As Congress passes a bill with a House majority to end the COVID-19 “vaccine” or shots military mandate, the next step must reinstate those forced out and deprived of their livelihoods.
Thursday, December 8, 2022: an $858 billion Defense bill, set to repeal the COVID-19 “vaccine” or shots mandate for members of the U.S. military, passed the House of Representatives in Congress.
According to the Republican House. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) entitles a pay rise for U.S. troops. McCarthy, the minority leader campaigning for speaker in January, tweeted, “Last week I told Biden directly: it’s time to end your COVID vaccine mandate on our military & rehire our service members. The end of the mandate is a victory for our military & for common sense.”
To secure bipartisan support, Democrats agreed to demands from their Republican counterparts to scrap the requirement that service members be inoculated with a COVID shot. The House passed the bill by a vote of 350 to 80; it now moves to the Senate and, if passed successfully, will be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The NDAA demands Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin repeal the August 2021 issued memorandum that inflicted a COVID shots mandate, albeit Austin voiced support for keeping that same mandate only days earlier.
Giving Republicans credit where due
As stated in the article, “COVID Mandates Are Being Lifted but Still Continue—End the ‘National Emergency, ’” a group of 47 Congress members issued a letter to Austin in mid-September, requesting he revoke the COVID shots mandate for all service members, civilian personnel and contractors. In addition, the letter urges the Defense Secretary to reinstate the position of Americans discharged for noncompliance, and questions the potential consequences of recruitment shortages by highlighting data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Indeed, nearly 40 percent of men aged 18 to 24 are not “fully vaccinated” with COVID jabs. Moreover, in the Southern United States, an area responsible for enlisting half of the U.S. military, that proportion is over 50 percent, automatically disqualifying the majority “in the most fertile recruiting grounds.”
After the new bill was issued, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, said he plans to investigate who was impacted by the COVID shots mandate. Indeed, more than 8,000 active-duty service members have been reportedly discharged after refusing to be jabbed.
To put the above number into perspective, the Department of Defense has reported that approximately 2 million service members have been “fully vaccinated” since late November. Aiming to become chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the next Congress, Rogers said, “some folks have moved on and are not going to want to come back.”
For sure, Americans—irrespective of their profession—have a God-given right to refuse the shots, if nothing else, due to the concern that while a typical vaccine development timeline is 5 to 10 years, the COVID shots’ development under “Operation Warp Speed” was less than a year. And recapping a thought expressed in an earlier article is a potent reminder of our duties as good citizens:
“The idea of being a lawful citizen and member of the armed forces who trust their government, while simultaneously resisting a mandate issued by that same government they’ve agreed to serve, can seem contradictory. And it’s right here, where an intrinsic belief in those ‘certain inalienable rights’ can protect our personal freedom—and the freedom of future generations.”
And if the timeline of the COVID shots trial isn’t disconcerting, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that many service members have grown familiar with the mounting number of studies linking the shots to severe adverse reactions.
Why service members might have rejected the COVID-19 shots
Since the rollout of the COVID jabs, study after study has highlighted the waning efficacy against infection of the virus that causes COVID-19. In summary, such publications conclude that these shots provide “protection” for around six months.
Moreover, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices concluded in late June 2021 that a COVID jab contributed to an “elevated risk for myocarditis”, especially in young males between ages 12 and 29. A growing number of independent studies highlight that the incidence of myocarditis increases after receiving a COVID shot, particularly after the second dose among men under 30 years old.
To add to the above, multiple studies have reported the “rare risk” of blood clotting inside a blood vessel (thrombosis) and low platelet levels (thrombocytopenia). Such studies include “thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome” or “vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia,” an adverse reaction occurring mainly but not exclusively among women between 20 and 50 years old.
Personally speaking, if I were a member of the armed forces (or the parent of one) and knew of the above risks, I would be seriously concerned.
Reinstate service members who were discharged
We must note that the NDAA does not include the reinstatement of troops discharged over the mandate. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted that the “next steps” are to “reinstate all members of the military wrongfully terminated due to vax.” Furthermore, Air Force Master Sergeant Nick Kupper told Breitbart News he was “relieved” that the NDAA “will save roughly 70,000 careers” but disappointed it “does nothing to repair the damage” inflicted on more than 8,000 service members.
Indeed, many are more than disappointed. The next step is to move from tweeting and issuing statements to lawmaking. A group of grassroots military community activists has reportedly called on the Pentagon to reinstate service members who were forced out over the ill-formed mandate:
“The repeal of the COVID vaccine mandate in the NDAA is a step in the right direction. However, it is only a small step towards rebuilding the trust between service members and their leadership, both uniformed and civilian. To continue the journey towards reestablishing trust, the [Department of Defense] DOD must reinstate those forced out and deprived their livelihoods.”
In support, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas reportedly told Fox News Digital in early December that he wanted to introduce legislation to pay and reinstate military members fired over the “vaccine” mandate. On this note in relation to the NDAA, the grassroots military community activists added that:
“The legislature must stop standing idly by as a rogue DOD flagrantly violates its own [The Uniform Code of Military Justice] UCMJ and federal laws. Congress is duty bound to leverage the power of the purse as well as subpoena authority to force accountability of the executive branch. Policy needs to be written to ensure the protection of service members and their rights.”
The group added that, “We as a community are not satisfied and want to assure the 118th Congress that this issue is not going away.” Indeed, the one responsibility of government is, and has always been, to secure our natural rights—and this includes protecting our bodies as part of a deeply held religious belief. Again, I personally look to Biblical scripture for guidance:
1 Cor 6:19 – What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Editor’s Update:
Roll Call: “The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass the final defense authorization bill for fiscal 2023, clearing the sweeping measure for President Joe Biden’s signature.”
Politico: “The Democratic-controlled Congress is sending the White House a defense policy bill it won’t like.”
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Cameron Keegan is an independent researcher and writer on American politics, faith, and culture through a conservative disposition. To learn more, visit Dear Rest Of America.
