OPINION:
From 1998 to 2004 hundreds of military personnel refused to take the anthrax vaccine, which had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (“Pentagon to require COVID-19 vaccine for all troops by Sept. 15,” Web, Aug. 9). Many were disciplined, court-martialed or had their careers ended with less than honorable discharges.
Many sought records corrections through their respective service branches’ Board of Corrections. When those were denied, which they generally were, some of these personnel appealed to the federal civil courts.
In 2004 a federal-court injunction halted the military’s mandatory vaccination program, declaring the previous six years of anthrax-vaccine administration to be illegal.
Yet when individual veterans appealed their cases in other federal courts, citing the 2004 case, the judges mostly rejected those claims. They sided with a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces involving courts-martial appeals that dismissed arguments using the 2004 injunction’s legal rationale.
In light of the anthrax vaccination legal history, I would recommend the military refrain from issuing an order to take the COVID-19 a shot until after the FDA issues a formal approval for it.
Cmdr. WAYNE L. JOHNSON
Judge Advocate General’s Corps, U.S. Navy (retired)
Alexandria, Va.
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