Widespread Flu at US air force Base

Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional

The defense secretary described the vaccine requirement, which he lifted in April, as an “absurd, overreaching” mandate.

NYTimes via https://archive.ph/NeuwP#selection-809.0-809.13 June 18, 2026

A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said.

The outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals at large communal tables.

“Under the disastrous Biden administration, this Pentagon waged an unrelenting war on our warriors on many fronts, including when it came to denying them simple medical autonomy and the freedom to express their religious convictions,” he said in a video announcing his decision in April.

“The reason it was mandatory was to enhance readiness,” Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said shortly after the new policy was announced.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by JerryM