Pentagon to offer COVID-19 vaccines to Guantanamo Bay prisoners

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The Pentagon will offer coronavirus vaccinations to inmates at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba by as soon as next week, defense officials with knowledge of the decision confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.

Clayton Trivett Jr., a federal prosecutor trying on the case against five inmates alleged to have conspired in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, told defense lawyers that "an official in the Pentagon just signed a memo approving the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine to the detainee population in Guantanamo," the New York Times reported.

The 40 prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay military prison will be offered vaccines "on a voluntary basis" because consent is required to administer a treatment that has yet to receive full FDA approval. A lack of vaccinations has reportedly made it difficult for federal prosecutors to move forward with war crimes hearings at the base.

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Detainees at the base include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. It’s unclear how many Guantanamo inmates, if any, have been infected with COVID-19 to date.

Vaccinations for medical workers and some troops stationed at the base began on Jan. 8. Military officials have yet to publicly address whether prisoners will be vaccinated.

Inoculations of Guantanamo Bay prisoners could begin just days after President Biden warned that it will take "months" for the majority of Americans to be vaccinated. Upon entering office, Biden set a goal for officials to administer 100 million vaccine doses within his first 100 days in office.

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Department of Defense representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision’s timing.

To date, officials have administration more than 26 million doses, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier this week, Biden revealed the federal government will purchase 200 million additional doses of approved vaccines.

With the purchases, the federal government will have enough vaccine to inoculate 300 million Americans by the early fall, according to Biden.