{"id":342964,"date":"2026-06-19T15:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/342964\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:18:11","slug":"nearly-160-u-s-troops-sick-with-flu-in-texas-after-hegseth-axed-vaccine-mandate-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/342964\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 160 U.S. Troops Sick With Flu In Texas After Hegseth Axed Vaccine Mandate: Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 160 troops have reportedly been sick with the flu at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dropped a flu vaccine mandate in April, according to news reports.<\/p>\n

The outbreak in San Antonio has led to the hospitalization of two recruits as of Wednesday, ABC News reported<\/a>, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Another source told the outlet that the number of cases and hospitalizations may be higher.<\/p>\n

The death of a trainee at the base last week after suffering a medical emergency remains under investigation, officials said in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A pedestrian passes the main gate at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. A flu outbreak at the base has sickened nearly 160 troops. via Associated Press<\/p>\n

Like this article? Keep independent journalism alive. Support HuffPost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone showing symptoms is being isolated and treated, while those who had close contact with sick members are being monitored, an Air Force spokesperson told ABC News.<\/p>\n

In April, Hegseth made the flu vaccine optional for all U.S. military personnel, both active and reserve. The move aimed to \u201crestore freedom and strength to our joint force,\u201d he said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n

Since the policy change, only about 40% of Air Force trainees have opted to take the vaccine, The New York Times reported<\/a>, citing an Air Force official.<\/p>\n

Amid the current outbreak, all recruits at Lackland are required to get the flu shot, according to the Times.<\/p>\n

Air Force representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.<\/p>\n

Related…<\/p>\n

Read the original on HuffPost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 160 troops have reportedly been sick with the flu at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27009,122254,10669,122255,76057,3310,122253,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-342964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-air-force","tag-flu-outbreak","tag-flu-vaccine","tag-joint-force","tag-lackland-air-force-base","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-sick-with-the-flu","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342964","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=342964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}