US Air Force requested to bring back mandatory flu shots weeks before basic training outbreak

By Davis Winkie, Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — A worsening flu outbreak among recruits attending basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, began earlier this month while an Air Force request to reinstate a mandatory flu shot requirement axed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wound its way through the Pentagon bureaucracy, according to a defense official and a source familiar with the situation.

The outbreak “is getting worse” and has sickened at least 275 recruits since it began, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, whose district includes Lackland, told CNN. The Air Force confirmed that a recruit there died in a military hospital on June 16 after experiencing a “medical emergency” a few days before, but it’s unclear whether his death is linked to the flu outbreak.

Around 60% of previously unvaccinated trainees at Lackland initially declined the flu shot during the vaccine requirement’s lapse, according to the defense official. The option to decline the vaccine was opened to recruits after an April order from Hegseth instructing Pentagon leadership to eliminate the flu shot requirement.

Hegseth’s order allowed for military services to request exemptions, but it was put into effect before those exemptions could be processed.

The vaccine mandate for Air Force recruits was restored on June 11, and within weeks, unvaccinated trainees at Lackland received the flu shot, according to the defense official and source.

But by that point the outbreak at Lackland had already gained steam.

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson, said in a statement that the Defense Department had “granted [exceptions to policy]” enabling mandatory vaccines for specific populations across the military.

“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.

When Hegseth announced via social media video in April that the flu vaccine was no longer mandatory for US troops, he said the military’s all-encompassing mandate was “overly broad and not rational.”

Hegseth’s April 20 memo implementing the change immediately made the flu shot optional for all US troops, regardless of situation or mission. The memo had instructions for how the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Marine Corps could submit packages to reinstate the vaccine requirement for certain at-risk populations.

The military branches each rushed to submit exception requests – including one for recruits at boot camp – after the Pentagon chief’s announcement, the official and source said. The Air Force submitted its exception request for basic training attendees on May 5.

But the exception requests took more than a month to get through the military bureaucracy, first clearing the office of Hegseth’s top health advisor, Keith Bass, before going to the office of Anthony Tata, the controversial retired one-star general now serving as the Pentagon’s undersecretary overseeing personnel & readiness.

Tata approved the Air Force’s request to reinstate the flu shot at basic training on June 11, according to the official and source. But by then, the outbreak among trainees at Lackland was underway – base officials did not learn until June 18 that the shots were again mandatory, according to an Air Force official.

Hegseth’s “effective immediately” method of rescinding the vaccine requirement resulted in a lapse for shots for some troops, physician and former Pentagon health official Terry Adirim argued. Adirim served as a top official in the Defense Department’s health affairs office during President Donald Trump’s first administration before returning during the Biden administration as the office’s acting chief.

“There can be a real disruption of national security if the medical experts cannot give the best advice to protect the force, and this is an example” said Adirim.

Adirim said that such coordination and policy assessments typically occur before the department implements sweeping changes to health policy. She said that coordination, which typically involves weeks of back and forth between the Pentagon and the military services, would enable medical experts to provide crucial input to ensure the policy was safe from the moment it was issued.

In the case of the flu shots, though, those weeks of bureaucratic coordination to process policy exception requests didn’t begin until Hegseth had already rolled back the requirement.

Davis Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of the reporting.

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