Civilian employees of the Defense Department in Japan are petitioning Congress to stop the Pentagon from moving their health care from military medical facilities to local, civilian providers.
In May 2020, Trevor Balint sought mental health care but was turned away because the COVID-19 pandemic had restricted access to health care on base, his mother-in-law said.
. TOKYO A year-long wait began to evaporate Monday as volunteers at U.S. military bases across Japan bared their arms for the first wave of inoculations of the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus. Health care professionals, security forces and emergency responders were first in line, the top of a three-phase plan by the Defense Department to get the vaccine to its personnel. Clinics at Yokota Air Base, in western Tokyo, and Kadena Air Base, on Okinawa, were two of the installations administering the vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 18 for emergency use. Yokota, headquarters of U.S. Forces Japan, along with Kadena and four other U.S. bases in Japan with medical facilities received the vaccine over the weekend, along with U.S. Forces Korea where inoculations are scheduled Tuesday.