A lieutenant colonel who says he will resign from the Army rather than get the COVID-19 vaccine declared on Fox News Wednesday night that while he has taken all the other vaccinations required by the military, he won’t get the coronavirus shot because of “freedom.”
In a resignation letter that was shared by his wife on Twitter last week, Lt. Col. Paul Douglas Hague objected to the Pentagon’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination order for all members of the U.S. military. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued the mandate after the Food and Drug Administration fully approved Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
“First, and foremost, I am incapable of subjecting myself to the unlawful, unethical, immoral and tyrannical order to sit still and allow a serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgment,” Hague wrote, adding that he was also resigning due to what he views as “an ideologically Marxist takeover of the United States government at their upper echelons.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Predictably, Hague’s letter drew plaudits from conservative media, which has railed against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates and requirements as well as the military supposedly going “woke.” During a Wednesday night appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, he was hailed as a “principled” hero for walking away two years before receiving his pension.
Asked by host Sean Hannity why he was resigning, Hague said “I don’t want the COVID vaccine” before admitting that he has taken all the other immunizations that the military has required throughout his career.
“I had all of the other Army vaccines. I’ve had eight anthrax shots. I’ve had the smallpox vaccination. I’ve had them all,” he said before revealing his rationale for refusing the COVID-19 jab.
“So it’s really not about whether I’ll get the shot,” Hague proclaimed. “This is about the freedom of the American people. The right to choose your own medical procedures. The right to decide what’s gonna be injected into your body and what’s not. That’s a natural human right that we can’t take away from people. And I swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution which affords those rights to the Americans.”
Hannity, meanwhile, said Hague was “pushed into a corner” over the military mandate, while the soon-to-be ex-officer claimed his decision was all “about principle.”
“I swore an oath to protect that freedom,” he concluded. “The Army’s published its recent guidance on how it would unfold this plan for implementing this. I’ve looked it over. I do believe if I wanted to, I could wiggle my way through the next two years and get my retirement but I would have to sacrifice my personal integrity and I’d have to turn my back on the oath I took to protect Americans’ rights. This is not about me.”
Meanwhile, the United States is now averaging over 2,000 COVID-19 deaths per day—overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated—and states with lower than average vaccination rates are now having to ration medical care because their hospitals are flooded with unvaccinated patients.
