About 48,000 Marines have chosen not to receive vaccines, for a declination rate of 38.9%.
Of 26,400 Marines who have been offered vaccinations, 15,100 have chosen not to receive them, a number that includes both II Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps Installation East — Camp Lejeune.
The military cannot make the vaccines mandatory now because they have only emergency use authorizations from the Food and Drug Administration, meaning service members who are required to receive a series of other vaccinations have the option of declining shots to protect against Covid-19.For every 10 percentage point drop in the acceptance rate, that’s 220,000 individuals opting not to receive vaccines, a number potentially large enough to affect force readiness.