Our top brass is clueless.
You’d think with the Defence force struggling for numbers they would lift the vaccine mandates.
Nope. They are still pretending the vaccine serves a purpose.
Is it any wonder our Defence force is such a mess when the top brass is so delusional.
To claim it reduced transmission is just a lie. It did no such thing. There were 10 million cases of Covid after the borders were opened in 10 months. One jab will do nothing as there are countless variants.
I had hopped that given the ADF had lifted mandates the Military might do the same.
It’s terrifying to think the clowns running the Defence force are responsible for our national security.
Committee on 26/02/2025
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee
26/02/2025
Estimates
DEFENCE PORTFOLIO
Department of Defence
Senator RENNICK: I have two questions. The first one is a very simple one. Will you lift the requirement for soldiers to have a COVID vaccine before they go overseas or before they need to enter the military? I know that the AFP have dropped theirs, and most other organisations have dropped theirs. Is that something the military is prepared to do?
Adm. Johnston : We will change the officials out to be in a position to answer your question.
Rear Adm. Bennett : The nature and circumstances of deployment mean access to health care is not readily available. Health has a number of requirements for individual readiness for deployment. Vaccination is one of those, for a range of vaccines. You have asked specifically about COVID. Since the implementation of the COVID vaccination program, Defence has followed the ATAGI, Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, advice on this and continues to stay up to date. That has changed recently, as just requiring one dose for a primary course and then consideration of a booster once every 12 years for otherwise fit and healthy young people.
Whilst we have a vaccination schedule that is a requirement for readiness, it is still a voluntary process. We do have individuals who refuse the vaccine. In those circumstances, we would initially have a health conversation with them first to encourage them to be vaccinated for health reasons. But there is an option. They are technically not fit to deploy, but options remain for command to issue waivers should they see that there are circumstances where the benefit of that individual deploying outweighs the risk. That would be things like the geographical area, the nature of deployment or whether there is a COVID surge happening in that area.
Senator RENNICK: I will finish with this. I have two issues with that. First of all, the ATAGI advice is that young people don’t need to get the vaccine. No. 2, there is another story of a young guy in the military who can’t deploy who was told by his officer that it stops transmission. That’s not the case at all. We had 10 million Australians catch COVID in the first nine months after we opened up, so it’s not stopping transmission. I’m not sure where your officers and your leaders in the military are getting their advice from, but that is not correct, so I would ask you to go back and read the ATAGI advice again and take into consideration the number of people who have been injured by the vaccine as well. Plenty of young people who’ve all got strong immune systems can survive. I’m not talking about the other vaccines; I’m talking about this one in particular.
Rear Adm. Bennett : In 2024, ATAGI advice—unless they’ve issued more recent advice—does recommend one vaccine as a primary course for people over the age of 18 who are otherwise fit and healthy. So maybe it depends on whether you consider it a recommendation versus a mandate and ask those people to consider a vaccine every 12 months, and that consideration will be based on whether or not we’ve got COVID circulating in the community, as we did as recently as late last year. In relation to transmission, I agree with you that the nature of transmission has changed over time. Certainly, during the pandemic, there was an element of transmission reduction that occurred when people were initially vaccinated. It’s less important now. It’s more about protecting the individual and the capability on deployment that vaccination is required, for a range of reasons.
Senator RENNICK: Here’s the thing. You’re saying ‘one dose’, but there are new variants all the time. So that dose from three years ago is now out of date. So, if you got one dose three years ago, you’re entitled to go overseas, but you’re actually out of date. If you read the report—the non-clinical report—anyone who has had COVID has 100 per cent CD4 T-cell protection and 70 per cent CD8 T-cell protection. It’s just an unnecessary thing. Even other agencies like the AFP have dropped this requirement, so it just seems to me it’s an unnecessary blockage, especially when we’re trying to recruit more into the military.
