More and more Army soldiers are reenlisting after being discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, according to information shared exclusively with The Daily Signal.
The increase comes after Congress repealed the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate and conservative lawmakers applied pressure to Defense Department leaders to be more welcoming of 8,400 service members who were “fired” for their refusal to get the COVID-19 shot.
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by Greg Piper Governments and private entities are using a small rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and new viral variants to juice interest in bivalent boosters that only 1 in 6 Americans have taken and to urge a return to routine masking, if not outright mandating new jabs and face coverings. What they aren’t providing is robust evidence for the effectiveness of the interventions against infection by a virus that has already provided natural immunity to an estimated 19 in 20 Americans as of November 2022, according to Harvard research published in this month’s journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. “If a tiny bump in the rate of new weekly Covid hospital admissions—that still is among the lowest rates over the last three years—relates to a surge, then what is an actual large rise called?” science journalist David Zweig wrote in an essay Thursday questioning explanations by public-health pundits for the increase. “The use of this hyperbolic language by so many media outlets that over-dramatizes risk skirts very close to misinformation,” said Zweig, known for his reporting on the Twitter Files and scrutiny of the evidence behind school mask mandates and the six-foot rule. Even President Biden acknowledged current COVID vaccines, which include original and Omicron variant strains, are not performing as hoped.…
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Eighty-three House Republicans voted against a measure that would have required commercial airlines receiving federal money to reinstate pilots who were fired for not complying with a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate since ruled illegal.
Among them were eight Republicans who opposed the measure from Texas, a state that has consistently fought federal mandates. A federal judge in Texas was the first to rule the Biden administration’s federal vaccine mandate was illegal, blocking it in January 2022. The case went to the Supreme Court, which also ruled against the mandate.
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A bill that would permanently extend Georgia’s prohibition on local governments requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for services was approved by the House Public Health Committee on Monday.
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As expected, Wisconsin lawmakers blocked a new meningitis vaccine requirement and ended the emergency power the state’s public health department had over the chickenpox.
The Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules Thursday voted to suspend the Department of Health Service’s new vaccine rules.
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U.S. Representatives Dave Joyce (R-OH-14) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA-1) are seeking an end to the COVID-19-vaccine mandate affecting workers at Head Start facilities.
The federal Head Start program was founded in 1965 and provides numerous early-learning, wellness and parenting-support services to families with children ages five and younger who receive public assistance or have incomes below the poverty line. The program serves more than 800,000 children nationwide including 33,241 in Ohio and roughly 1,500 in Joyce’s district.
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One of Arizona’s newest State Senators, Janae Shamp (R-Suprise), has a bill headed to the Senate Health & Human Services committee Tuesday that would require employees in the state to have the opportunity to opt out of a vaccine mandate. Shamp, a former operating room nurse, said this bill would be significant for health care professionals.
“It’s sickening that many healthcare workers, like myself, lost our jobs because we refused to take the jab,” said Senator Shamp. “The COVID-19 vaccine has not been on the market long enough to determine if there is a correlation between its ingredients and medical issues a number of patients are now experiencing after getting the shot. We already have a dire shortage of medical professionals within Arizona, and these mandates have only exacerbated the crisis.”
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A vaccinated Army pilot, who was reprimanded after his initial hesitation to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, is still being denied promotion and might not be able to retire, while a woman who allegedly sexually harassed him at a military medical clinic retains her employment.
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Several members of the U.S. Marines are still fighting the U.S. Department of Defense in a lawsuit they filed over its August 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The DOD asked the court to dismiss the case after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was forced to drop the mandate by Congress. President Joe Biden, who strongly opposed repealing the mandate, agreed to repealing it when he signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law in December.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined 17 of her Republican colleagues this week in introducing a bill requiring the Secretary of Defense to offer reinstatement to service members who were fired over the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
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Despite the Department of Defense rescinding the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, unvaccinated military members are still facing repercussions, including denied benefits, ineligibility for promotion, being non-deployable, and potentially diminished employment prospects for those already discharged.
On Dec. 23, President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the $858 billion defense spending bill that included a measure repealing the mandate. On Dec. 29, the Defense Department followed suit, rescinding the mandate that has frayed military morale and resulted in the discharge of over 8,000 service members who refused the vaccine.
In rescinding the vaccine mandate, the DOD acknowledged the NDAA requires Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to rescind his Aug. 24, 2021 memo issuing the sweeping order.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost applauded a federal appeals court decision to block the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Cincinnati agreed late Thursday with a lower court ruling that imposed a preliminary injunction on the proposed mandate that would have also required tens of millions of Americans to wear face masks at work.
