T he MAGA medical group that spent the pandemic pushing horse paste and malaria meds as quack COVID cures has a new crusade: suing the Pentagon to stop its vaccine mandate. Similar suits have been brought throughout the country by service members across the military branches. They argue that their 1st Amendment rights are being infringed upon, because their sincerely held religious beliefs prevent them from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The new policy guidance to the services makes no mention of reinstating service members who were separated from the military for refusing the shot. The Florida filing also spends much more time on the biographies of the complainants. Staver believes the Florida case case has a good chance of making it to the Supreme Court, potentially invalidating all government mandates for COVID-19 vaccination. Mike Barry:Well, I mean, thats the beauty of the way that the law works, right? That leaves around 14,400 airmen and guardians less protected in the COVID-19 pandemics third year. The government has since filed a notice that it plans to appeal the decision. Pfizer Inc wants to intervene in a Texas federal lawsuit seeking information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration used in licensing the company's COVID-19 vaccine, a litigation move that . So for example, in a different context, somebody who says that theyre a Sabbath observer, and they cannot work on the Sabbath, but that theyre willing to trade ships with somebody, most of the cases Ive seen, theyre actually willing to take, what most people consider be a less favorable shift. There is no verifiable evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed, or will kill, more military personnel than the disease itself. death from COVID-19 vaccines administered after the declaration ends would be addressed in court under tort law unless the COVID-19 vaccines are added to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP; 42 U.S.C. The population of people seeking religious accommodations now is fairly small.. He spoke with a reporter last Wednesday but did . But what we cant do is say, well, because they ruled this way, in this case, this is how theyre going to rule in all cases. WASHINGTON Two months after the Pentagon began requiring all troops to get the coronavirus vaccine or face dismissal, the vast majority have now had shots, in part because none . All told the lawsuit includes 26 SEALs from the original complaint, plus five special warfare combatant crewmen, five divers and one explosive ordnance disposal technician who joined the case in late January. The complaint also brings up the issue of Food and Drug Administration licensure. Earlier in the case: Eglin AFB officers part of federal court challenge to military vaccine mandate Related:Motion to halt military COVID-19 vaccine mandate fails; federal trial date set The 18 . Mike Barry is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. The same day the Pentagon set the deadline for the services, several of the branches -- namely the Army and Air Force -- began issuing their guidance, which stated they would remove or correct adverse actions in records related to vaccine refusal. "This vaccine mandate is unlawful and does not reflect the Land of the Free," said General O'Connor. Subscribe to Federal Drives daily audio interviews onApple PodcastsorPodcastOne. Biden appointee behind unlawful military vaccine mandate to step down. . VICP provides compensation for injuries and deaths caused by At 1,038, the Marine Corps leads the military branches for the most separations. Other service members have struck out on their own to fight the mandate. The "rule" and the ways it will be fought 1:43:40 How to fight the NFA and its unconstitutional rule about barrel lengths. Researchers cultivate these cells for generations, using their derivatives to create or test all manner of pharmaceutical products. Ho and Judge Kyle Duncan noted that the administration had only reluctantly ended the military mandate after December congressional action, but Ross assured the panel that there are no plans to bring back the requirement. A dozen U.S. Air Force officers have filed a lawsuit . The judge's decision impacts 200 to 300 servicemembers stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, who filed the lawsuit against top military leaders back in February. A federal court in Ohio on Thursday blocked the Air Force from enforcing the militarys coronavirus vaccine mandate for two weeks, a short-term win for airmen fighting multiple legal battles against inoculation. This whole thing is really unprecedented, right? From this foundation they make studied and reasonable decisions about what is good and what is not good or may not be good for their bodies.. "Former Soldiers may petition the Army Discharge Review Board and the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to request corrections to their records," the service's press release said. Otherwise, the courts are going to be flooded with thousands of lawsuits, he said. You got a preliminary injunction in that case and a favorable ruling from the Fifth Circuit. Additionally, "promotion records will be corrected by the [Department of the Air Force] who will remove or redact all adverse actions related to vaccine refusal," according to a Friday press release. The judge recognized that when he granted our [temporary restraining order] on Feb. 2 because toward the end, he said the public has an interest also in this because these are courageous skilled, individuals who are not easily replaceable, Staver said. The content of this website reflects the current thinking of the United States Department of Health and Human Services on the topics addressed and does not create or