8,500 active duty US Air Force personnel have not had the jab by the 2 November deadline.
The Air Force’s official numbers are 8,486 soldiers remain unvaccinated, including 2,753 who have not started the process, 4,933 currently seeking a religious exemption, while 800 flat-out declined to take the jab.
The jab roll-out in the Air Force and Space Force has seen the vast majority of the 326,000 active duty personnel – or nearly 96% fully jabbed.
In terms of the total US military, a report in the Washington Post last month suggested that “hundreds of thousands” of US service members remain totally unvaccinated or only partially immunized against Covid-19.
The Marine Corps had the greatest hesitancy toward the vaccine, with only 72% fully inoculated as of mid-October, in contrast to the 90% or more in other branches