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The Department of Defense (DOD) officially scrapped the requirement that all members of the armed forces be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin introduced the mandate in August 2021 as Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines were expected to become available, citing the impact of rising case numbers on the military’s readiness. However, after more than a year of legal challenges to the mandate and at least 8,400 discharges for refusing the vaccine, Congress instructed Austin to reverse course in the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
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While the Biden administration has officially reversed the military COVID-19 vaccination mandate, servicemembers who escaped discharge for refusing the vaccine still risk retaliation and could be booted anyway, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Ongoing class action lawsuits thwarted the military’s efforts to discharge thousands of troops who objected to the mandate before the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law Friday, overturned it. However, servicemembers may risk reprisal even after the deadline passes for the Department of Defense (DOD) to implement the repeal, staining the records of thousands of servicemembers for the remainder of their careers, experts explained to the DCNF.
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On Monday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Biden Administration’s rule mandating that all federal contractors receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, the 5th Circuit’s three-judge panel voted by a 2-1 margin to uphold a prior decision by a lower court that blocked the rule, first implemented by the Biden White House in September of 2021. That ruling came as a result of a lawsuit by the states of Indiana, Louisiana, and Mississippi seeking the overturning of the mandate.
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Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube is vowing to introduce legislation to obtain justice for those punished for refusing to comply with the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
“I intend on filing my own bill,” Steube said on the John Solomon Reports podcast Wednesday. “I am … not naive” about prospects for passage of such a bill in a Democrat-controlled Senate, he said, “but thankfully, the House has the power of the purse, and … when we do the appropriations process over the next year, we can put riders on appropriations bills to tell the Department of Defense how they’re going to give relief to these individuals.”
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A group of 21 Republican governors, led by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, have sent a letter to congressional leadership expressing their objection to the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Thursday that he led efforts with attorneys general from 21 states in filing a Petition for Rulemaking, requesting that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to repeal the “unlawful federal vaccine mandate for healthcare workers and withdraw related guidance.”
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has ended the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its personnel, according to a memorandum exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“CBP is halting the COVID-19 screening program, and employees may choose to withdraw their pending reasonable accommodation requests for screening exemption,” an internal CBP memorandum stated. National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd confirmed to the DCNF that both the vaccine mandate and testing requirements have been lifted.
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A U.S. Army pilot who reluctantly received a COVID-19 vaccination has been reprimanded and denied promotion — and could still face discharge and the loss of his wings — after questioning the vaccine and filing complaints about allegedly biased investigations of him, according to his wife and her attorney.
Jessica Hill-Budge, the wife of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brandon Budge in the 7th Infantry Division’s 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, told Just the News that her husband is likely to lose his nearly 20-year military career due to improperly conducted official investigations of his case.
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A former National Guardsman who sought a religious exemption to the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate was given the mRNA shot instead of an inoculation for the flu “accidentally,” according to the service.
After refusing the COVID vaccine multiple times and requesting a religious exemption to the mandate, former Maine National Guard Specialist Mathew Bouchard was given the mRNA shot instead of the flu vaccine months before he was to leave the service, he told Just the News on Thursday.
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Two U.S. Representatives from Eastern Washington have signed onto a letter that urges the Biden Administration to drop all vaccine requirements for people entering the United States from Canada.
Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, and Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, say the decision to send the letter follows Canada lifting vaccine mandates for international travelers entering the country despite Biden’s refusal to follow suit.
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Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania released its Fall 2022 COVID-19 vaccination protocol, stating that returning students must be fully vaccinated prior to arriving on campus.
“Students are required to be fully vaccinated prior to arriving to campus, unless approved with an exemption,” the Susquehanna University Plan for Fall 2022 reads.
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More than two dozen members of Congress and nearly half the states are supporting Navy SEALs in their legal efforts to secure religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, rejecting the Biden administration’s invocation of judicial deference to military decisions.
They filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week, arguing the “near-total denial rate” for religious requests and preference for nonreligious requests violates the Free Exercise Clause, the “overwhelmingly bipartisan” Religious Freedom Restoration Act and state RFRAs.
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) announced Tuesday that he had filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Tucson over its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
“Tucson dictated a widespread vaccine mandate without regard to its impact on the liberties and civil rights of its employees,” Brnovich said in a press release. “Many of those affected are first responders, and it’s our turn to be there for them. The city’s misguided vaccine mandate is an ugly example of government overreach that we must vigorously oppose.”
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) recently joined a coalition of 22 states in support of the religious liberty of Navy SEALs seeking exemption from universal COVID vaccination.
“It is absolute hypocrisy for an administration that purports to embrace diversity and inclusion to categorically dismiss the religious liberty and sincerely held beliefs of our most heroic service members,” Brnovich said in a press release. “Our Constitution and the brave men and women of our military are far more time proven than any COVID-19 vaccination.”
