DOD Memo States Boosters Aren’t Required For Service Members.

According to a newly released memorandum, American troops are urged but not required to take COVID-19 vaccination booster doses. “receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose is not mandatory.” the military warned troops earlier this month in the memo released on Tuesday. A booster dose is not necessary for a person to be deemed completely vaccinated, according to the memo from Gilbert Cisneros, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Because of the diminishing efficacy against infection and severe illness shown among individuals who got a primary dose, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised last month that all persons 18 and older take a booster dose, Cisneros noted. A Pfizer or Moderna booster is available six months after the original series is completed, while a Johnson & Johnson booster is available two months after the single-shot vaccination is completed. Teenagers…

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US Military still has yet to Approve A Religious Exemptions to DOD Vaccine Mandate.

COVID-19 mandates have been derailed and reinstated, yet the US military has yet to approve a single religious exception. Lawyers for troops seeking exemptions claim the military is in violation of the United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and they are requesting that the courts intervene. “It’s now the point where I think we can call it what it is. It appears to be blatant religious discrimination when the military has now conceded, both publicly and in court filings I should say, that they have approved multiple numerous medical and administrative exemptions but yet they have refused to approve any religious accommodations,” Mike Berry, an attorney with First Liberty Institute, told The Epoch Times. “That’s textbook definition of religious discrimination,” he added. According to an Epoch Times assessment, military branches have awarded a total of 12,109 medical…

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Court Recognizes Service Member’s Right to Refuse EUA Vaccine Mandates.

The court recognizes the statutory right for military members to refuse a vaccine with only an EUA (Emergency Use Authorization).  The military cannot mandate vaccines that have not been FDA approved. On November 12, the court in the Northern District of Florida considered the requests for emergency relief to pause the Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccine mandate. While the court declined to grant the emergency relief, it did observe that the Department of Defense cannot mandate a vaccine that only has an emergency use authorization (EUA). According to the court: “And under 10 U.S.C. § 1107a, ‘[i]n the case of the administration of [an EUA] product … to members of the armed forces,’ that statutory right to refuse ‘may be waived only by the President only if the President determines, in writing, that complying with such requirement is not in the interests…

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The Denial Of Religious Exemptions and how To Navigate The Process.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects people from discrimination who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. But not only them. It also protects people who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs but do not belong to a traditional, organized religion. Religion is broadly defined under Title VII. A religious belief does not require a belief in God or any deity. A sincerely held religious belief can be one held by only a single person. It also requires an employer to accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs, practices and observances unless an accommodation would cause undue hardship. The question of whether an individual’s belief is acceptable and sincerely held is an issue of an individual’s credibility. If the employee requesting exemption isn’t credible they’ll be subject to…

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