Friday, 29 March, 2024
HomeWeekly RoundupNearly 40% of US Marines decline COVID-19 vaccine

Nearly 40% of US Marines decline COVID-19 vaccine

Nearly 40% of US Marines who have been offered the COVID-19 vaccine have declined it, rising to 57% at one base USA Today reports that according to the Pentagon, of the 123,500 Marines who have had access to the vaccine, 75,500 Marines are either fully vaccinated or have received one dose, and about 48,000 have declined it.

Communication strategy and operations officer Captain Andrew Woods said: "We fully understand that widespread acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine provides us with the best means to defeat this pandemic. The key to addressing this pandemic is building vaccine confidence," he said. Woods said the Navy and Marines were working to ensure that soldiers have accurate information about the safety of the vaccine.

Woods said in the USA Today report that service members may have declined the offer for any one of a variety of reasons, including wanting to allow others to get the vaccine before them; having already received the vaccine through other channels; or waiting until the military makes receiving the vaccine mandatory, which it has yet to do.

The report says because the Defence Department has only emergency-use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration for the COVID-19 vaccine, the department can’t make receiving the vaccine mandatory for service members, but President Joe Biden could issue a waiver.

USA Today reports that based on data shared by the Marine Corps, the refusal rate at one prominent Marine base, Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, was significantly higher: 57% of Marines there refused the vaccine.

Of the 26,400 Marines at Camp Lejeune who have been offered the vaccine, 15,100 chose not to get it, including members from the II Marine Expeditionary Force and Marines Corps Installation East.

More than 100,000 Marines have yet to be offered the vaccine, Wood said.

 

Full USA Today report (Open access)

MedicalBrief — our free weekly e-newsletter

We'd appreciate as much information as possible, however only an email address is required.