Viral outbreak on military base spreads as 275 are sickened and four hospitalized… prompting calls to bring back vaccine requirement
A flu outbreak tearing through an Air Force base in Texas sickening at least 275 people has prompted urgent calls to bring back vaccine mandates.
The outbreak began earlier this month among recruits attending basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in southern Texas. It has been tied to a training wing where hundreds sleep, eat and congregate in close quarters.
The number of confirmed cases has increased from 160 last week to 275 as of Wednesday, and four people have been hospitalized.
The Air Force said that one recruit at the base died in a military hospital after experiencing a ‘medical emergency’ a few days before, but it is unclear if his death was linked to the outbreak.
In April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that troops would no longer need to get the annual flu shot, jettisoning a rule that had been in place since the 1950s.
But now, Pentagon officials have confirmed that all branches of the US military will once again require recruits to get flu vaccines, an exception to Hegseth’s April policy change.
A congressional staffer told CBS News that by early May, all military departments had formally requested exemptions that allow them to keep requiring flu vaccinations for certain service members, and those exemptions were granted in early June.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson, said in a statement that the Defense Department had ‘granted [exceptions to the policy]’ enabling mandatory vaccines for specific military populations.
Pictured above are military trainees at the Lackland base in Texas in 2019
‘The decisions were based upon thorough risk assessments and are designed to maximize operational readiness, lethality, and force generation, while safeguarding at-risk populations,’ Parnell said.
A defense official also said around 60 percent of previously unvaccinated trainees at Lackland initially declined the flu shot during the vaccine requirement’s lapse.
The new exemption in the Air Force has the goal of vaccinating all recruits in the current class and vaccinating all new recruits arriving at the base.
In a response to the New York Times, which first reported the story, Air Force officials said the recent outbreak was ‘localized’ to the training wing and that medical personnel were monitoring and offering antiviral medication to trainees who were in contact with sick individuals.
When announcing the end of the vaccine requirement in April, Hegseth said his department was ‘restoring freedom’ to the forces.
‘Under the disastrous Biden administration, this Pentagon waged an unrelenting war on our warriors on many fronts, including when it came to denying them simple medical autonomy and the freedom to express their religious convictions,’ he said in a video released at the time.
‘In other words, our men and women in uniform were forced to choose between their conscience and their country.’
More than 37,000 trainees pass through the 37th Training Wing at the base in southern Texas every year.
The Pentagon drew criticism when it first announced that the vaccination policy was to be scrapped.
Senator John Wicker, of Mississippi, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called ending the requirement a ‘mistake’ at the time.
Shown above is a military policeman closing a gate at Lackland Air Force Base in 2021
Preventative Medicine Services NCOIC Sergeant First Class Demetrius Roberson administers a Covid-19 vaccine to a soldier in 2021
He said the flu vaccine had been shown to be safe, and drew a contrast between this shot and that for Covid.
He said: ‘I don’t equate them with Covid shots, which were largely experimental and had not stood the test of time.
‘When I was on active duty and a reservist, I dutifully took my flu shot every year. And as a whole, it made for a healthier [armed forces].’
The move was an expansion of the policy update last year, which exempted reservists from the annual flu shot.
More than 8,000 service members were separated from the military for not complying with the Covid vaccine mandate at the Pentagon.
The CDC estimates the 2025-2026 flu season has caused at least 15 million illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 7,400 deaths. The season has largely been dominated by the H3N2 subclade K strain, nicknamed the ‘super flu’ for causing more severe symptoms and evading the season’s vaccine.
About 154 million doses of the flu vaccine were administered this season.
