Why are Soldiers Refusing “the Jab”?

By request, here on some thoughts on why Soldiers and service members may be refusing the jab. This will not really be about vaccines, but rather about group think and culture, because, you know, that’s what I do.

Let’s have a short thread.

First of all, in the study of how this pandemic has played out differently than other pandemics, (Ebola, AIDs, Zika, etc) a big impact was from the politicization of community responsive behavior (a human health term), in this case, mask wearing.

No other country made it a debate of left & right, thanks Trump. Now, obvs, AIDS was dealt with horrifically, but at least once it became clear that things like condoms & not sharing needles were the community behavior needed, people began to comply — or risk being seen as jerks.

Imagine hitting it off with someone, & asking them if they brought protection, to which they reply, “oh no, I’m a Republican.” Of course, that is ridiculous! So is the mask debate. Why am I talking about that? Well, let’s go to the next link.

Because mask wearing got politicized, the military branches are too afraid to make the vaccine mandatory, since they are worried that there could be political repercussions from mandating that soldiers be vaccinated. Let’s take a minute to just think about the ridiculousness.

“We cannot make it mandatory yet,” Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, commander of the Navy’s 2nd Fleet, said last week. “I can tell you we’re probably going to make it mandatory as soon as we can, just like we do with the flu vaccine.”

All of a sudden, everyone who loves to get on their soap boxes about how, “we can’t compromise our operations for your soft, squishy feelings” is very silent about the vaccine — again, because it’s been politicized. Image telling your commander you won’t get your flu vaccine…

So, okay, from politicization, let’s move to group think & the medical culture the Army has created. I won’t speak to other branches here, so feel free to comment with thoughts about your branch. In the Army, don’t ever be a sick call Ranger, right?

As an organization, the Army has chosen to demonize health care & any soldier who takes care of themselves. When I had to take a 6-week dead man profile *after* competing in the Army-ten-miler representing the 101st — because my fractured spine was causing extreme back spasms…

I couldn’t believe how much of a “shitbag” I was made out to be. I was a Captain, primary staff, & known throughout my brigade as an overachieving PT stud. As I sat at home on Valium trying to breathe through the pain, I could only imagine how a specialist would have been treated.

The way the Army demonizes health care & self care could be an entire book (& maybe I’ll write it someday), but let’s suffice it to say, we all know there is a culture of “Drink water, take motrin, and ruck it off.” Healthcare is to return assets to work, not to heal or care for the humans who are suffering because the job they’ve dedicated (all or a portion of) their lives to is breaking them.

Of course then some soldiers do not want a vaccine guaranteed to make them sick. Not everyone has the time, or professional respect, to be able to take some “shitbag” days. All the leaders telling soldiers, “this time it’s okay” doesn’t change a culture we’ve worked long & hard to build.

Maybe rewarding soldiers with a 4-day weekend if they’ll take the vaccine, rather than having to take a quarters slip &, again, be a “shitbag”, would be one way to approach. (Please note here that I’m years removed from service & was never a senior leader, I’m just throwing ideas at the wall).

The Army’s demonization of self care hurts us. It’s the reason we lose great soldiers, it’s yet another reason we can’t recruit the right people in increasingly technologically advanced warfare. It’s programmed into us to where vets won’t claim disability for their broken bodies.

These are all cultural systems that operate in our Army, often created by accident, with real results at the highest level. If a unit treats a pregnant women in like she is a hassle to the team, I’m not surprised if that unit is also low on vaccine ratio. It’s all connected.

We can add more to this thought stream in discussion, as I’m sure you all have perspectives. (reply here). Let’s move on to the group think aspect of it that we’ve set up for discussion. (Y’all know I grew up in an extreme cult, & I see these systems & group things everywhere).

In the Army, we have a problem with groupthink. Let’s just say it, right? We say “watch out for barracks lawyers”, we say “gosh this s**t is so dumb, but that’s the Army, right?” Our programming begins in Basic Training & runs like a 550 corded thread throughout our service.

I’ve written a whole book on this, just…. stay tuned, yes?

I’m *not* saying the programming is bad. In fact, it’s absolutely necessary (maybe until we get 50% women leaders start negotiating more peace then war), that a nation’s military programs soldiers to conduct violence on behalf of state, but where are our checkpoints & safeguards?

We are all skilled operations planners, tactics gurus, and security know-it-alls. So, if we know we have a huge threat of group think taking over in our “total ownership” group ™, why aren’t we building in safety & controls? We know how to do this, not doing it is dangerous.

We are prone to group think & we generally don’t have safeguards against it. Now add in the politicization of masking & socially distant behavior, & leaders’ unwillingness to make the vaccine mandatory, & the demonization of health/self care, & it should all be coming together.

The cult I grew up in didn’t do medical care. In my book, you’ll get to read the stories of stitches without anesthesia & wine as a painkiller for a snapped shin bone, instead of medicine (at 13), & the woman who died of brain cancer that turned out to not be ‘demon possession’.

You’ll also read stories of the private I met at Walter Reed who’s hip pain was ignored until his hip bone broke clean in half out on patrol, & who was then chastised by an NCO for missing accountability formation to GO TO CHEMO. He was a wonderful human, & he’s dead now.

It’s not just the leaders that do it, because that’s how group think works. One idea, one thought, one comment, turns into unwritten doctrine, & it can impact everything we do.

Now, we’re trying to beat a culture of extremism, by just saying, “hey, don’t be an extremist” (apply that thought to the vaccines), and it just doesn’t work this way.

All that to say, in my very humble opinion & based on my crazy life experiences & all the time I spent thinking about the systems that run through everything we do, I think the answer is not “keep telling soldiers to get the vaccine.” That’s a tiny part of the answer.

I can only hope that senior leaders are thinking about *why* 1/3 soldiers won’t get the vaccine (1/3 seems to be our number for many issues, y’all), & taking a deep look at the underlying systems that affect their formations. Can’t fix strategic issues with only tactical change.

That’s it for this one. Interested to hear the conversation from here. Thanks to @RJCSurtees for the thoughtful writing prompt & for hanging out for another Sunday morning Coffee & Culture thread with me.

Daniella Mestyanek Young is an American author and TEDx Speaker. Daniella has been breaking through barriers and challenging authority figures since her earliest childhood memories growing up in the horrifying Children of God Cult and on through her service and deployment to war twice. Daniella served as part of the first group of women who integrated into deliberate combat arms missions back in 2011 and has since spent the majority of her time leading in veteran service organizations to try and help folks heal and find their own definition of success after their service.

Daniella is married to the world’s best special operations helicopter pilot (retired) and speaks primarily in Brazilian Portuguese with her daughter, who sasses her back in three languages. Daniella is currently at work on her memoir, Uncultured. She can be found speaking speaking truth to power, irritating vetbros and stamping out the kyriarchy on Twitter @daniellamyoung. She can be contacted at daniella.m.young@gmail.com