Pentagon pushes effort to get more service members vaccinated

The Defense Department on Thursday called on military leaders to take steps to ramp up COVID-19 vaccination rates among service members.

“The department has redoubled its efforts to encourage everyone to get vaccinated,” acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Terry Adirim told reporters at the Pentagon following the release of a memo on the new push.

The document is meant to reaffirm the importance of vaccination and highlight tools to encourage military members to get the shot, she said.

The memo focuses on four specific areas: Increasing the vaccine’s accessibility, educating personnel on the shot, leveraging policies such as extra time off to encourage vaccination and acknowledging and addressing any concerns.