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.

A flu outbreak at a basic training facility for the Air Force in San Antonio, Texas, is growing to at least 222 cases and four hospitalizations.

As of June 19, around 222 flu cases were reported on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas

Hegseth had announced a vaccine rollback in April and described the mandate as an issue of "medical autonomy" and religious freedom.