Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
House Passes Defense Bill That Lifts Military Covid Vaccine Mandate
A bill to rescind the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military and provide nearly $858 billion for national defense passed the House on Thursday as lawmakers scratch off one of the final items on their yearly to-do list. ... The House passed the bill by a vote of 350-80. It now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to pass easily, then to the president to be signed into law. (Freking, 12/8)
By giving in to Republican demands, Democrats acknowledged that the public has moved on, and there鈥檚 not much appetite for any sort of virus-fighting rules. 鈥淭he policy that the Department of Defense implemented in August of 2021 鈥 was absolutely the right policy. It saved lives and it made sure our force was as ready as it possibly could be in the face of the pandemic,鈥 House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, (D-Wash.), said during a speech before the House Rules Committee defending the authorization bill.聽鈥淎s we are here in December 2022, does that August 2021 policy still make sense? We don鈥檛 believe that it is, and I don鈥檛 believe that it is,鈥 Smith said. (Weixel, 12/9)
Deputy Defense Press Secretary Sabrina Singh declined on Wednesday to go into detail about what the Pentagon was preparing for if the mandate was repealed. [But] it鈥檚 not just about the US. American troops often have additional vaccine requirements depending on the area of the world to which they are deploying or being rotated through. Under the Pentagon鈥檚 current policy, service members who have not gotten the vaccine are considered non-deployable, Singh said Wednesday. (Britzky and Liebermann, 12/8)
Republicans鈥 main argument centers on staffing: They say the military鈥檚 Covid-19 vaccine mandate has pushed out thousands of service members in a time when there are already severe labor shortages. Roughly 8,000 active-duty service members have been discharged because they refused vaccination, per US News, but that represents a small fraction of the military鈥檚 more than 1 million active-duty service members. As Politico reported, about 98 percent of the military has been vaccinated. (Zhou, 12/7)
