Current Events > House rescinds Covid-Vax mandate for military in defense spending bill

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2022/12/07/military-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-repealed-in-defense-bill-compromise/

House and Senate lawmakers on Tuesday night unveiled plans for a compromise defense authorization bill which would boost the military budget by 8% over fiscal 2022 levels and rescind the militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members.
The $858 billion plan (which includes roughly $817 billion in Department of Defense spending) also includes plans for a 4.6% pay raise for troops starting next month and nearly $19 billion in extra funding to deal with extra inflation costs on construction, fuel prices and other military purchases
House lawmakers are expected to pass the measure by the end of the week, setting up a Senate vote next week. If it passes both chambers, it could be signed into law by the president before the end of the month, continuing a six-decade streak of advancing the legislation into law.
Although the authorization bill is considered must-pass legislation annually, this years deliberations have dragged on for months.
For the second consecutive year, the Senate did not pass its own version of the bill, opting instead to make adjustments to the House-passed version from this summer rather than taking amendment votes on their own military policy priorities.
And in recent days, numerous Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate threatened to oppose the measure unless it included language dumping the militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin both defended the vaccine requirement this week as necessary for military health and readiness. Whether the president may veto the final legislation because of the provisions inclusion remains unclear.
So far this year, more than 8,000 active-duty service members have been dismissed from the ranks for refusing the vaccine. The vast majority of troops have agreed to the shots.
Opponents have argued that because most troops are young and fit, and because the military is in the midst of a recruiting crisis, the vaccine mandate is discouraging some potential recruits and forcing others out of the ranks.
The authorization bill language does not include any language mandating troops dismissed for refusing the vaccine to be reinstated, another demand of conservative lawmakers.

No mandatory booster? Boo.

Have heard co-workers already saying they were going to refuse the booster. And I'm just like... But you already got it? There's nothing to fear, unless you believe every tale you hear of people dropping dead after getting the vaccine, regardless of if the vaccine was even at fault...

Veto please

There sure are a lot of high school and college athletes dyin' this year compared to any other year

Sittin on ya bum for a couple years will kill a man in his prime

I bet even more people would join the military if they didn't make them go places where they get shot at

Probably has a lot to do with enlistment being pretty far down

Service members are already required to take a vaccine for every single disease known to man in their giant peanut butter shot. It's absurd that they should be allowed to ignore the vaccine for the disease that's responsible for the deadliest epidemic of the modern age.

I'm looking forward to all the shocked Pikachu faces when removing the mandate doesn't affect the enlistment at all

Irony posted...

I'm looking forward to all the shocked Pikachu faces when removing the mandate doesn't affect the enlistment at all

As it shouldn't. Without full reinstatement with back pay, this is nothing more than a meaningless flex by McCarthy to try to convince the Republicans he doesn't suck. Nobody should sign up to serve under these people. Fuck em, they deserve the shitty recruitment numbers.

ThePrinceFish posted...

As it shouldn't. Without full reinstatement with back pay, this is nothing more than a meaningless flex by McCarthy to try to convince the Republicans he doesn't suck. Nobody should sign up to serve under these people. Fuck em, they deserve the shitty recruitment numbers.

Tbh the people who refused the vaccine were those who wanted out to begin with. The vaccine refusal was just a means to an end, regardless of their actual feelings regarding it.

And it's a very small minority of the overall force anyways. Even in my oversized company, I only heard of one guy actually refusing and getting kicked out.

And the civilians who are anti-vax, likely would never work for the government in the first place becuase anti-vax and anti-government sentiments usually go hand in hand

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


To be fair, since the vaccine rolled out, there's been enough young people suddenly dying to get an acronym (SADS).Correlation or causation, no clue. There's no real good scientific study for enlistment aged people for or against getting the COVID-19 vaccine as of now, so its not really smart to mandate it- especially when that group isn't in need of it. The other 27 vaccines are pretty well documented and shown purpose

It could do wonders and be 100% perfect, but why rock the boat when its in calm waters?

Agonized_rufous posted...

To be fair, since the vaccine rolled out, there's been enough young people suddenly dying to get an acronym (SADS).Correlation or causation, no clue. There's no real good scientific study for enlistment aged people for or against getting the COVID-19 vaccine as of now, so its not really smart to mandate it- especially when that group isn't in need of it. The other 27 vaccines are pretty well documented and shown purpose

It could do wonders and be 100% perfect, but why rock the boat when its in calm waters?

No it isn't fair. You are actively spreading bs.

COVxy posted...

No it isn't fair. You are actively spreading bs.

I'm willing to be wrong. Care to share?

The vaccine has been heavily studied in controlled trials. You lend credence to the possibility that some mysterious deaths might be due to the vaccine by saying "well it hasn't been well studied so we should just be cautious". This is false.

Please show me where the COVID vaccine was shown to make a positive difference in young adults between unvaccinated and vaccinated people and if so, to a meaningful degree where the benefits outweigh the costs (if any)

I know there's plenty of evidence for older demographics benefiting greatly from it. I've just yet to see anything in either direction for young people

A_Good_Boy posted...

Service members are already required to take a vaccine for every single disease known to man in their giant peanut butter shot. It's absurd that they should be allowed to ignore the vaccine for the disease that's responsible for the deadliest epidemic of the modern age.

This

Wtf is wrong with people

Agonized_rufous posted...

Please show me where the COVID vaccine was shown to make a positive difference in young adults between unvaccinated and vaccinated people and if so, to a meaningful degree where the benefits outweigh the costs (if any)

I know there's plenty of evidence for older demographics benefiting greatly from it. I've just yet to see anything in either direction for young people

Without even having to dispute the claim of no benefit, i'm just going to point out that this has nothing to do with your original argument, and you seem to attempting to drag me into an endless cycle of debunking any anti-vaxx bs you can dredge up in the hopes that I get tired and give up.

Agonized_rufous posted...

There's no real good scientific study for enlistment aged people for or against getting the COVID-19 vaccine as of now, so its not really smart to mandate it- especially when that group isn't in need of it.

COVxy posted...

Without even having to dispute the claim of no benefit, i'm just going to point out that this has nothing to do with your original argument, and you seem to attempting to drag me into an endless cycle of debunking any anti-vaxx bs you can dredge up in the hopes that I get tired and give up.

There's the original statement. Not much variation...more of a clearer restatement

But you can't refute the argument of there's not enough info to make decision by just simply saying it's false and providing no information...

Irony posted...

I'm looking forward to all the shocked Pikachu faces when removing the mandate doesn't affect the enlistment at all

Or when fewer people end up enlisting because they don't want to serve next to plague rats.

Tag for Agonized_dofous checks out

TMOG posted...

Tag for Agonized_dofous checks out

Okay, that made me giggle

I'm kinda torn over how I feel about it. On the one hand, potentially introducing people into the military who have the ability to spread contagion around seems really dumb. On the other hand, however, I can't think of who better to send into the military meat grinder than anti-vaxxers. You certainly don't want to send smart people to front lines, their skills could better serve society elsewhere.

A quick lookup of SADS shows it's nothing new since the covid vaccines. Not sure why you bring it up as if it's at all related.

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

A quick lookup of SADS shows it's nothing new since the covid vaccines. Not sure why you bring it up as if it's at all related.

Because he's an anti-vaxx chud arguing in bad faith.