Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a new memo providing an update on the process to reinstate those who refused to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“We’re back with more changes at DOD, and this time, an update on COVID-19 and reinstatement. We all know that the previous administration issued unlawful orders on mandatory vaccines—on an experimental vaccine, COVID-19. You know it, we know it,” he said in a video shared on social media.
Hegseth explained that the DOD is doing what it can to “reinstate those who were affected by that policy. It hasn’t been perfect, and we know that. We’re having an ongoing conversation with you to get it right, working with the White House as well.” He further asserted that the Department wants “anyone impacted by that vaccine mandate back into the military—people of conscience, warriors of conscience—back in our formations.”
He went on to reveal a memo directing the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to “provide additional guidance to the boards that are reviewing these cases—concerning the review of requests from service members and former service members adversely impacted by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.” The directive will also facilitate the “removal of adverse actions on service members solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine” as well as provide remedies for those who have had “additional career setbacks resulting from the previous administration’s unlawful vaccine mandate.”
The new memo asserts Hegseth’s belief that “additional guidance is necessary to take care of the thousands of Service members who were unjustly impacted by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.”
The process to begin reinstating service members who were removed after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine launched earlier this month.
