Coast Guard Discharging Unvaxxed Members Despite Biden Declaring 'The Pandemic is Over'

In a lawsuit filed Sept. 16 by the Thomas More Society against the Coast Guard and other government agencies on behalf of a class of over 1,200 service members seeking religious exemptions from the Pentagon's COVID-19 vaccination mandate, the organization alleges that the Coast Guard is "categorically denying virtually all" religious accommodation requests.

Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) Alaric Stone told Fox News Digital in an interview that he had submitted his first religious accommodation request last year, which was denied in January, and then an appeal, which was also denied in May. He said that his denial was "virtually identical" to those of other unvaccinated service members, despite his mission and unit.

[...] A spokesperson for the Coast Guard confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is in the process of discharging any members without approved exemption requests.

"At the height of the pandemic, restrictions on training, travel and leave were implemented in order to protect the Coast Guard workforce and the public. These restrictions were applicable to all Coast Guard members and were at no time focused on members who had filed or were awaiting decision on religious accommodation requests," said the Coast Guard spokesperson.

"The Coast Guard is in the process of discharging all military members who do not have an approved medical or administrative exemption or religious accommodation, and who have not followed the order to become vaccinated," the spokesperson continued.

The Coast Guard received over 1,200 accommodation requests and only accepted 12 total, all of whom were already in the process of retiring or separating from the military, plaintiff attorneys said. That amounts to a 99% denial rate.

"I'm already aware of one service member who, as of Monday this week, was discharged for being unvaccinated and standing up for his religious beliefs. And I personally know of dozens more who stand to be discharged in actually just the coming weeks," Stone told Fox News Digital.

"The White House proclaimed the pandemic is over, but as the Pentagon just reiterated, the purge continues, as they systematically drive out of the Coast Guard [and all branches of the military] the best and the brightest, like LTJG Stone and our other plaintiffs," Steve Crampton, one of the plaintiff attorneys, told Fox News Digital.