Nearly 300 sick in viral outbreak on Texas military base as Pentagon reinstates vaccine mandates

One flu over the military.The Pentagon is once again requiring recruits across all branches of the military to receive flu vaccines, an exception to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s earlier decision to lift the military’s long-standing annual flu vaccine mandate.

This reinstated mandate comes amid news of a flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.In recent weeks, at least 275 recruits have been diagnosed with influenza, and four have been hospitalized with the virus.

The Air Force confirmed that a recruit died in a military hospital on June 16, but it is unclear if the loss is linked to the flu outbreak.Democratic Rep.Joaquin Castro of Texas, whose district includes Lackland, told CNN the outbreak “is getting worse.” The situation has become so dire that the Pentagon decided to reverse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s April policy, which made the annual flu vaccine voluntary for the first time in 70 years.At the time, Hegseth characterized mandatory vaccination as “overly broad and not rational.” The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get the flu shot every year, even if they’ve been vaccinated or have had the illness in the past.Hegseth’s April 20 memo rendered the flu shot immediately optional for all US troops.

By early May, though, all military departments had formally requested exemptions to Hegseth’s policy, allowing them to continue requiring flu vaccinations for certain service members, including recruits at boot camp.“The decisions were based upon thorough risk assessments and are designed to maximize operational readiness, lethality, and force generation, while safeguarding at-risk populations,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.“The Department remains committed to the health and readiness of our warfighters and civilian personnel.”However, these exemptions took more than a month to be approved.

While the Pentagon’s undersecretary, Anthony Tata, approved the request to rein...