Vaccination against Covid-19 will become mandatory "by mid-September" for all members of the US armed forces, Defense Minister Lloyd Austin announced on Monday in a note to Pentagon employees.
President Joe Biden said in a statement to "strongly support" the move, saying he shares with Lloyd Austin "an unwavering commitment to ensure that our troops have all the tools they need to do their jobs as safely as possible. ".
Troops often live and work closely together in barracks and on ships, increasing the chances of the coronavirus spreading rapidly.
Defense Minister Lloyd Austin said in his memo that the military services will have a few weeks to prepare, determine how many vaccines they need and how to implement the vaccination campaign, adds the AP news agency. .
It also leaves time for the FDA (the US drug agency) to give the final green light to the Pfizer vaccine, which is expected in early September.
In France, a vaccination deadline set
According to the Pentagon, more than one million soldiers are fully immunized and 237,000 others have received an injection.
But the military services vary widely in their vaccination rates: the Navy said more than 74% of its active-duty and reserve force have received at least one dose, while the Air Force says 65% of its troops in active service are, and the army, by far the most important service, counts only about 50% of soldiers vaccinated.
In France too, the army is paving the way for an extension of compulsory vaccination for soldiers, Le Monde reported on August 6.
An instruction from the central management of the military health service sets September 15 as the deadline for the vaccination of soldiers serving in "operational engagement" on French soil.
This measure already applied to soldiers deployed outside France, such as on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Personnel undergoing training or internship, as well as those participating in “permanent maritime safeguard or air safety postures”
,
are also concerned, ie around 7,000 soldiers.