Pentagon moves to mandate coronavirus vaccination for all troops

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will seek to mandate coronavirus vaccination for all U.S. service members by mid-September and could begin requiring inoculation even sooner if a vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, the Pentagon said Monday.

The effort is an acknowledgment that rising infection rates across the country pose a particular threat to military readiness, and it follows a months-long campaign by senior defense officials to cajole the nation’s 1.3 million active duty service members to get vaccinated voluntarily. The Biden administration, alarmed by continued spread of the virus’s delta variant and vaccination rates that remain low in several pockets of the country, has directed agencies throughout the federal government to devise such plans.