12,000 Air Force personnel could be dismissed over refusal to get Covid shots

‘The fact that it’s a choice leading to potential loss to readiness is striking,’ military policy expert says

As many as 12,000 Air Force personnel have gone against the Defense Department’s vaccine mandate and have refused to get fully vaccinated.

Officials have said that it’s now too late for them to meet the deadline on Tuesday and that those who defy the lawful orders without a medical or religious exemption could face dismissal or other punishment, such as being charged in military court.

Air Force data shows that those who have rejected the vaccine mandate are a small minority – 96 per cent of active duty service members are at least partially vaccinated.

How Air Force leaders choose to deal with the open dissent of 12,000 personnel could foretell how other branches of the military will respond as they face similar issues.

The vaccine deadlines of the other services range from November to summer 2022 and some of them has seen much fiercer pushback than the Air Force.

Military policy expert Katherine Kuzminski at the think tank Center for a New American Security in Washington DC told The Washington Post that the possible dismissals could decrease the branch’s ability to respond quickly, especially if the unvaccinated are overrepresented in some jobs affecting the Air Force’s readiness, such as pilots and those maintaining aircraft.

“The fact that it’s a choice leading to potential loss to readiness is striking,” she told the paper.

The Air Force has 324,000 active service members, making it the third-largest military branch. Three per cent of its members could face dismissal.

The branch has chosen not to reveal how many of its members are simply refusing to get the shots, and how many are hoping to get exemptions. Some could also have chosen not to get vaccinated as their time in the service is nearing its conclusion. Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek told The Post that updated figures will be released when the deadline passes next week.

This week, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that the number of those who get a religious exemption for any vaccine is “very, very small”. Officials have said in the largest branch of the military, the Army, just one medical exemption has been granted for the Covid-19 vaccine, and no religious exemptions. The Navy hasn’t granted a religious exemption for any vaccine in seven years.

The objections to the vaccine on religious grounds have focused on the fetal cell lines used in the development of vaccines, which are a type of reproduction of cells from abortions that took place decades ago, in the 1970s and 1980s. There are no actual cells in the vaccine shots. When you join the military, you are required to be vaccinated against certain diseases, and the list grows if you’re going to be sent abroad. Some of the required vaccines were developed using similar cells to those used in the development of the Covid-19 vaccines.

As vaccination rates have slowed recently, officials said they have vaccinated most of the members of the branch who wants to get the shots.

To get a medical exemption, airmen must get counselling with leaders and medical staff. For a religious exemption request, a service member must see a chaplain to determine if the belief is “sincerely held”, Ms Stefanek told The Post.

Usually, a three- or four-star general will decide if the request should be granted but could reject a sincere request if they think it could damage the cohesion of a unit and its mission.

Those who have a departure from the Air Force scheduled before 1 April that’s approved before 1 November don’t have to get vaccinated, Ms Stefanek said.

Mr Kirby said that 87 per cent of the military’s 2.1 million active-duty troops have been fully vaccinated, but stronger hesitation among members of the National Guard and reservists has dragged down the rate to around 68 per cent of the entirety of the military. The Defence Department announced in August that vaccination would become mandated.

The Post has reported that the rates are drastically different depending on the branch because of cultural reasons and varied deadlines. So far, 71 military deaths have been connected to Covid-19, with none of the members who died being fully vaccinated, Major Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesperson, told the outlet.

The punishments the unvaccinated face could be different between military branches.

Almost 40 Air Force recruits were recently forced to leave before officially entering the military because they refused to get the shots, according to officials.