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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) is pressing the Pentagon, Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for answers after multiple whistleblowers raised concerns about the provenance of a Comirnaty-labeled COVID-19 vaccine shipped to military bases.
On Monday, nine military officers from across all the branches sent a whistleblower report to Congress regarding a COVID vaccine appearing at Coast Guard medical clinics. Key GOP senator presses feds for source of vaccine at military bases after whistleblower allegations
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U.S District Court Judge Steven Merryday issued a blistering rebuke of the Department of Defense and Marine Corps for refusing to grant religious accommodation requests to service members.
Merryday did so when issuing a 48-page ruling Thursday in which he granted class action status for all active and reserve U.S. Marine Corps service men and women in a lawsuit filed against the Secretary of Defense over the department’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
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A federal court in Ohio entered a nationwide preliminary injunction Thursday prohibiting the U.S. Air Force from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate against religious objectors.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio’s order in Doster v. Kendall remains effective until a full trial is held. It follows the temporary restraining order the court issued July 14 when it granted class action status for all Air Force plaintiffs nationwide. Class status protects all active-duty Airmen, active reserve, National Guard, Air Force Academy cadets, the Air Force Reserve Command, and Space Force members.
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Misinformation continued to spread as the deadline for Tennessee National Guard soldiers, as well as soldiers across the United States, to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate by June 30, drew near and now has passed.
In an effort to better inform the public, The Tennessee Star has compiled the facts of what is now happening to soldiers in Tennessee and around the country.
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Tennessee 5th Congressional District candidate and former Tennessee National Guard General Kurt Winstead aligned with Governor Bill Lee’s inaction and disinformation on the guardsmen firings due to their refusal to accept the COVID-19 vaccine shot Thursday.
“I believe that the governor is working behind the scenes, doing everything in his power to help the Tennessee National Guard – no question in my mind,” said Winstead In an interview conducted by Matt Murphy on SuperTalk 99.7 fm WTN.
Winstead defended Lee’s inaction, insisting that there was nothing the governor can do to help the guardsmen, and that only the federal government can take action.
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As the final days and hours passed leading to the mandate deadline that requires 100 percent COVID-19 vaccine compliance by all federal personnel, including Tennessee Army National Guard members, Governor Bill Lee appeared to deflect when he spoke about his actual role in deciding the fate of those guardsmen, who are about to be fired due to their refusal of the injections.
The Tennessee Star confirmed the authenticity of a message it previously obtained from Lee’s office, which read:
We take seriously the religious and personal exemptions requested by members who are not part of the 93% who are vaccinated in accordance with DoD policy. We have no plans to terminate these members based on their status and have asked DoD to approve their individual exemption requests.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced in a statement to The Tennessee Star that she will introduce new legislation to prohibit federal funds from being utilized to implement any requirement that a member of the National Guard receive a vaccination against COVID-19.
Blackburn’s legislation is unveiled as up to 40,000 U.S. Army National Guard members nationwide are set to be fired on Thursday, June 30 for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine unless the Biden administration reverses course.
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Following an executive meeting of the Davidson County Republican Party (DCRP), Chairman James Garrett issued the following statement upon news that up to 10 percent of Tennessee Guardsmen face being discharged for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination.
“As the Republican Party of the State Capital, our leadership and members call upon Governor Lee to step-up and order Major General Holmes to halt the discharge of our Guardsmen,” he said.
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Several outraged Tennessee National Guard members reached out to The Tennessee Star Wednesday morning immediately after Governor Bill Lee’s (R-TN) interview earlier in the day on Supertalk 99.7 on Nashville’s Morning News with Dan Mandis.
A message delivered by one guardsmen on behalf of several was simple: “We are even more outraged at Governor Lee’s lack of support and action than we were before he opened his mouth full of hot air on the radio. He doesn’t seem to care about us.”
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Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, investigated how different state National Guards are reacting to the Army’s June 30, 2022, deadline for all active-duty and reserve components to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
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Several General Assembly members in both the state House and state Senate have shared a text message with The Tennessee Star that purports to be a message from Governor Bill Lee’s office that says the governor is working on the issue and specifically mentions “religious and personal exemptions.”
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Lt. Governor Randy McNally issued a statement to The Tennessee Star in support of saving the jobs of the Tennessee National Guard members who are scheduled to lose their jobs on June 30 due to their refusal to comply with the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
“The mission of our National Guard is the defense of our state and our homeland, not political correctness. The Biden administration is once again putting left-wing woke politics ahead of our national interest. While COVID-19 is still with us, it has moved past the pandemic phase and become endemic,” he said.
