Prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba could receive vaccinations against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 as early as next week, the New York Post reported, quoting a Defense Department spokesman.
''It will be administered on a voluntary basis and in accordance with the Department’s priority distribution plan,'' spokesman Michael Howard told The Post.
Forty detainees from the United States’ War on Terror which began with the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, remain incarcerated at the prison camp, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was considered the ''principal architect'' of the initial attacks.
The order to administer the inoculations was signed Wednesday by Terry Adirim, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, an appointee of President Joe Biden who was sworn in on Inauguration Day, the Pentagon said.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
''You can’t make this up,'' said Tom Von Essen, the New York City fire commissioner on Sept. 11, 2001, when 343 firefighters were killed. ''The ridiculousness of what we get from our government. They will run the vaccine down to those lowlifes at Guantanamo Bay before every resident of the United States of America gets it is the theater of the absurd.''
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