Military Officers Decry Pentagon’s Lack of Response to Senator’s Queries About COVID-19 Vaccine Labeling

A military member prepares a COVID-19 vaccine in Fort Knox, Ky., on Sept. 9, 2021. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

U.S. military officers have criticized the Department of Defense and other agencies for their lack of response to a U.S. senator’s queries regarding the labeling of COVID-19 vaccines that have been distributed to service members.

In August, a group of military whistleblowers delivered a 41-page memorandum to members of Congress, claiming that the Pentagon had “unlawfully administered” Emergency Use Authorized (EUA) vaccines, as opposed to vaccines that had received full Food and Drug Administration approval.

They argued that EUA vaccines don’t fall under the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate because the mandate said it applied to “COVID-19 vaccines that receive full licensure from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in accordance with FDA-approved labeling and guidance.”

Although the Pentagon has issued a policy (pdf) saying the FDA-approved Comirnaty and EUA Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are interchangeable, the legality of that policy is contested by some service members.

The memo also asserts that new Comirnaty-labeled vials, which ostensibly have full FDA approval, carry lot numbers associated with EUA vaccines.

In response to the memo, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Aug. 18 sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky asking them to address multiple issues with the vaccine options. The senator questioned why some Comirnaty-labeled lot numbers correspond with EUA vaccine lots. Johnson asked for a response by Sept. 1.

On Oct. 10, a spokesperson from Johnson’s congressional office confirmed that they hadn’t received a reply.

Capt. Joshua “Hippity” Hoppe, a Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey pilot and whistleblower involved in the August memo, criticized the agencies’ silence.

“It has been over a month past the deadline and none of the agencies could be bothered to give a response to the sitting senator,” Hoppe told The Epoch Times.

Coast Guard Lt. Chad Coppin agreed, saying, “This lack of response is very significant since there is documentation available that proves there has never been a fully FDA-approved COVID vaccine.”

To date, all available vaccine options to service members are EUA products and experimental, which makes them illegal, he said.

The Present Challenge

Hoppe and Coppin have provided sworn declarations (pdf) (pdf) in the lawsuit, Coker v. Austin, that challenges the legality of the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate in federal court. The most recent filing by the plaintiffs (pdf) focuses on the appearance of the Comirnaty-labeled products.

“These therapeutics being marketed as vaccines appear to be misbranded as FDA-approved and licensed products, despite being kept in the CDC’s experimental Emergency Use Authorization database,” Hoppe said. “This and other discrepancies are outlined in the filing.”

In an Oct. 4 interview on “Fox and Friends,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, defended the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate, calling it a “valid health requirement” that’s central to military readiness

Hoppe disputed Kirby’s claim that the vaccine was a necessary health requirement.

“The virus seems to have morphed into more of a common cold than a serious illness for those who are young and healthy like the majority of the military population,” he said.

Military Readiness

To Coppin, it’s the vaccine mandate that has impeded military readiness. The loss of unvaccinated service members, who are now unable to perform their duties or are being forced out, directly affects the military’s ability to execute its mission.

He pointed to the Coast Guard as an example.

As of Oct. 6, “The Coast Guard currently has 975 Active Duty and Reserve personnel who are not vaccinated, [including] 22 rescue swimmers who are not vaccinated,” according to a Coast Guard media relations spokesperson.

Coppin said, “Many Coast Guard rates including rescue swimmers are already considered critical, meaning there are not enough members to fill all the billets available.”

“Ultimately, this critical shortage of swimmers and other rates translates to lives lost, and a reduction of capacity to respond to efforts like Hurricane Ian and other significant natural disasters in the future,” he said.

“I feel really bad for all of my [vaccinated] shipmates left behind, as these critical rates are already overworked, and as they force the unvaccinated out, those remaining will have to perform additional tasks, stand more duty, and have to take on even more responsibility in an already stressful job,” Coppin said.

Replacing decades of experience will be an incredibly difficult task, he added.

On Aug. 26, the military whistleblowers started a petition for a congressional investigation of alleged illegal Pentagon activity.

“The first wave of signatures was sent to Congress by Senator Johnson’s deadline of Sept. 1 with over 5,000 signatures,” Hoppe said.

“We intend to continue sending the petition with added signatures to Congress at the beginning of every month for as long as necessary to capture Congress’s and the American people’s attention of the wrongdoing that has and is occurring” within the Pentagon, he said.

Hoppe and Coppin emphasized that their views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense, the Marines, or the Coast Guard. The Pentagon didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.