DHA Director Army Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Ron Place discusses the importance of full vaccination with DHA's Senior Enlisted Leader Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Gragg during an employee town hall at DHA headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia, July 20 (Photo by: Jaime Chirinos).
"I'm just concerned that there are a number of us who, for whatever reason, believe the best course of action is to not be vaccinated."
"I get it for the 19 year olds or the 16 year olds, the 24 year olds - 'I'm Superman. No bugs are going to beat me,'" he said.
"The answer to me then is the butterfly effect. How can we break that cycle" whereby an unvaccinated military service member may be asymptomatic, or minimally symptomatic, but spreads COVID-19 to family members and barracks mates, who then may spread the virus to others, sometimes with deadly consequences.
Echoing the motto of the San Antonio Market, Place said "it's not too late to vaccinate," because the pandemic is still with us.
He noted the uptick in COVID-19 cases across the country in recent weeks, largely driven by the Delta variant that spreads more easily than the variants which spread last year.
"No matter what metric you look at, it's worse. We thought we were in a good place based on [vaccination rates against] the variants that were in society at the time."
However, "this [Delta] variant is different. That means the vaccination level needs to go up," he said.
Discussing herd immunity, Place said: "It's not about 70%" of the armed services being [partially] vaccinated. He indicated that with our still somewhat limited understanding of this coronavirus, "to me the only number I can really be comfortable with is 100% [fully vaccinated]."
As of July 16, the Pentagon reported that 70% of military personnel have received at least one dose of one of the three COVID-19 vaccines, and 62% of service members are fully vaccinated.
In a same-day video, Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III stated that the military is being vaccinated with doses of the three vaccines "as fast as we can receive them."
"All the available vaccines have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for a simple reason: They are safe, and they are effective," Austin said in the video. "I got my shots, and I hope you will, too."
Learn more about vaccine efficacy against the Delta variant.