The U.S. Army announced on July 21 that it has approved just 20 permanent religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine after having received 8,000 requests so far.
Out of the 8,000 applications for a permanent religious exemption, a total of 1,465 have been reviewed by the Army. Just 20 have been approved—equivalent to an approval rate of about 1.37 percent.
All 20 who had their applications approved were in the active Army. None from the Army National Guard or Army Reserve have been able to obtain an approved permanent religious exemption.
This leaves 6,535 applications for a permanent religious exemption yet to be reviewed by the service.
Meanwhile, the Army has reviewed 1,045 permanent medical exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine, out of 1,100 requests. It has approved just 34 requests, which is an approval rate of about 3.25 percent….