Four days ago was revealed that over 200 marines had been kicked out of the service for refusing covid vaccine.
Although when you actually look at the numbers these 206 marines may only represent the first wave of personnel who get checked out. Why? Well the deadline for active duty Marines to get fully vaccinated was November 28th. While the deadline for reserve units to get fully vaccinated was December 28th.
If you take a look at some of the numbers that came out from the Pentagon here is what you find. There are approximately 180,000 active-duty members of the Marine Corps at present and then there are another approximately 35,000 units. According to official data from the Department of Defense as of those two deadlines that were mentioned earlier 95% of active-duty Marines have received at least one dose of the vaccine while for the reserve units that number was 86% who have received at least one dose.
Meaning based on these numbers there are around 8,000 active-duty Marines as well as 5000 marine reserve units that face the prospect of being fired for refusing the covid vaccine.
Captain Andrew Wood a Marine Corp spokesperson said the Marine Corp is still tracking 1007 approved administrative or medical exemptions. But given the Marine Corps track record on this particular issue it is highly unlikely that these individuals will be given any form of religious exemptions. In fact according to official statement as of today the US Marine Corps has declined 3115 of 3247 religious exemptions applications received the rest is still being processed.
When you actually do the math it means they have denied 96% of all applicants on religious exemption. The remaining 4% has not been accepted instead they are still under review.
Some of the unvaccinated Marines are not seeing this as a medical issue instead they are seeing it as a political issue. They’re saying this is more of a political purge. One major who has been in the service for 17 years told Fox News. ” There is something fundamentally wrong at this point with our Nation’s leadership…We are facing an unconstitutional edict that I think is very targeted as a political purge, taking out some of the best and brightest soldiers, sailors, marines and guardians from space Force.”
However as all this is happening the New Year brought a bit of irony to the situation. On January the 2nd just two days ago Mr Lloyd Austin who is the US defence secretary in the one who’s been pushing all these vaccine mandates tested positive for covid. That’s right Mr Lloyd Austin who is fully vaccinated who has received a booster shot 3 months ago tested positive for covid and he’s currently quarantining at home.
