WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, calling on him to suspend the coronavirus vaccine mandate and answer specific questions about the readiness impacts of the Biden administration’s mandate.

“At a time when our adversaries continue to increase their quantitative and qualitative advantage against our forces, we should seek to ensure that no policy, even unintentionally, hinders military readiness,” said Inhofe. “Most troublesome is the lack of clarity and consistency among the services as they look to implement the administration’s hasty vaccination mandate. Combined with the uncertainty and burden the vaccination mandate places on industry, this administration will do more damage to the nation’s security than any external threat.”

Inhofe is concerned because so many members of the military don’t want the vaccine.

“As highlighted in a recent Washington Post article, tens of thousands of service members have yet to comply with the vaccination order,” Inhofe said. “The ambiguity of the various policies combined with unrealistic timelines and processes for granting exemptions will ensure that tens of thousands of personnel are unable to comply. Responses to inquiries from the Senate Armed Services Committee to the Department as to the impacts on readiness, consequences for failure to comply with the mandate and anticipated manning challenges have been unsatisfactory.”

The letter calls Biden’s vaccine policy “haphazardly implemented” and “politically motivated.” It could cause “irrevocable damage to our national security reminiscent of sequestration.”

Some service members are resigning rather than be forced to take the vaccine. Some have already had the Chinese coronavirus and don’t need the vaccine due to natural immunity. Others have religious reasons to reject the vaccine and others have legitimate medical reasons to not get vaccinated.

“At a time when our adversaries continue to increase their quantitative and qualitative advantage against our forces, we should seek to ensure that no policy, even unintentionally, hinders military readiness,” Inhofe wrote. “Most troublesome is the lack of clarity and consistency among the services as they look to implement the administration’s hasty vaccination mandate. Combined with the uncertainty and burden the vaccination mandate places on industry, this administration will do more damage to the nation’s security than any external threat.”

And some who have resigned instead of taking the vaccine have been given dishonorable discharges and at least one soldier was temporarily put in jail.

“Plainly stated, no service member, Department of Defense civilian or contractor supporting the Department should be dismissed due to failure to comply with the mandate until the ramifications of mass dismissal are known,” Inhofe wrote. “With an ever shrinking candidate pool, hastily executed policies such as this work to further diminish the ability of the Department to tap into the finite resource of people critical to national security. The mass attrition of personnel and further shirking of the defense industrial base at this time would only serve to hinder our ability to project power and compete against near-peer adversaries.”

And the military would shoulder a tremendous cost for replacing any service members, civilian personnel or contractors who don’t comply. It would be especially harmful in “mission-critical” areas.

Inhofe a report on these aspects of the vaccine mandate:

• The anticipated impacts to mission readiness, i.e. loss in flight training hours, loss in aircraft and shipyard repair maintenance hours, etc. if the Department pursues the discharging of service members, civilian personnel and contractors who fail to comply with the vaccination mandate according to the current specified deadlines.
• The anticipated cost to contractors caused by failure to comply with the vaccination mandate and expected requests for equitable adjustment. Additionally, an analysis of the long-term effects on the defense industrial base, particularly suppliers and subcontractors, resulting from loss of key workforce personnel.
• An analysis of the potential impacts to the workforce both uniformed and civilian if the Department were to retain those who choose not to receive the COVID vaccination. Additionally, an independent Department of Defense analysis of the potential merits of earned immunity and an assessment of the risk posed to those immunized with one of the FDA approved vaccine.