- Matthew Bouchard, a National Guard serviceman, said he was given a COVID-19 jab instead of a flu shot while in the process of applying for a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
- In November 2021, Bouchard, then a specialist in Maine’s National Guard, was told that he had to take an annual flu shot.
- At the same time he could fill out a COVID-19 vaccine refusal form since he was seeking a religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
- A day later, Bouchard said he was summoned to his commander’s office and told he had been given the COVID-19 vaccine.
- “’Yesterday, you went to go get your flu vaccine. That wasn’t the flu vaccine they gave you, that was a COVID vaccine,’” Bouchard recounted what he was told in the commander’s office. “Immediately, I just kind of froze. I was mostly in shock.”
