Two months after Hegseth’s regressive move, Air Force base faces major flu outbreak

The latest flu season generated 340,000 hospitalizations and 21,000 deaths in the United States. Nevertheless, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, instead of focusing his energies on the ongoing war, came up with a bold idea in April: The Pentagon he leads would no longer mandate flu vaccines for service members.

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.

Of course, by that reasoning, it’s unclear why every other base wouldn’t take similar steps to prevent its own outbreak.

Everyone really should’ve seen this coming.

During the Revolutionary War, smallpox took such a brutal toll on the American military that George Washington believed he had no choice but to “inoculate all the troops.” The general did exactly that in 1777, and as historian Craig Bruce Smith explained in a memorable piece for Time magazine in 2021, Washington’s decision helped save the lives of countless patriots and “undoubtedly helped ensure the survival of the United States.”

In the generations that followed, the American military has looked out for its troops in the same way Washington did. And in contemporary times, service members have long been required to get plenty of shots as part of their service, including protections against ailments such as diphtheria and measles.

Depending on where service members could be deployed, troops are required to receive up to 17 different vaccinations.

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.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

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