Originally Posted by
tnkrdrvr
As your quoted articles show, the problem isn’t the Covid vaccine. The problem is we are producing a generation of physically unfit people who literally break when put through physically rigorous training. The answer will be a longer basic training course that accounts for the need to take recruits from physically frail, but often obese, to physically fit. That will substantially add to the cost/time required for training.
To your initial thesis that ordering the Covid vaccine: yes, it probably was unwise from a purely military utility point of view. So was the anthrax vaccine. Decision makers make mistakes and the troops pay for it. Welcome to the military. These things happen from time to time.
You don’t make an already serious situation better by giving a stupid order, and this was and is a stupid order.
Whatever the issues early on, after Omicron and all the other variants, practically everybody left by this time has already been infected and will have as good immunity from SERIOUS infection as their peer group who were immunized. I would grant you that having given the stupid order, the military has no option but to enforce it, but that doesn’t somehow not make it a stupid order to begin with. There are LOTS of immunizations out there - even quite effective ones against diseases that actually have a high mortality, where the juice ain’t worth the squeeze.
Like rabies, only given to those at actual risk.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...e-after-bites/