National Guard Support for COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Ramps Up

National Guard Support for COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Ramps Up

By Brian W. Everstine

As America’s first approved coronavirus vaccine is shipped across the country and frontline workers are getting their first jabs this week, National Guardsmen have been activated to assist with transportation. Military airlifters are standing by to support commercial shipping networks as well. Governors in 26 states are planning to use the National Guard in some capacity to help with distributing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that the Food and Drug Administration authorized Dec. 11 for emergency use. “We bring a wide variety of not only capacity to augment the size of the workforce. but also specialized skills within that workforce,” Ohio Adjutant General Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. said. “This is exactly what the Guard does.”