Murphy, Hudson Pressure President Biden to End COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Servicemembers

Washington, D.C.– Yesterday, Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. (NC-03) and Rep. Richard Hudson (NC-08) led 19 of their Republican colleagues in a letter to President Biden urging him to repeal the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. servicemembers. The members sent the letter in response to Dr. Anthony Fauci's recent comments in which he concluded that vaccines do not protect "overly well" against infection. Fox News covered the exclusive on this release.

The members write,"The federal vaccine mandate has done and will continue to do significant, long-lasting harm and degradation, not only to our nation's readiness, but also to the trust in our scientific and government institutions."

They continue,"With the waning efficacy and durability of vaccine-induced immunity, forcing service members, who are by and large a healthy and not ‘at risk' population, to be inoculated with no certainty of preventing infection or spread, while concurrently sowing seeds of division and discord, is absolutely wrong."

"The Biden administration has willfully and systematically degraded our nation's readiness with their harmful, politicized, and completely unnecessary federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate," said Rep. Murphy. "Forcing these patriots to get a vaccine — which even Dr. Fauci has conceded does not protect well against infection and can have potential serious side effects — is morally wrong and inconsistent with the science and the purpose of vaccination. I'm grateful to Rep. Hudson for partnering with me on this critical issue for our military-heavy districts as both a matter of military readiness and recruitment."

"Thanks to Operation Warp Speed, COVID-19 now poses little risk to life and therapeutics exist to ensure the readiness of our military," said Rep. Hudson. "More than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, it is past time for the Biden administration to respect the rights of our service members at Fort Bragg and around the world."

Rep. Murphy has fiercely opposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates for U.S. service members. On October 28, 2021, Rep. Murphy sent his first letter correspondence to Secretary Austin voicing his opposition to the DOD'svaccine mandate as both a lawmaker and a physician of more than 30 years. You can read Rep. Murphy's original letter here.

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