Hegseth said during a line of questioning from Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., that service members who were discharged from the military for refusing to get the Covid vaccine would be “apologized to and reinstituted with pay and rank,” in Trump’s Defense Department.
Hegseth called the FDA-approved Covid vaccine “experimental,” saying the Defense Department’s decision to mandate the vaccine in 2021 was an example of “extremism.”
The Defense Department lifted the Covid vaccine mandate in January 2023 after Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that required its removal.
