Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced Tuesday that the US army will now not require the annual flu vaccine for troops.
“Our new policy is simple. If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you’re free to take it. You should,” Hegseth mentioned in a video posted on X, including, “But we will not force you.”
The transfer, which takes effect immediately, comes because the flu season has largely ended with cases on the decline, in keeping with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Annual flu vaccines can be found for folks age six months and older and are extensively beneficial by medical doctors to scale back the danger of extreme sickness, hospitalization or loss of life from the flu.
In the video, Hegseth claimed “absurd, overreaching” medical mandates, just like the army’s flu vaccine requirement, “only weaken our war-fighting capabilities.”
“The 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,” the protection secretary mentioned.
The army’s first flu vaccine mandate dates again to 1945, in keeping with an analysis of army vaccine mandates within the United States, due partly to the flu’s “historic damage and threat as a bioweapon.” It was withdrawn in 1949 however later mandated once more within the early Fifties.
Hegseth within the video additionally criticized the Covid-19 vaccine requirement for troops put in place in the course of the Biden administration, which was rescinded in 2023. Shortly after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reinstate, with again pay, service members, who have been discharged for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Of the practically 9,000 service members who have been pushed out of the army as a result of they declined to get the vaccine below the prior mandate, about 150 had rejoined as of earlier this yr.
Last yr, the Pentagon exempted reservists from the flu vaccine requirement. In a memo obtained by the Associated Press, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg mentioned there are just some circumstances by which the flu shot is required for all service members.
More broadly, the Trump administration, significantly Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has sought to reshape the nation’s vaccine coverage and forged doubt on sure vaccines.
In July, HHS adopted a recommendation to remove thimerosal from flu vaccines, though it was largely faraway from most vaccines about 25 years in the past. Kennedy argued that with the transfer, the company is placing “safety first,” although there is no such thing as a clear proof of hurt from the mercury-based preservative, which was used to forestall bacterial contamination in multidose vials.