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Several members of the Tennessee General Assembly provided comments to The Tennessee Star in support of the National Guard members who are about to be fired due to their refusal to comply with the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
State Senator Ferrell Haile (R-SD18) was the first to provide The Star with a comment. Haile exclaimed, “I do not support the firing because of refusal to be vaccinated by TN National Guard!”
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Tennessee Senate Republican Leader Jack Johnson issued a strong statement in support of Tennessee National Guard members who are due to be fired on June 30 because of their refusal to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and encouraging Governor Lee to help these guardsmen.
In a statement issued exclusively to The Tennessee Star, Leader Johnson excoriated the Biden administration’s COVID-19 mandates and said, “It is a travesty that the Biden Administration is prepared to fire brave men and women who faithfully serve our state and nation in the TN National Guard because of their COVID-19 vaccine status.”
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A group of supporters of Tennessee National Guard members informed The Tennessee Star of their intention to host a Wednesday, June 29 event outside the Capitol at Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville.
The event is called “Guard Freedom” and will feature letter readings by surrogates from active duty National Guard members who cannot speak publicly for fear that they will immediately lose their jobs, a reading of requests for Governor Lee to take immediate action on their behalf, and likely several speeches.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Governor Bill Lee refuses to comment as Tennessee National Guard members plead for their jobs.
Sources inside the Tennessee National Guard estimate there will be much as a 10 percent force reduction from soldiers who are about to be discharged on June 30 due to refusal to accept a COVID-19 vaccination and have called on the governor to take action to protect their jobs.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The Tennessee Star has obtained exclusive information from sources inside the Tennessee National Guard that are calling for Governor Bill Lee to take immediate action because “His Adjutant General is about to discharge hundreds of his National Guard Soldiers before the end of the month for not complying with an unlawful order.”
This group of Tennessee National Guardsmen provided The Star with their message for Governor Lee on the condition of anonymity:
The Governor needs to IMMEDIATELY order Major General Holmes to halt the discharge of these honorable men and women. He needs to order Attorney General Slatery to IMMEDIATELY coordinate with other state AGs to file an emergency injunction against the DoD, forcing them to reverse adverse actions against any National Guardsman for refusal to vaccinate. Governor Lee is the Commander in Chief of the Tennessee National Guard and he has that authority. It’s time to put a stop to this injustice now!
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Ohio Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Nan Whaley signaled her support for a vaccine mandate for children in an interview with The Ohio Capital Journal.
Whaley, who covered her positions on multiple issues in the interview, compared a coronavirus vaccine mandate to those of established requirements for other diseases.
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On Thursday, a federal court upheld Joe Biden’s mandate that all federal government employees be forced to take a coronavirus vaccine.
The New York Post reports that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana issued a ruling that overturned a lower court’s decision to block the mandate, which was first issued in September of 2021. In January, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown had ruled the mandate unconstitutional, determining that the rule constituted an overstep in federal authority.
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Florida Senators Marco Rubio (R) and Rick Scott (R) signed their names to an amicus brief defending health care workers in a lawsuit against the State of New York over COVID shot mandates. The employees were denied a religious exemption.
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The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to strike down Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate targeting healthcare workers at federally funded facilities. The measure passed on a party-line vote of 49 to 44.
No Democrat senators voted with Republicans to repeal the mandate, but GOP senators were able to get the resolution through the Senate because six Democrats missed the vote, The Hill reported.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who physician, and former military officer. Before voting began, Marshall argued that the CMS vaccine mandate is “not about public health or science.”
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On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a group of Navy SEALs who defied the U.S. Navy’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, dealing one of the biggest blows yet to the military mandate.
As reported by The Daily Caller, the court’s ruling was similar to a previous decision by a district judge in Fort Worth, Texas in January, who ordered a temporary halt to the Navy’s vaccine mandate while the case moved forward. The lawsuit was filed by a group of 35 Navy SEALs who all sought religious exemptions from being forced to take the vaccine.
The appeals court ruled that the Department of Defense failed to prove that the vaccine mandate served “‘paramount interests’ that justify vaccinating these 35 Plaintiffs against COVID-19 in violation of their religious beliefs.” The court noted that despite the Navy claiming to have a “compelling interest” in forcing all sailors to get vaccinated, it “undermined” its own mandate by preparing unvaccinated SEALs for deployment while the pandemic was still ongoing.
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In a letter to the House Speaker and Senate President Friday, President Joe Biden extended the national COVID-19 emergency pandemic indefinitely.
“There remains a need to continue this national emergency,” Biden wrote.
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Wayzata Public Schools, located outside of Minneapolis, voted to end its mask mandates for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The district pointed to low coronavirus numbers, and 76 percent of their students have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
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