With Half Its Troops Unvaccinated, Pentagon Aims to Persuade Skeptics
An airman assembles COVID-19 vaccine syringes. DOD
As roughly half of the active-duty force remains unvaccinated against COVID-19, the Defense Department is pushing harder for troops to accept the effectiveness of the vaccine.
DOD personnel are reporting lower rates of “breakthrough infection”—individuals who become infected with COVID-19 after a vaccine dose—than the general population, Defense Health Agency director Lt. Gen. Ronald Place told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported a 94 to 95 percent rate of effectiveness for vaccines, Place says their effectiveness among the DOD population is almost 100 percent.
Of the roughly 1.5 million DOD personnel who have received at least one vaccine dose, only roughly 1,640 have experienced a breakthrough infection. Of those breakthrough infections, 24 resulted in hospitalization and none has been fatal.
