MaddowBlog-Two months after Hegseth's regressive move, Air Force base faces major flu outbreak

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Eight weeks after flu vaccines became optional in the armed forces, we’re already seeing the consequences of the Pentagon chief’s shortsighted policy.

Two months after Hegseth’s regressive move, Air Force base faces major flu outbreak
Eight weeks after flu vaccines became optional in the armed forces, we’re already seeing the consequences of the Pentagon chief’s shortsighted policy.

www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— NanNan🦋 🇺🇦❤️🇵🇸 🏳️‍🌈 👵🇬🇱🐾 (@nan-nanlovesme.bsky.social) 2026-06-18T20:55:48.657Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/hegseth-vaccines-air-force-base-flu-outbreak

While service members could voluntarily get a flu vaccine, Hegseth decided to reverse the military’s longstanding policy and end the requirement as a condition of service.

The change led to a variety of questions, including the obvious one: How long would it take before this misguided, regressive and unnecessary decision backfired on the armed forces? The answer, it turns out, is not quite two months. The New York Times reported:

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.

The Times’ report noted that one trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill late last week, although the exact cause of death is still under investigation.

The report added that only about 40% of Air Force trainees have opted to take the flu vaccine — a total that used to be 100%, because it wasn’t optional. In response to the outbreak at Lackland, the base received an exception from Hegseth’s policy and is now requiring recruits to get vaccinated......

The point is not to intrude on “medical autonomy,” a phrase Hegseth emphasized when he made the change in April. Rather, military leaders, during Democratic and Republican administrations, have long understood that readiness requires healthy troops, many of whom often serve in close quarters with fellow service members, here and abroad.

As The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer noted, “Nothing has killed more soldiers in the history of humanity than disease.” American leaders have wisely taken steps for generations to try to prevent this from happening.

It might be tempting to think officials at the Defense Department would see what happened at Lackland Air Force Base and reassess Hegseth’s mistake from two months ago. But that’s apparently not going to happen: The Pentagon’s chief spokesman told the Times that the department stands by the secretary’s decision