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A US soldier is vaccinated against Corona
Photo: Ted S Warren/AP
For US President Joe Biden, it was a security measure, and he had argued for it until the very end.
But now the US Congress has overturned the corona vaccination requirement for the country's armed forces.
The move came in the context of the $858 billion defense budget that was finally passed by the Senate on Thursday.
Republicans in Congress had threatened not to approve the budget if the corona vaccination requirement was retained.
Biden had long opposed the abolition of compulsory vaccination, but in the end the Republicans won.
According to the Pentagon, more than 8,000 military personnel have been discharged from the armed forces because they did not get vaccinated against Corona.
The text that has now been passed by the Senate leaves it up to the Ministry of Defense to decide whether the opponents of vaccination who have been dismissed from the troops should be reinstated or not.
The Republicans had originally called for their automatic reinstatement, but they could not get their way on this point.
New vaccines approved for children
Elsewhere, the topic of vaccinations remains present in the USA: The corona vaccines from Biontech and Pfizer, which have been adapted to the currently predominant Omicron sublines BA.4/BA.5, as well as from Moderna, have now also been approved for small children from the age of six months.
This was announced by the FDA on Thursday.
Depending on their previous vaccination status, small children could get a booster vaccination or complete their original vaccination series, it said.
The FDA again called on all parents and guardians to have their children vaccinated and boosted.
The number of corona infections in the USA has stabilized at a manageable value: According to Johns Hopkins University, the nationwide incidence is 120.3 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants.
It is therefore lower than currently in Germany: The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence in the morning at 247.8.
mrc/dpa/AFP