pressed on Whether He Would ‘Order’ Service Members To Get COVID Vaccine

Should U.S. military members be forced to get the COVID-19 vaccine eventually? President Joe Biden is being pressed on that question.

NBC’s Craig Melvin asked Biden in an exclusive interview aired Friday morning, “Once the FDA gives final approval for the vaccinations, not emergency use authorization, but final approval, will you order service members to get the COVID vaccine?”

He noted a poll that found nearly 40% of Marines have declined getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I don’t know, I’m going to leave that to the military,” Biden responded, before Melvin pressed, “Why not?”

The president added, “Well, I’m not saying I won’t,” adding, “I think you’re going to see more and more of them getting it and I think it’s going to be a tough call as to whether or not they should be required to have to get it in the military.”

Watch Biden’s interview below:

As CNN reported earlier this month, roughly 75,500 Marines have received the vaccine, as of April 8. At the time, approximately 48,000 Marines had declined to get the COVID vaccine — a 38.9% declination rate. More than 100,000 Marines at the time had not been offered the vaccine yet.

In late March, a group of Democratic lawmakers asked Biden to issue a “waiver of informed consent” to make vaccinations for COVID-19 mandatory for all U.S. military service members, according to CNN.

According to recent Defense Department statistics, about 780,000 U.S. troops are either fully or partially vaccinated, as of April 28. Additionally, as of Wednesday, over 81,000 Marines are either fully or partially vaccinated. The Marine Corps has administered the least amount of doses, and the Army has administered the most, so far.

More than 237 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine has been administered in the U.S., as of Thursday morning.