Mandatory shots have reportedly been reinstated after 200 training wing members fell ill
More than 200 US airmen and trainees have come down with the flu at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, NBC News has reported, citing a source at the facility. The illnesses come less than two months after the Pentagon ended its longstanding requirement for annual influenza vaccinations.
The cluster of cases is confined to the installation’s Basic Military Training wing, where recruits live and train in close quarters, NBC wrote on Friday.
An Air Force spokesperson has confirmed the outbreak to Texas Public Radio, saying that 160 members have contracted the virus over the past three weeks.
In April, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that annual flu shots would no longer be mandatory for active-duty personnel, reservists and other Defense Department personnel, calling the mandate “absurd” and “overreaching.”
The development comes amid broader debates over vaccination policy within the Trump administration. US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pursued a series of changes to federal vaccine policy since taking office, arguing that the administration is seeking to increase transparency, address potential conflicts of interest and restore public trust in vaccine oversight.
Kennedy, who has long questioned aspects of US vaccination policy and has been described by critics as a vaccine skeptic, has faced opposition from public health experts who argue that some of his policies could undermine confidence in established immunization programs.
Following the change, only about 40% of Air Force trainees opted to receive the flu vaccine, according to officials cited by multiple media outlets.
In response to the situation, the Air Force reinstated mandatory flu shots for recruits at Lackland, according to multiple US media reports citing officials.
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The illnesses have also drawn attention because they coincided with the death of trainee Keon McDaniel, who was undergoing Basic Military Training at Lackland and died on June 16 after suffering a medical emergency days earlier. Air Force officials have not linked his death to the influenza outbreak, and the cause remains under investigation.
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