DOD Loosens Mask Mandates for Vaccinated Personnel, Ships Vaccine Doses Overseas for Youths

U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) officials announced recently that fully vaccinated service personnel can shed masks when engaged in activities indoors or outdoors at most DOD facilities, but that unvaccinated individuals should continue to wear face coverings.

Dr. Terry Adirim, acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said at a May 20 briefing that the policy change brings DOD in alignment with interim guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on May 13.

The DOD mask relaxation guidelines apply to vaccinated individuals who are at least two weeks beyond their final dose, according to the mask policy memo issued May 13 by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks. DOD personnel must still comply with CDC guidelines regarding wearing masks when in certain locations where they are still required, such as within airports.

Increasing inoculations among service personnel

As of May 20, 58% of active duty service members had received at least one dose of the vaccine, up from just 37% with one dose a month ago, Adirim said.

“We know our fight against COVID-19 isn’t over yet,” Adirim said, “but the CDC’s announcement underscores the fact that these vaccines work: they protect the recipient and their family members, and will enable us to get back to normal.”

COVID-19 infections among DOD personnel are lower than in the civilian population, said Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, director of the Defense Health Agency, at the briefing. However, hundreds of people in the DOD community are infected daily and there are about 29 people with the virus receiving care in military hospitals around the globe, he added.

Leveraging policy to promote more vaccinations

Adirim said that’s why DOD is redoubling efforts to encourage service members to obtain vaccinations. Commanders, she noted, could leverage personnel policies to continue to promote vaccinations.

For instance, people who are vaccinated do not have to quarantine before and after travel. “But if you’re not vaccinated, you still have to,” she said. “That’s an example of one policy.”

Commanders could also grant more liberal leave to those who decide to get vaccinated, she added.

For now, the decision to get the COVID-19 vaccination remains voluntary for service members because each is still approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization.

Adirim said that “if and when” the FDA licenses one or all the COVID-19 vaccines, “we’ll make a decision at that time” as to whether to mandate it for uniformed service personnel.

Shipping vaccines overseas for youths

DOD is also ramping up efforts to get young people vaccinated. On May 14, DOD began shipping the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 10 service-operated distribution centers in Europe, Japan, Korea and Bahrain to inoculate DOD youths ages 12 and above. This came as FDA expanded emergency use authorization of that vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.

According to a news release, DOD’s Defense Logistics Agency shipped 46,800 doses on May 14, marking the first time the agency handled the minus-80-degree Celsius vaccine.

“The intent is to provide a safe, authorized and viable vaccine to protect the adolescent population before the fall school year begins,” said Army Col. Anthony Bostick, head of DLA’s operational planning team for COVID-19 vaccine operations.

“We had a short timeline to get this done, faster than our normal process for flu vaccines or the other two COVID-19 vaccines,” he said, referring to previous shipments of the Moderna vaccine, which requires storage at minus 20 degrees Celsius and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires storage at two-to-eight degrees Celsius.

Learn more

Download the May 13 DOD memo updating mask guidelines: https://rly.pt/3uGhaVG

Get the latest DOD coronavirus updates: https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/Coronavirus.