{"id":342237,"date":"2026-06-19T02:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T02:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/342237\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T02:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T02:19:11","slug":"texas-air-force-base-hit-with-flu-outbreak-infecting-nearly-160-troops-after-hegseth-lifts-vaccine-requirement-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/342237\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Air Force base hit with flu outbreak infecting nearly 160 troops after Hegseth lifts vaccine requirement: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

A flu outbreak has been tearing through a Texas Air Force<\/a> base, less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> announced the Pentagon would be ending its flu shot requirement.<\/p>\n

The outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio<\/a> has reportedly sickened nearly 160 troops, prompting the Air Force to temporarily require recruits there to once again get the flu shot, The New York Times reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 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,\u201d an Air Force spokesperson told The Independent in a statement. \u201cMedical professionals and Public Health officials have implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees to reduce further exposure and continue to monitor the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they are cleared by medical professionals they will return to training,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the 37th Training Wing announced that Keon McDaniel, a basic military trainee from the 737th Training Support Squadron, died earlier in the week after experiencing a \u201cmedical emergency\u201d and being taken to Brooke Army Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A flu outbreak has reportedly sickened nearly 160 troops at a Texas Air Force base, in a potential consequence of the Trump administration lifting a military vaccine requirement (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cause of the medical emergency is currently under investigation, and a comprehensive medical review is being conducted to determine the facts,\u201d the unit said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if McDaniel\u2019s death was flu-related.<\/p>\n

In April, Hegseth announced the Pentagon<\/a> was axing the military\u2019s policy of requiring the influenza vaccine.<\/p>\n

Hegseth called the requirement and a prior policy of mandatory Covid shots for troops \u201cabsurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member, everywhere, in every circumstance at all times is just overly broad and not rational,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Defense<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has argued military vaccine requirements are government overreach (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

In the wake of the outbreak, the Pentagon defended the new policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decisions were based upon thorough risk assessments and are designed to maximize operational readiness, lethality, and force generation, while safeguarding at-risk populations,\u201d chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Independent.<\/p>\n

Outside of the military, the Trump administration has elevated vaccine skeptics to top positions, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department has baselessly linked vaccines to autism<\/a>, while sidelining vaccine advocates <\/a>and seeking to shrink the childhood vaccine schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A flu outbreak has been tearing through a Texas Air Force base, less than two months after Defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122031,27009,122034,122033,76057,3310,104180,27,122032,29,28,122035,15103],"class_list":["post-342237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-37th-training-wing","tag-air-force","tag-basic-military-training","tag-influenza-vaccine","tag-lackland-air-force-base","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-requirement","tag-texas","tag-texas-air-force-base","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-the-independent","tag-the-pentagon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}