Defense Department ignored COVID-19 ‘herd immunity’ data that might have prevented military vaccine mandate

The Department of Defense reportedly ignored data showing a high degree of herd immunity to COVID-19 among military service members, clearing the path for tyrannical enforcement of an ineffective, unproven and hazardous vaccination mandate.

First reported in December, a series of eight interim reports provided by a whistleblower reveals the Department of Defense’s participation in a longitudinal SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) seroprevalence study of 29,000 military service members between May 2020 and June 2021. To avoid being released outside of DOD, each document is marked “For Official Use Only” or “Controlled Unclassified Information.”

As noted in the Gateway Pundit report, “A seroprevalence study can be a helpful indicator of the development of herd immunity, which occurs when a large portion of a population becomes immune to a disease through infection or vaccination, making it difficult to spread.”

Thanks to the whistleblower, the public is now aware that the military likely achieved herd immunity as early as June 2021, months prior to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate. Tens of thousands of service members were negatively affected, and treating the data on military herd immunity seriously could have resulted in a decision not to impose the vaccine mandate, which unnecessarily exposed thousands to a problematic vaccine they didn’t need, while forcing many more out of the military for refusing “the jab.”

WorldNetDaily interviewed Nick Kupper, a retired Air Force veteran who experienced the COVID-19 era while in service and is now a member-elect of the Arizona House of Representatives, set to assume office on Tuesday, Jan. 13.

Long before the military’s rollout of the COVID-19 shot mandate, Kupper was familiar with tests to detect the presence of antibodies in the blood. He had already used such testing to acquire medical exemptions for a handful of vaccines required by the Air Force. “Although I was never against vaccines, I had the right amount of antibodies for some of them, so I didn’t feel the need to put something in my body if I didn’t need it,” he told WND.

Kupper suspects he may have had COVID-19 in July 2020, but admitted he was not interested in being tested for the virus at this time. Coincidentally, in the months to follow, he donated blood at a facility that also tested for COVID-19 antibodies. He had none.

However, following a short period of illness with a typical COVID symptoms like body aches in January 2021, COVID antibodies were indeed present in his blood the next time he donated in February. Donating blood in May, his blood tested positive for antibodies once again. Seeking another antibody test in July to quantify the presence of neutralizing antibodies in his blood, he discovered that he had “a ton.” A third blood test confirmed the same.

With Defense Secretary Austin’s shot mandate coming into play in August 2021, Kupper went to an immunologist to begin the process of seeking an exemption. Previously, he said, medical exemptions had only required evidence of immunity based on serologic tests or documented infection. But for the so-called COVID-19 vaccination, he was shocked to discover that he would not be provided with an exemption.

“My bosses won’t let me [grant an exemption],” Kupper was told by the immunologist. Added Kupper, “He was the one person on the entire base who’s qualified to make that decision, but he wasn’t allowed to do so.”

With that, in September 2021, he filed for a religious accommodation request. Like thousands of other service members, the request was denied and he was set to be separated. Coincidentally, on the same day he was ordered to separate from the Air Force, Kupper was given a letter of reprimand for sharing his story with Tucker Carlson . Less than a week later, due to a legal injunction for Air Force members, he was able to retire after nearly 19 years of honorable service.

In a worst-case scenario, according to the agency’s own Interim Report #8, DOD should have been made aware that both the seroprevalence rate and presence of neutralizing antibodies in service members was on a clear path to herd immunity sometime between June 2021 and November 2021. Yet the findings of the DOD’s study weren’t shared publicly until August 2023.

Kupper was not surprised, he said, considering it “par for the course of everything DOD was doing at the time.” More than that, he said, “It pisses me off.” Admittedly, he is most frustrated about “how the government, military and supposed leaders can disobey the law and refuse to right the wrongs they’ve done.”

To retrieve more information related to the Department of Defense’s SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence Study, this reporter submitted a Freedom of Information Act request on Dec. 18. A case number has been assigned, but an estimated completion date has not been provided.