"Dozens of service members at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas have fallen ill with the flu in the weeks since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rescinded the vaccine mandate, sources familiar confirmed to CBS News.

"Over the last three weeks, the 37th Training Wing, in close coordination with the 59th Medical Wing, has been managing a localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training," an Air Force spokesperson told CBS News in a statement.

The New York Times first reported on the outbreak at the training wing in Texas.

The unit has implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees, according to the Air Force spokesperson, and is monitoring trainees who may have been exposed. The trainees who are symptomatic are receiving antiviral medications such as Tamiflu.

In April, Hegseth issued a memo that rescinded the decades-long mandate and said in an accompanying video that the Pentagon was "seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capability.""


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lackland-air-force-base-texas-flu-outbreak-mandate/

This was a horrible decision and this outbreak could have been prevented, wasted taxpayer dollars and training delayed.

inb4 lockdowns and two weeks to bend the curve

"dozens"

Wildmen03 said:

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And I got the Corps Crud every year no matter the shots I got or how well I washed my hands. You put that many people in close quarters breathing on each other, working out together etc., people are going to get sick.

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Lol. Boots spread the measles at Ft Jackson and I got them. They had whole floor of quarantine at hospital, but put me in a separate room because I was a Lt. Pissed me off as next payday they docked my separate rations pay for food I barely ate in hospital!

I got the flu the first few weeks at MCRD San Diego (real Marines). It happens often and is the main reason you get your ass slayed for touching your face.

They say it's usually only 30-40% effective I think. One year I asked my physician what does that even mean? He had no idea and said just take it.

Yesterday said:

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I got the flu the first few weeks at MCRD San Diego (real Marines). It happens often and is the main reason you get your ass slayed for touching your face.

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It's what you get for using your dick-skinners to touch your disgusting face. Hope you were corrected in the rain room.

I mean, this is obviously Hegseth's fault. Along with the lack of parking on North campus.

BigOil said:

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They say it's usually only 30-40% effective I think. One year I asked my physician what does that even mean? He had no idea and said just take it.

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Hopefully, you said no

Which flu? Parents were vaccinated for A and got B…
Fake news.

[Calling out moderation won't get you anywhere but a timeout -- Staff]

It's Captain Tripps!! Don't let anyone leave.

GMaster0 said:

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"Dozens of service members at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas have fallen ill with the flu in the weeks since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rescinded the vaccine mandate, sources familiar confirmed to CBS News.

"Over the last three weeks, the 37th Training Wing, in close coordination with the 59th Medical Wing, has been managing a localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training," an Air Force spokesperson told CBS News in a statement.

The New York Times first reported on the outbreak at the training wing in Texas.

The unit has implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees, according to the Air Force spokesperson, and is monitoring trainees who may have been exposed. The trainees who are symptomatic are receiving antiviral medications such as Tamiflu.

In April, Hegseth issued a memo that rescinded the decades-long mandate and said in an accompanying video that the Pentagon was "seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capability.""


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lackland-air-force-base-texas-flu-outbreak-mandate/

This was a horrible decision and this outbreak could have been prevented, wasted taxpayer dollars and training delayed.

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Good, they all just got an inoculation about 100x more effective than any flu shot. Maybe 1,000x.

Many of them will likely never get it again in their life.

BigOil said:

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They say it's usually only 30-40% effective I think. One year I asked my physician what does that even mean? He had no idea and said just take it.

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40% is best case in a year when they lucked out and picked correctly. This article is left wing propaganda and I'm embarrassed for the OP.

"This was a horrible decision and this outbreak could have been prevented"

I don't know how to break this to you, but you can't prevent viruses like this from spreading. God created us with "antibodies" to keep these little viruses from killing his creation. Do better and stop trying to score political points on things you picked up on Facebook.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

SW-14 said:

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I'm sure such an outbreak has never happened before.

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I'm pretty sure this is how the Spanish Flu Pandemic started. Except it was an army base in Kansas.

Influenza virus, like coronavirus, mutates very quickly. To make the "flu" vaccine, a bunch of people guess what strains will cause a problem the next year out. It takes Wild Ass Guessing to a whole new level.

Flu? Meh. When I was in Air Force Basic there was an outbreak of crabs in one flight in my squadron because they weren't allowed to use hot water for laundry.

GMaster0 said:

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"Dozens of service members at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas have fallen ill with the flu in the weeks since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rescinded the vaccine mandate, sources familiar confirmed to CBS News.

"Over the last three weeks, the 37th Training Wing, in close coordination with the 59th Medical Wing, has been managing a localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training," an Air Force spokesperson told CBS News in a statement.

The New York Times first reported on the outbreak at the training wing in Texas.

The unit has implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees, according to the Air Force spokesperson, and is monitoring trainees who may have been exposed. The trainees who are symptomatic are receiving antiviral medications such as Tamiflu.

In April, Hegseth issued a memo that rescinded the decades-long mandate and said in an accompanying video that the Pentagon was "seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capability.""


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lackland-air-force-base-texas-flu-outbreak-mandate/

This was a horrible decision and this outbreak could have been prevented, wasted taxpayer dollars and training delayed.

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The NYT story on this said that someone on the base had died...

But, they had no confirmation it was from the flu. REALLY???? Then why TF did you mention it in your story?


JFC...the amount of TDS on the left is mind-boggling...

If only the secretary of war would have forced our defenders to receive an ineffective shot they could have invaded and captured the moon by now. However, the moon would be a trans-safe space.

I've taken a huge back seat arguing with the crazy left over the past couple years on TexAgs but they are getting worse and worse with their arguments. At least DE77 brought receipts. The new kids are just posting check blue crap.

Listen Jr, are you upset that the sec of war didn't force our kids to take a flu shot or are you talking out of your ass? The rest of the world really doesn't care about your opinion, but I'll debate you for a bit if you want. You will lose the argument, but let's have an MMA style debate. Throw the 1st punch.

FriscoKid said:

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If only the secretary of war would have forced our defenders to receive an ineffective shot they could have invaded and captured the moon by now.

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hadn't heard about this......




HEEEEEGGGGGGGSSSSSSEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTHHHHHH!

cr06gis said:

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Lol. Who cares

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EOT

SW-14 said:

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I'm sure such an outbreak has never happened before.

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We put to sea for a three month patrol after a shipmate brought the stomach bug on board from his kid. For the next week it was a rotation of 150 guys ****ting and throwing up in a steel tube. Everyone was standing each other's watch while each crew member would go down for 24-36 hours. Thankfully our corpsman had his trusty cure-all prescription for all of us. "Here's two Motrin. Stop being a *****." Only when the captain finally got sick did we come to periscope depth and try to ventilate the ship.

This might be the biggest non-story ever. A bunch of people got sick in boot camp. Big ****ing deal.

op doesn't give a sh* about wasted tax dollars nor delayed training. Not a smidge.

LMAO.

If any service members die as a result of the great flu outbreak of 2026 then that will be sad (but, it won't happen).

The US military is more focused on tracking high value terrorist targets, eliminating state navy's and aircraft, crippling economic hope, and forcing "certain folks" to the table.

This is a stupid argument to compare almost all SR leadership being eliminated in a county that promised to kill us to a flu "vaccine". If there was ever a trolling post, then this is it. I'm sure our troops will be fine against the sniffles.

"dozens" out of how many thousands of recruits? Google says between 5 and 20% of people contract the flu every season. "dozens" is probably about 1% or less of Air Force recruits.