The defense secretary described the vaccine requirement, which he lifted in April, as an “absurd, overreaching” mandate.
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.
A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, the Air Force said in a news release. It was not immediately clear whether the death of the trainee, Keon McDaniel, was related to the flu outbreak.
Yeah, basic training is easily the most contagion spreadable places on earth other than freshman dorms. You’ve got people from all over the country and stuff them nut to butt 24/7 and people are gonna get sick. Hell, I got pneumonia in basic training. It’s insane to me that a vaccine against one of our most common sicknesses would be optional.
Well if it’s left up to pussies like Hegseth who love to do performative “masculine” bullshit, this is what happens.
he should leave off the smallpox and covid vaccine, TDAP, and chickenpox vaccine at this point. all these are quite severe in adults for unvaccinated.
Far more than freshman dorms. The people are from further and more varied places, there’s more of them in a room, and they’re under constant stress and aren’t getting enough sleep.
They’re also not fucking tho.
Suuuuure
There wasn’t any. You’re too busy/tired to even think about it.