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Did the Defense Secretary text all active military to get the COVID-19 vaccine by 10 a.m. or be court-martialed?

Saturday, September 11, 2021
By Alexis Tereszcuk
NO

The claim going around social media that 12 F-22 pilots walked off the job because of a text from the Defense Secretary telling them to get the COVID-19 vaccine right away got this reaction from a Defense spokesperson:

"The Secretary of Defense has never sent any kind of force-wide text message about anything, ever.

"The pilot's quitting as a result of the text message is also false, given that there was no text. The Secretary directed each service to tailor specific guidance to their service members. The USMC and Navy gave 90 days for active duty (120 for reserve) and the USAF is giving 60 for active and 90 for reserve. All those dates are as of 30 Aug for the deadline timeline. The Army has not officially announced their plan yet, though it should be any day now."

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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