WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said he has not ruled out requiring U.S. service members to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to an NBC interview broadcast on Friday.
“I’m not saying I won’t,” Biden said when asked if he would require the men and women in the U.S. armed services to get vaccinated.
“I think you’re going to see more and more of them getting it. And I think it’s going to be a tough call as to whether or not they should be required to get it in the military, because you’re in such close proximity with other military personnel,” Biden said in the interview, conducted on Thursday.
The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccination effort has been hailed as a success, with more than 237 million doses administered. The number exceeds Biden’s target of 200 million doses – double his initial goal – by his first 100 days in office, which he marked on Thursday.
The Marine Corps said that as of April 23, approximately 93,500 Marines had received the COVID-19 vaccine while 52,900 Marines have declined a shot, or about 36 percent. An additional 92,300 Marines have yet to be offered one.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Idrees Ali, Doina Chiacu; editing by John Stonestreet and Mark Heinrich)
