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WASHINGTON >> By the thousands, the US military is refusing or postponing the COVID-19 vaccine as frustrated commanders scramble to reverse internet rumors and find the right business case that will persuade troops to get vaccinated.
Some army units only see a third of them accept the vaccine. Military leaders looking for answers believe they have identified a potential persuasive factor: impending deployment. Last week, for example, Navy sailors aboard ships going to sea chose to take the photo at rates exceeding 80 to 90 percent.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeff Taliaferro, vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress today that “very early data” suggests that up to two-thirds of the personnel of the service offered the vaccine accepted.
That’s higher than the general population rate, which a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey estimated at around 50%. But the large number of forces that refuse the vaccine is of particular concern as troops often live, work and fight closely together in environments where social distancing and wearing masks are sometimes difficult.
Military resistance also comes as troops deploy to administer fire at vaccination centers across the country and leaders look to U.S. forces to set an example for the nation.
“We’re still struggling to figure out what the message is and how can we influence people to opt for the vaccine,” Brig said. General Edward Bailey, the Army Forces Command surgeon. He said that in some units only 30% agreed to be vaccinated, while others are between 50% and 70%. The Force Command oversees the main army units, comprising approximately 750,000 army, reserve and national guard soldiers spread over 15 bases.
At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where several thousand troops are preparing for future deployments, the vaccine acceptance rate is around 60%, Bailey said. It’s “not as high as we would hope for frontline staff,” he said.
Bailey heard all the excuses.
“I think the funniest thing I heard was, ‘The military always tells me what to do, they gave me a choice, so I said no,” he said.
Department heads campaigned vigorously for the vaccine. They held town halls, wrote force messages, distributed scientific data, posted videos, and even posted photos of leaders getting vaccinated.
For weeks, the Pentagon insisted it didn’t know how many soldiers were refusing the vaccine. Today, they provided few details on their first data.
Officials from some military services, however, said in interviews with The Associated Press that refusal rates vary widely, depending on age, unit, location, deployment status and other intangible assets of a member.
The variations make it more difficult for executives to identify the most compelling arguments for the vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration has cleared emergency use of the vaccine, so it’s voluntary. But Defense Ministry officials say they hope that may change soon.
“We cannot make it mandatory yet,” said Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, Commander of the Navy’s 2nd Fleet, last week. “I can tell you that we will probably make it mandatory as soon as possible, just like we are doing with the flu shot.”
About 40 Marines recently gathered in a conference room in California for a medical staff briefing. One officer, who was not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Marines were more comfortable asking questions about the vaccine in small groups.
The officer said a Marine, citing a widely publicized and false conspiracy theory, said: “I heard this thing was actually a tracking device. Medical staff, the officer said, quickly debunked this theory and pointed to the Navy’s cell phone, noting it was an effective tracker.
Other frequently asked questions revolved around possible side effects or health concerns, including for pregnant women. Army, Navy and Air Force officials say they hear about the same thing.
The Marine Corps is a relatively small service and the troops are generally younger. Like the general population, younger members of the service are more likely to decline or ask to wait. In many cases, military commanders said, the young soldiers say they have had the coronavirus or have known others who have had it, and concluded that it was not bad.
“What they don’t see is 20-year-olds who’ve actually gotten really sick, who’ve been hospitalized or who are dying, or people who seem to be fine, but it turns out they have developed lung and heart abnormalities, ”Bailey says.
A silver lining has been the deployments.
Lewis, based in Norfolk, Va., Said last week that sailors from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which operates in the Atlantic, had agreed to be shot at a rate of about 80 percent. Sailors from the USS Iwo Jima and the Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, who are also deploying, had rates of over 90%.
Bailey said the military sees opportunities to reduce the two-week quarantine period for units deployed to Europe if the military is widely vaccinated and the host nation agrees. The US military in Europe could reduce the quarantine time to five days if 70% of the unit is vaccinated, and that incentive could work, he said.
Acceptance numbers are dropping among those who do not deploy, military officials said.
General James McConville, the Army Chief of Staff, used his own experience to encourage troops to get vaccinated. “When they asked me how I was feeling, I said it was a lot less painful than some of the meetings I go to in the Pentagon.
Col. Jody Dugai, commanding officer of Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital in Fort Polk, La., Said squad-level conversations so far, with eight to ten peers, have been successful and that getting more information helps.
At the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Brig. General David Doyle has a double challenge. As the base commander, he must persuade the approximately 7,500 troops on the base to be shot and he must ensure that the thousands of soldiers entering and exiting for training exercises are safe.
Doyle said the acceptance rate on his base is between 30% and 40% and that more often than not it’s the young troops who decline.
“They tell me they don’t have a lot of confidence in the vaccine because they think it was done too quickly,” he said. Senior health officials have vouched for the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
Doyle said it seems peers are often more influential than leaders in persuading troops – a sentiment shared by Bailey, the military command surgeon.
“We’re trying to figure out who the influencers are,” Bailey said. “Is he a squad leader or a platoon sergeant in the army?” I think it probably is. Someone who is more than his age and interacts with them more regularly compared to the general officer who takes his picture and says, ‘I got the picture.’ ‘
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