Hegseth slams Biden admin's Covid vaccine mandate, forms task force to reinstate service members

WASHINGTON, DC: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, on Friday, May 8, announced the establishment of a task force to reinstate service members who were “unjustly discharged” under the former President Joe Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate.

He blasted the mandate as “wrongfully and unlawfully applied” and claimed it caused many service members and their families "severe hardship."

In 2021, the Biden administration mandated that all service members receive the Covid-19 vaccine, a policy that was rescinded in 2023.

Those who refused to take the vaccine were involuntarily separated from the military. In a course of 500 days, nearly 8,000 active-duty and reserve service members were involuntarily separated for refusing to take the vaccine.

However, the mandate was reversed last year when President Donald Trump signed an executive order reinstating service members who were discharged for refusing the vaccine and invited those members to return.

Pete Hegseth vows to 'fix injustice' faced by service members under Biden Pentagon

In a video message, released on Friday, Hegseth announced that the Department of Defense has established the COVID-19 Reinstatement and Reconciliation Task Force.

He directed the Secretaries of the Military Departments to review the cases of service members who voluntarily left the military instead of receiving the vaccine to determine whether they were “unjustly discharged.”

Officials will examine individual records for evidence showing that vaccine refusal harmed service members’ careers, including “letters of reprimand, active or denied vaccine exemption requests, withdrawn assignments, unsatisfactory participation in a Reserve Component, or cancelled enrollments in mandatory Professional Military Education.”

“Even if you do not intend to return to service, the War Department will provide a path for resolution of unearned bonuses, upgrades to discharge characterizations that will unlock your well-deserved benefits, and removal of adverse documents from service files,” he added. 

“You raised your right hand and swore, I will serve and protect the Constitution and our nation. You were mistreated by the Biden Pentagon and we are fixing that injustice,” Hegseth stressed.

Trump administration has reinstated nearly 170 service members

As of April of this year, nearly 170 service members have been reinstated or re-accessed. More than 800 others have expressed interest in returning to service.

In February, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the service members will receive back pay for the time period they were not allowed to serve.

“The last administration’s vaccine mandates were unconstitutional, un-American, and a gross violation of personal freedom,” Noem said in a press release. “It was no way to treat the men and women who put everything on the line to keep our country safe.

“President Trump is righting these wrongs and returning those unjustly removed members to service. This decision to reinstate these members of the Coast Guard is a major step in the right direction,” she mentioned.