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

Branches received exceptions to Hegseth's policy that made the shot optional.

The defense secretary broke with public health directives when he made the flu vaccine optional for all U.S. military personnel, both active and reserve, in April.

The Pentagon says military boot camps are once again requiring flu vaccinations for all recruits

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…

All military branches began requiring recruits to get flu vaccines earlier this month, an exception to Pete Hegseth's decision to lift the military's vaccine mandate, a Pentagon…

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

The Pentagon said that boot camps for all the military services are once again requiring the flu vaccination for all recruits.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the shot optional for the military at the end of April

One congressman claims on social media that the outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base is ‘getting worse’

Less than two months after Pete Hegseth dropped the flu vaccine mandate, an outbreak occurred at a U.S. Air Force base.

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