‘Left behind and trampled’: New report highlights vaccine injury woes in US military
A new report this week has shed a spotlight on the challenges facing US military service members who suffer from injuries caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.
From active duty to 27 pills a day
Like all members of the military, Army National Guard Specialist Karoline Stancik was forced to take the COVID-19 injections by a vaccine mandate signed into law in August 2021.
After receiving the Moderna shot, the 24-year-old Stancik suffered her first heart attack. She has since developed a “debilitating heart condition” that has required her to undergo heart surgery and be fitted with a pacemaker. At one point, her condition became so severe that she contemplated suicide.
“I could run 10 miles at a time, play basketball, and now I have trouble just standing up,” she told veteran reporter Catherine Herridge, adding that she now takes 27 pills a day. “The only thing that could have changed was the vaccine. That’s when everything flipped upside down for me.”
Stancik was released from active duty in 2022. Now, equipped with a pacemaker but no benefits or salary, she is struggling to pay $70,000 in medical bills.
‘I was left behind and trampled’
An Army memo obtained by Herridge confirmed Stancik’s condition as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and acknowledged that the heart condition has been linked to COVID-19 vaccination. The memo also declared the injury to have been sustained in the Line of Duty.
But despite her injury being a direct result of her compliance with the Department of Defense’s mandate, Stancik has received little help from the US government.
“Were you left behind by the Army and the National Guard?” Herridge asked her.
“I was left behind and trampled,” the former National Guardswoman replied.
“They’re fully responsible,” she added. “I was neglected, and the medical care that I needed to get was not happening, and so the damage was more by delaying the response.”
According to Herridge, an Army spokesperson claimed that Stancik could have remained on active duty while receiving treatment, though Stancik says she was never given that option.
‘They have the money’
Stancik is being represented by USJAG, an organization that advocates for injured US service members. Jeremy Sorenson, a US Air Force reservist who heads USJAG’s Guard and Reserve Affairs, says the Department of Defense is not strapped for cash.
"They have the money," Sorenson told Herridge. "They choose to spend the money on other things. The Department of Defense chooses to spend its money not on its people, not on injured service members, they have other priorities."
Vaccine mandate blamed for smallest US military since WWII
The Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, which led to the injury of service members and the firing of others, is being partly blamed for the US military’s alarming recruiting crisis. According to Pentagon estimates, the US military’s fighting force this year is at its smallest since World War II. The number of active duty troops plunged by 64,000 personnel over the last three years to 1,284,500, the smallest the US military has been since 1940.
Over 8,000 personnel were discharged for their refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Although the mandate was rescinded in January last year, only 43 service members are reported to have rejoined the military. These include 19 Army members, 12 Marines, one Air Force member and two Navy personnel.
Many soldiers were forced to repay their signing bonuses after they were fired for being unvaccinated. One Army soldier who received a $7,000 signing bonus and was fired for refusing the shots and was ordered to pay back a pro-rated $4,000 to the government for failing to complete his six-year commitment. The soldier was forced to sell 60 of his vacation days to come up with the money.
House Speaker Johnson: Vaccine mandate ‘destroying the readiness of our Armed Forces’
In June 2022, now-House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) raised the alarm about the detrimental effect that coerced vaccinations would have on the US military.
“The Biden Administration is destroying the readiness of our Armed Forces by creating an unnecessary recruiting and retention shortfall, and trying to make up the difference by lowering other crucial education and fitness standards,” tweeted Rep. Johnson.
“All of this over an illness that is very, very, very, unlikely to have any significant effect on the young men and women of our military, and a vaccine that lacks long-term data on safety and efficacy for this cohort.”
“There is simply no other way around it: Until [the Secretary of Defense] withdraws, delays, or modifies the vax mandate, or begins rapidly granting more exemptions, our military will have to continue lowering recruitment standards—degrading the readiness and professionalism of our Armed Forces,” he concluded.
