Navy Refuses To Deploy Warship While Commander Remains Unvaccinated

U.S. Navy officials have said a warship can’t be deployed because its commander has refused the COVID-19 vaccine. The service said an East Coast guided-missile destroyer is “out of commission” after a Florida federal judge ruled that the Navy and Marine Corps cannot remove its officer for being unvaccinated against COVID-19. The warship now remains docked in Norfolk, Virginia. It comes after U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, a George H. W. Bush nominee, ruled on Feb. 2 to bar Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and all other military officials from taking punitive action against the unnamed Navy officer, who sought religious exemptions to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Merryday wrote that the Navy’s rejection failed to note that the branch has separately granted hundreds of medical exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate The Navy officer was told he would be removed from command of his ship on Feb. 3 if he …  » Read full article