Armed Forces News

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - Dec 2020: Master-at-Arms 1st Class Patrick Moore receives the COVID-19 vaccine as US Pacific Fleet Fleet Master Chief James Honea observes at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. (Navy photo by Chief MCS Jay C. Pugh)

Some 77 percent of all Navy personnel have received at least one Covid-19 vaccination – the highest participation rate among the armed services. Citing military health officials, Seapower magazine reported that Marine Corps participation is the lowest of the services, with 58 percent of its members receiving inoculations. Seventy percent of all soldiers and 61 percent of all Airmen have received at least one shot. There are no statistics for the Space Force.

Health officials are still working on ways to convince more service members to get vaccinated, particularly as violent new strains of the virus are emerging.

“The pandemic is not over, and we are not done with all-out efforts to encourage vaccination, Dr. Terry Adirim, acting assistant defense secretary for health affairs, said, according to the Seapower story. “The Delta variant poses a threat to unvaccinated personnel.”

Adirim said that single doses of the Covid vaccine are 33-percent effective against the Delta variant. The second dose boosts effectiveness to 88 percent.

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