confer any rights for or on any person and does not operate to bind the Department or the public. But Islamic tradition does not discourage vaccination, and doesnt forbid abortion before 17 weeks gestation, with even more leeway if the health of the mother is in jeopardy or if there are life-threatening fetal abnormalities. When I meet my maker, Im going to be held responsible for the decisions Ive made, and Id much rather go to prison, Stapanon testified in March. The suit was initially filed by a group of Navy SEALs but later expanded to include all vaccine-refusing sailors. Whats clear is that the COVID-19 has broken open a bit of a wormhole in the military. Mike Barry: I think theres almost 30 now. About 97% of the Department of the Air Force is fully vaccinated, though a larger share of active duty airmen and guardians have gotten the jab compared to their Guard and Reserve counterparts. -- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. "It hasn't done it yet. They are, theyre ignoring the law, theyre ignoring the Constitution. New family, former Corvias employee join lawsuit against Fort . A ruling in that case, issued this past November by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, upheld previous wins by attorneys representing the service members over the last year and took aim at the Air Force's process of approving religious exemptions. In other words, its usually ill-advised to take an opinion on one subject or one issue, and then try to extrapolate and say and that and say, Well, that should apply across the board to all issues. Most of the plaintiffs express some sort of Christian faith, though the vast majority of denominations have no formal ban on vaccination. Pope Francis has called vaccination against COVID-19 a moral obligation and an act of love., Frequently people let themselves be influenced by the ideology of the moment, often bolstered by baseless information or poorly documented facts, he said in January, adding that vaccines are not a magical means of healing, yet surely they represent, in addition to other treatments that need to be developed, the most reasonable solution for the prevention of the disease.. Nov. 2, 2021. WASHINGTON The Air Force has discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, making them what officials believe are the first service members to be removed for disobeying the. This disparity of treatment between medical and religious exemptions was constitutionally prohibited,Judge Reed OConnor said. Then in April, the WHO warned that supplier Bharat Biotech had stopped production because of deficiencies in good manufacturing practices.. A 5th Circuit panel rejected the Biden administrations request to block the judges order. While it allowed service members to apply for religious exemptions to the mandate, it has not granted a single one. But the administration won at least a temporary, partial victory last March when the Supreme Court approved a partial stay. The order allowed the Navy to consider the sailors vaccination status in making decisions on deployment, assignment and other operational issues while the case plays out. U.S. Military Service Members with Natural Immunity File Lawsuit over COVID Vaccine Mandate. What the government will have to prove, in both cases, is that while its granted thousands of medical and administrative exemptions though many of those are temporary that the high bar for approval of religious exemptions is necessary for keeping the force healthy and deployable. NEW ORLEANS Federal appeals court judges closely questioned a Biden administration attorney Monday on the consequences military personnel might face for refusing COVID-19 vaccinations, even though Bidens vaccine mandate for military personnel has been rescinded. The latest lawsuit challenging DoD's COVID-19 vaccine mandate says the Air Force's process makes religious accommodations almost impossible to get. Mike Barry:It would be everyone who is requested and been denied a religious accommodation from the vaccine mandates, specifically the COVID vaccine mandate. The . Its really the same thing in the military context with this vaccine, where theyre saying, Look, teleworking or, doing a lot of these other measures, right, social distancing, masking, testing, whatever the case might be. The policy does allow commanders to "implement Health Protection Measures at any time or manner deemed necessary in support of operational safety and effectiveness." Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. And so of course, that means you have to bring different lawsuits on behalf of people, depending on what branch of the military that theyre in. So if you can find a way to accommodate somebodys religious beliefs, in a less burdensome way right, a way thats less obstructive or cumbersome on their religious exercise, then if the person is really sincere in their religious beliefs, theyll usually accept that. Copyright 2023 Military.com. Its just such an inappropriate position for the government to be in.. And one of the reasons for that is if they if theyre between the ages of 17 and 23, and theyre not vaccinated, were not even willing to talk to them. And so theyre basically closing off an entire segment of society in a discriminatory manner. The soldier and Marine also want their case escalated into a class action lawsuit to take in other military personnel plus Department of Defense contractors. Telling Plaintiffs they must accept or receive a shot they oppose according to their sincerely held religious beliefs, or face court martial, dishonorable discharge, and other life altering disciplinary measures, disgraces the sacrifices these heroes have made, according to the lawsuit. Theyre burdensome, but the person says, But you know what, at the end of the day, Im not have to inject something in my body that violates my religious beliefs. The government really cant scrutinize belief very far.. All 16 service members joined the lawsuit anonymously, listing in the filing only their currently assigned bases and statuses in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or reserve components. Sixty-seven percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Three of the event's witnesses doctors Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorf, and Marty Makary are part of a small group of medical experts known as the Norfolk Group. For the Texas case, its more likely those sailors will receive religious exemptions, but that they wont necessarily change the way the military mandates vaccines or reviews exemptions. Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who refuse to be vaccinated for religious reasons told a 5th U.S. The government has recently ordered imminent punitive action against those men and women of faith who cannot in good conscience take these experimental vaccines, and this order stops the government in its tracks, Adam Hochschild, a lawyer with the Thomas More Society and lead counsel in Air Force Officer v. Austin, said in a release. Related: Navy Lifts COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for Deployments. On Jan. 7,the Supreme Court is set to hear oral argumentsin a set of high-profile, consolidated cases on the Biden administrations vaccine mandates for private-sector entities with 100 or more employees, and for health care facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding. I dont think that the precedent is going to be that big of one, Griffin, the former Coast Guard lawyer, said. Plaintiffs do not believe that staying true to their faith means exposing themselves or others to unnecessary risk, according to the filing. In a hypothetical alternate universe where it were the Navy and the Air Force, the rest of the services had an exemption process or a waiver process that did look more credible to you and to the court, do you lose these cases? Produced by Will Reid , Rob Szypko . For OConnor, the violation ofthe lawwas clear: Defendants have substantially burdened Plaintiffs religious beliefs. And yet people who work and I mean, youre coming in very close proximity with thousands of people per day, hundreds of people per hour. So that, right now that number is several thousand. Theyre usually willing to accept that and say, look, yeah, Im happy to. All of the military services have released vaccine refusal policies, none of them involving judicial or non-judicial charges for simply staying unvaccinated. Commercial airlines has said, you know what, were gonna lift the mask mandate. How large is the class? The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines do not need fetal cell lines for development or production but were tested on fetal cell lines replicated from a fetus aborted in the 1970s to ensure their efficacy. The Air Force Department had received more than 12,000 religious exemption requests, denying over 3,000 of them and with roughly 2,000 still in adjudication. The Coast Guard issued guidance Monday announcing it was "taking action to remove" all administrative remark entries related to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate from reserve and active-duty records. Another claimant, a Muslim Marine Corps captain, who said that his religious beliefs that require him to abstain from participation in that which is haram forbidden including the destruction and commoditization of innocent human life as exemplified by the use of human fetal cell lines derived from abortions, according to the lawsuit. Two Eglin Air Force base officers are among the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. military personnel. Lawmakers expressed frustration with the news . In December, the Air Force announced it had discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID . The Air Force has approved 135 religious exemption requests out of thousands submitted so far. The Pentagon has not provided any public updates or said when the formal policy will be issued. On Feb. 17, the service lifted its policy of banning unvaccinated sailors from deploying. COVID-19 vaccines are proven to be very safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Military leaders have long argued that to maintain unit health and troop readiness, troops have for decades been required to get as many as 17 vaccines, particularly those who are deploying overseas. The prospect of dishonorable discharges has been a concern for some against vaccine mandates, but that type of discharge can only be handed down through a court-martial conviction. Well, what if somebodys not really sincere? The latest data from the military show that roughly 30,000 active-duty service members remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, despite a Defense Department mandate issued in August and deadlines. Another difference is that the VICP is a no-fault compensation program. There are fresh concerns that public support for ongoing military assistance may be waning. The Texas lawsuit argues that the Navy Department is blanketly denying all religious requests, making the process a sham. Jehovahs Witnesses, who ban military service for their members, are probably the most prominent. But the DoD is just saying Nope, we wont even recognize that we wont even consider it, even though they consider natural immunity for other communicable diseases and infections and things like that. Kevin Stitt has pushed back on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the military that would apply to the Oklahoma National Guard.
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