Today's D Brief: WH escalates vaccine push; Afghan refugees arrive stateside; Sailor charged in ship fire; RIP, Carl Levin; And a bit more.
By Ben Watson and Jennifer Hlad
July 30, 2021
The D Brief
Paid leave to get vaccinated. $100 for the newly vaccinated. A possible COVID vaccine mandate for the military. Those are some of the new steps President Joe Biden is taking—or encouraging states and entities to take—in a deliberate effort to increase the numbers of Americans protected against COVID-19 via any of the three vaccines currently available in the United States.
About the military: Biden has asked the Defense Department to determine “how and when” the COVID-19 vaccine will become a requirement for service members, especially since a variety of vaccinations have been mandated for deployed troops for years (e.g., for Anthrax, which your D Brief-er’s former sergeant memorably likened to having peanut butter injected into his arm).
For federal employees, all of them—including the military and its contractors—will now “be asked to attest to their vaccination status,” the White House said in a statement accompanying the president’s remarks. Those unvaccinated feds (service members and military civilians included) also face the following requirements:
They must “wear a mask on the job no matter their geographic location”;
Practice social distancing “from all other employees and visitors”;
Take a COVID screening test at least once a week;
And their official travel will be restricted so as to slow the spread of the virus.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/07/the-d-brief-july-30-2021/184177/
