THE US is considering making the Covid vaccine mandatory for all 1.3million active-duty military after an order from President Joe Biden.
The move comes as fears of a “doomsday” Covid variant, worse than Delta, are growing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to seek authorization as early as this week to mandate that all active-duty troops get the vaccine.
Biden had previously directed the military to examine how it could make the vaccine mandatory.
If Secretary Austin does ultimately decide to do so, he could seek a presidential waiver to allow the shots to be given to troops before a full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Biden announced last week that he has asked the Defense Department to “look into how and when” it could add the Covid jab to its list of mandatory military vaccinations.
Afterward, the Joint Chiefs met to discuss how the mandatory vaccine plan could work.
FEARS OF ‘DOOMSDAY’ VARIANT GROW
Meanwhile, fears related to more contagious or possibly vaccine-resistant strains of the coronavirus are growing.
This comes as the US is reeling from a spike in Covid cases tied to the spread of the Delta variant.
On Sunday, the nation recorded 25,141 new cases and a seven-day rolling average of 79,951 cases per day. That’s a 312 percent surge since the 19,400 daily average from three weeks ago.
Michael Osterholm warned Newsweek on Tuesday that, “The next variant could be Delta on steroids.”
Osterholm also warned that fast-spreading Delta could put the unvaccinated population at severe risk in the coming months.
He said that nearly every one of the 100million unvaccinated Americans who haven’t yet had Covid-19 will likely get it unless they take strong safety precautions.
In addition to Delta, health officials are keeping an eye on several other concerning variants of Covid.
Eta has been detected in several countries, Kappa has been detected in India, and Iota first popped up in New York City.
However, a variant called Lambda seems to be the most concerning.
The variant has torn through Peru and seems to be successful at infecting vaccinated people.
It has already spread through Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and even made its way into Texas and South Carolina.
