Military grants 15 service officers religious exemptions to vaccine mandate

The U.S. military has granted 15 serving officers religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine. Data from the military service showed that about 16,000 service officers requested religious exemptions to covid vaccine mandate.

The 15 officers were identified to belong to the U.S. Marine and the Air Force. The Marine Corps approved religious exemptions to covid vaccines for six Marines, while nine officers received approval of their request in the Air Force. The Navy did not grant comprehensive approval for exemptions, the Navy gave conditional approval for “a member of the Individual Ready Reserve,” and that the member must be fully vaccinated before resuming service.

While there was a high rate of vaccination after the military imposed vaccine mandate following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, there were also numerous legal suits challenging the vaccine mandate.