WorldNetDaily correspondent J.M. Phelps is a pretty aggressive anti-vaxxer, and that questionable attitude continued in a Jan. 11 article:
The Department of Defense reportedly ignored data showing a high degree of herd immunity to COVID-19 among military service members, clearing the path for tyrannical enforcement of an ineffective, unproven and hazardous vaccination mandate.
First reported in December, a series of eight interim reports provided by a whistleblower reveals the Department of Defense’s participation in a longitudinal SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) seroprevalence study of 29,000 military service members between May 2020 and June 2021. To avoid being released outside of DOD, each document is marked “For Official Use Only” or “Controlled Unclassified Information.”
As noted in the Gateway Pundit report, “A seroprevalence study can be a helpful indicator of the development of herd immunity, which occurs when a large portion of a population becomes immune to a disease through infection or vaccination, making it difficult to spread.”
Thanks to the whistleblower, the public is now aware that the military likely achieved herd immunity as early as June 2021, months prior to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate. Tens of thousands of service members were negatively affected, and treating the data on military herd immunity seriously could have resulted in a decision not to impose the vaccine mandate, which unnecessarily exposed thousands to a problematic vaccine they didn’t need, while forcing many more out of the military for refusing “the jab.”
As we pointed out the last time Phelps hyped this argument, vaccination offers equivalent defense to natural immunity against COVID, and you don’t have to catch COVID to obtain that defense. Further, immunity fades over time in both methods, meaning that annual boosters are needed as with flu shots.
In a Feb. 2 article, Phelps demanded consequences for people who issued a lawful military order:
Fox News recently reported that, according to a White House fact sheet, “After the vaccine mandate was repealed in 2023, only 43 of the more than the 8,000 troops dismissed elected to return to service under the Biden Administration and Secretary Austin.”
According to Trump’s EO, “Federal Government redress of any wrongful dismissals is overdue.” For many, it’s a big step in the right direction, but is it enough to persuade former members of the military to return to service? This writer has personally spoken to hundreds of service members over the past three years who desire accountability for the military’s unlawful enforcement of the shot mandate.
Specifically, 10 USC §1107a codifies that servicemembers must have the right to informed consent, which was not provided to them during the Biden administration. Each should have had the option to accept or refuse the shot, but rather, most were either coerced or booted from service.
Additionally, 21 USC § 360bbb requires that products with Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) can be used only when there is no other approved drug available. Yet prior to the FDA pulling the trigger on a vaccine authorized for “emergency use only,” effective drugs including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were available.
Yet for many service members, the experimental injection was the their only option to remain in the military. Those who objected were uniformly denied. Many others attempting to avoid the shot were coerced. In fact, in a survey conducted by this writer in 2022 and published by the Epoch Times, “More than 72 percent of individuals serving in the U.S. military who responded to a survey said they felt ‘coerced’ into receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and/or booster after the Pentagon’s 2021 vaccine mandate.”
So, while many are thankful for Trump’s order, some former and current members of the U.S. military are also seeking accountability for the wrongs they’ve endured.
In fact, neither ivermectin nor hydroxychloroquine have been shown to be effective against COVID.
Phelps spent a Feb. 17 article complaining that some parts of the military still require a COVID vaccination:
Despite the purported end-of-an-era for vaccine mandates, the COVID-19 shot requirement is still enforced at the Veterans Health Administration.
On May 9, 2023, former president Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14099 – “Moving Beyond COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for Federal Workers.” His order revoked a previous executive order dated Sept. 9, 2021, which once required COVID-19 injections for federal employees.
However, months before Biden’s 2021 federal worker mandate, the Department of Veterans Affairs had already instituted its own COVID-19 vaccine requirement for frontline healthcare workers. On July 26, 2021, VA Secretary Denis McDonough announced that all Veterans Health Administration employees providing direct patient care – such as physicians, nurses and dentists – would be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This was formalized in VHA Directive 1193 on Aug. 13, 2021, and made the VA the first federal agency to mandate COVID-19 vaccination. This mandate for healthcare workers operated independently from Biden’s later federal employee order.
Phelps found a fellow anti-vaxxer to champion:
WorldNetDaily spoke to combat vet and federal whistleblower Sonny Fleeman, who emphasized that his views are solely his own and do not reflect the official policies or positions of the VA, the government or any organization with which he has been affiliated.
If a person works in a VA medical center or any VHA facility, Fleeman explained, he or she is still required to be “vaccinated” against COVID-19 unless the individual has provided an approved exemption.
“This policy remains in effect nationally at all VA healthcare facilities unless it is officially rescinded or replaced,” Fleeman disclosed. It is his hope that VA Secretary Doug Collins will take appropriate action and revoke the “COMMIE mandate” to get the shot.
“As long as vaccine mandates remain in place in healthcare,” Fleeman argued, “they normalize medical coercion and create the false appearance that the shots must be safe.” He adds, “The public looks at healthcare workers being forced to comply and thinks, ‘If the people who know medicine best are still required to take it, it must be fine.'” And to this, he says, “That illusion blinds people to the growing evidence of harm and makes it nearly impossible for the injured to be believed.”
Phelps offered no evidence that COVID vaccines are inherently unsafe.