FDA’s approval of Pfizer expedites military mandate

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

“We’re going to move forward making that vaccine mandatory,” asserted Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby at a briefing earlier today.

The road to a mandate

At the start of August, President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III agreed to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for enlisted service members. When this decision was made, it was under the condition that either the vaccine is approved by the FDA, or that the mandate goes into effect no later than mid-September.

In a memo released by Secretary Austin, he explained it by stating, “Based on these consultations and on additional discussions with leaders of the White House COVID-19 Task Force, I want you to know that I will seek the president’s approval to make the vaccines mandatory no later than mid-September, or immediately upon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensure, whichever comes first.”

Now that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is approved, it appears that the mandate will go into effect nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. This means that all of the approximately 1.3 million active-duty service members will be required to get the shot.

Pfizer’s vaccine is most commonly administered COVID-19 vaccine. According to data from the Centers for Disease control and Prevention, it accounts for about 56% of the doses administered overall.

In a late-July poll conducted by Yahoo! News/YouGov, only 11% of the total respondents stated that they remained unvaccinated due to concerns about FDA approval.

While the approval is promising in terms of getting service members vaccinated, it appears that it may not be as impactful as expected, given that skepticism surrounding the vaccines is coming from a variety of different places.