Iowa’s Governor Urging Congress to Repeal Military’s COVID Vaccine Mandate
(Radio Iowa) Governor Kim Reynolds is among 21 Republican governors who’re asking congress to repeal the COVID vaccine mandate for America’s soldiers.
Governor Reynolds, in a written statement, said the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for the military creates a national security risk. Reynolds said it affects national guard units at the state level as well and restricts governors’ ability to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies. About eight-thousand active-duty soldiers who’ve refused to get a COVID shot have been discharged. A Pentagon official told a Washington, D.C. radio station in September that about nine-thousand National Guard soldiers around the country who haven’t been vaccinated may be discharged this year.
Last January, the Iowa National Guard’s adjutant general said about 20 percent of his soldiers had NOT gotten COVID shots. Neighboring governors from Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota are among the Republicans who’ve joined Iowa’s governor in sending a letter to congressional leaders asking for the COVID vaccine mandate for the military to be eliminated.