Military Branches Restore Flu Shot Requirement

Thursday, June 25, 2026

The Army, Navy, and Air Force are once again requiring basic trainees to get vaccinated against influenza after the virus quickly swept through an Air Force base in Texas ...

Posted by lamplighter at 11:32 AM | 19 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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The military has quietly reinstated mandatory flu jabs for recruits just two months after Hegseth scrapped the 80-year-old rule.

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-- The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) 8:30 AM Â· Jun 24, 2026

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More from the article ...

... The requirement was intended to keep armed forces healthy in their bases, which provide ideally tight conditions for a variety of pathogens, including influenza, to run rampant.

Mandates stem from centuries of intertwining histories of militaries, war, and human pathogens that have firmly established the danger that infectious diseases pose to armed forces.

But in April, Hegseth claimed that flu shot requirements were "not rational" and said removing the requirement was "restoring freedom" to military members.

Last week, news broke of a flu outbreak sweeping through Lackland Air Force Base, part of Joint Base San Antonio in Texas. Two unnamed sources told ABC News that the situation at the base has been worsening.

In addition to the 222 cases and four hospitalizations reported as of Tuesday, one recruit, Keon McDaniel, died. McDaniel was in his sixth week of basic training and suffered a medical emergency on June 12. It's unclear if his death was related to the outbreak.

ABC News reported that sources think only about 40 percent of the new Air Force trainees at the base were vaccinated and that the outbreak began in early June. ...

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#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-06-24 12:43 PM | Reply

Nothing like coming in screaming that you're out to improve readiness, then immediately damage readiness with stupid ideology.

#2 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-06-24 12:57 PM | Reply

@#2 ... Nothing like coming in screaming that you're out to improve readiness, then immediately damage readiness with stupid ideology. ...

Weaponized incompetence?

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-06-24 12:59 PM | Reply

Chesterton's Fence

A philosophical principle stating that you should never remove or alter an established system, rule, or tradition until you first understand exactly why it was put there in the first place.

Trumpy does not have any "philosophical principles" or any kind of principles for that matter. Much less any "understanding".

#4 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-06-24 01:00 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

"Worm-brain Angry! Worm-brain Smash!"

#5 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-06-24 04:16 PM | Reply

Weaponized incompetence?

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-06-24 12:59 PM | Reply | Flag:

Not sure to call it weaponized if it's self-inflicted by natively perpetuated conspiracy theory.

#6 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-06-24 06:28 PM | Reply

@#6

~Self-inflicted wound~ weaponized?

That would be even worse.

#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-06-24 06:57 PM | Reply

Just a tad too late.

#8 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2026-06-25 10:52 AM | Reply

~Self-inflicted wound~ weaponized?
That would be even worse.

#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-06-24 06:57 PM | Reply | Flag:

Self-inflicted, and in motion the moment Trumpers decided Covid was a conspiracy to get Trump out of office.

#9 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-06-25 12:02 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 4

Oh, so this is why the US is losing to Iran. Wokeness! DEI! CRT!

Hegseth won't be embarrassed by this. He'll still take credit for scrapping the rule and ignore the fact that it was a really dumb thing to do.

#10 | Posted by Derek_Wildstar at 2026-06-25 01:39 PM | Reply

Onelumpofs*^% isn't gonna like this. According to him it wasn't a big deal and shouldn't have gotten any attention ...

#11 | Posted by jpw at 2026-06-25 01:44 PM | Reply

Republicans have up-ended the age old advice, along with everything else that makes a civilized society function:
Just because you could, doesn't mean you should.

Just because you weren't required to get it, doesn't mean you shouldn't get the vaccine.

#12 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-06-25 01:46 PM | Reply

A philosophical principle stating that you should never remove or alter an established system, rule, or tradition until you first understand exactly why it was put there in the first place.
Trumpy does not have any "philosophical principles" or any kind of principles for that matter. Much less any "understanding".

#4 | Posted by donnerboy

Not really applicable since the he decision to change the policy wasn't because we didn't know what it for. Hegseth received widespread warnings from military doctors and health experts. The decision to change the policy was purely political to align with the lies Trump and Kennedy have been telling the American people.

#13 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-06-25 01:47 PM | Reply

Hegseth should be impeached for his dereliction of duty. He deliberately put the readiness of the US military and the lives of its members at risk without reasonable basis for doing so.

#14 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-06-25 01:50 PM | Reply

Onelumpofs*^% isn't gonna like this. According to him it wasn't a big deal and shouldn't have gotten any attention ...
#11 | Posted by jpw at 2026-06-25 01:44 PM

A military appendage by any other name.

#15 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2026-06-25 01:51 PM | Reply

that's fine with me. Since I started getting it 12 years ago my annual bout has NEVER

reappeared....

.but of course you dopes are trying to tie this with the LIES about covid

and that vaccine whereas this one went through the proper and prescribed amount of testing

and time.

#16 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-06-25 02:01 PM | Reply

.but of course you dopes are trying to tie this with the LIES about covid

and that vaccine whereas this one went through the proper and prescribed amount of testing

and time.

#16 | Posted by shrimptacodan

No us dopes are just adding this to the mountains of evidence that trump's moron administration makes decisions based on paranoid vibes instead of facts, causes collateral damage, and then has to backtrack.
And you're too dumb to know why that's bad.

As for covid, trump admitted he LIED to you about it:
Trump Admits Downplaying the Virus Knowing It Was Deadly Stuff'

In taped interviews with the journalist Bob Woodward, the president said as early as February that the virus was more dangerous than the flu, even as he told the country otherwise.
www.nytimes.com

#17 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2026-06-25 02:08 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Silly -----.

#18 | Posted by Jaspar at 2026-06-25 02:14 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

and that vaccine whereas this one went through the proper and prescribed amount of testing

and time.

#16 | Posted by shrimptacodan

I think you may have dementia. Or are simply willingly ignorant.

MRNA vaccines worked like a charm. It isn't like they invented MRNA technology in 2020.

They kept my wife and I and tens of millions of others out of the hospital or a grave.

#19 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2026-06-25 03:19 PM | Reply