Biden's COVID Mandate Disaster Finally Ends As Coast Guard Members Are Reinstated By Trump Administration

COVID vaccination policy under the Biden administration was an unmitigated disaster. 

Within a matter of months after the release of the mRNA vaccines and widespread distribution, it was abundantly clear that there were distinct limitations. Waning efficacy, where whatever protection they provided eroded rapidly over a matter of weeks or months. New variants that cut into that efficacy, or eliminated it entirely. And, despite what Pfizer and their supporters claimed, zero effectiveness whatsoever against infection or transmission. 

We all know how the story goes. Instead of acknowledging the obvious and backing down on policies, public relations, and mandates, corporations, universities, public health agencies, and the Biden administration doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down. 

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Vaccine mandates spread immediately, affecting millions of Americans, as Biden's handlers tried to force private businesses to fire unvaccinated employees. They even hurt the U.S. military, with the administration making the laughable claim that a vaccine mandate was necessary for military readiness. An assertion made even more absurd considering the average age and health of most active service members. 

Thanks to the second Trump administration, though, some of those wrongs are finally being corrected.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press upon returning to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on January 13, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

Fired Members Of US Coast Guard Reinstated With Back Pay

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that 56 former Coast Guard members who were "kicked out of the service" over COVID vaccine mandates have been "reinstated with back pay."

"56 members of the United States Coast Guard who were kicked out of the service over the COVID-19 vaccine have finally been reinstated with back pay—this is a victory for religious, personal, and medical freedom for all Americans — both in and out of uniform," said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement. The last administration’s vaccine mandates were unconstitutional, un-American, and a gross violation of personal freedom. It was no way to treat the men and women who put everything on the line to keep our country safe. President Trump is righting these wrongs and returning those unjustly removed members to service. This decision to reinstate these members of the Coast Guard is a major step in the right direction."

After years of pointless vaccine mandates, an executive order from President Trump in January 2025 made reinstatement possible for any service member discharged for not complying. Thanks to that order, a panel of the Board for Correction of Military Records of the Coast Guard agreed with Secretary Noem that these 56 service members should be restored to the service. 

Not only that, but the decision means that the Coast Guard will reinstate those individuals effective as of the date of their discharge. The service records then will show continuous active service starting with the date of the original vaccine mandate-related removal. They will also be eligible for back pay, bonuses, and potential promotion.

It's a historical embarrassment that vaccine mandates ever existed, let alone were used to fire active service members who'd received years of training and ostensibly conducted themselves well enough to continue within one of the branches for years prior to the start of the pandemic. There was no scientific justification for these mandates when they were enacted, and the fact that they continued into 2023 is the height of absurdity. 

All the Biden administration accomplished with their mandates was to divide the country, further increase vaccine skepticism, and hurt military readiness. Now, thankfully, some of that damage is being undone. If only it'd never happened in the first place.