Thousands of Air Force personnel set to miss next week's COVID-19 vaccination deadline

An Air Force airman prepares to give a COVID-19 vaccine shot.
(Image credit: Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

The deadline for active-duty Air Force personnel to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is Tuesday, and officials estimate that up to 12,000 airmen won't hit that target, officials told The Washington Post.

The Air Force is the third-largest military service, with 324,000 active-duty airmen, and more than 94 percent are fully vaccinated and 1.8 percent partially vaccinated. Of those who have not yet received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, it's unclear how many are outright refusing to get vaccinated compared to those who are seeking a religious or medical exemption or are close to leaving the service.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.