President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to reintegrate the military discharged for refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Order will order the Secretary of Defense to return to the members given, both in active and reserve duty, to request to return to the service, granting them their previous range and the full payment with benefits, according to people who provided details about the action under condition of anonymity.
The measure fulfills a promise that Trump reiterated during his inaugural speech, in which he described as “unfair” the decisions to dismiss the military. The order was first reported by Fox News.
Some 8,000 soldiers, or less than 1% of the army, were discharged for refusing to vaccinate during the mandate, which lasted from August 2021 to January 2023 under the Biden administration. The army made some exceptions for medical issues or religious objections, but dismissals caused legal challenges and became a point of conflict for conservatives.
In his first government, Trump supervised the federal response to quickly develop a vaccine against the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the most prominent achievements of that mandate. However, the president has relied to openly support those efforts after the negative reaction of conservatives to public health measures, such as confinements and orders for mandatory use of masks and vaccines.
In his second term, Trump has resorted to a series of figures known for his unorthodox opinions about medicine and public health, including, in particular, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Your choice to direct the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is an outstanding skeptic of vaccines, who has long questioned his safety and efficacy.
In his first week, the president also tried to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization. During his first term, Trump also tried to withdraw the United States from the international group, saying that he had given too much before the Chinese government in the early days of the pandemic and that he had not done enough to contain the disease.
Pete Hegesh, Trump’s new Secretary of Defense, highlighted the order to reinstall troops as one of several that are coming.
“Today more executive orders are being issued that we fully support to eliminate the DEI inside the Pentagon, return to the troops that were expelled due to Covid mandates and create an iron dome for the United States. This is happening quickly “Hegseth said to journalists on Monday.
