The Biden administration's adherence to the vaccine mandate for the military has become a "religion" that is undermining recruitment and retention, retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, the author of "Chasing the Lion," told Newsmax on Saturday.
"There's no evidence that the COVID — I'll call it a therapeutic, not a vaccine — shot does anything in the long term, maybe a little bit in the near term, about the health of the individual," Tata said on Newsmax's "America Right Now." "There's a lot of evidence that there's some harm that has been caused by the vaccine."
Americans' trust, faith and confidence in the military, as shown in a recent Reagan Institute poll, is at a 50-year low, "because of the over-politicization of the military and COVID and the COVID vaccine and the way it's being used as a weapon against people," Tata added.
Recruiting and retention challenges have resulted in the U.S. Army missing its goals by 25% this past year, he added.
"There is no way the senators and governors are absolutely right to demand that the Department of Defense change its policy," Tata added.
The retired general further told Newsmax that his family has been affected by the mandate, as a relative who is a sergeant in the National Guard was removed from a basic leadership source at an air assault school "because, at the very low levels, they don't understand the policy."
"The Army policy," he said, is "not to stop career progression if they're not vaccinating."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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