Hegseth cancels ‘absurd’ flu vaccine requirement for ‘brave warriors’ in military
American service members will no longer be required to get a yearly flu shot under a new Defense Department policy described by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as an effort to “restore freedom and strength to our joint force.”
In a video posted on X, the Pentagon boss cited the Biden administration's Covid-19 policies as the impetus for ditching the unrelated but mandatory influenza inoculation, accusing his predecessors of having “waged an unrelenting war on our warriors on many fronts, including when it came to denying them simple medical autonomy and the freedom to express their religious convictions.”
Calling the Covid-19 vaccine mandate part of an “era of betrayal” that was now “over,” Hegseth said the Pentagon was discarding “absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities,” such as “the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/military-flu-vaccine-requirement-hegseth-b2961944.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
At this point, the parodies of these people are less cartoonish than the actual people.
I wonder if this moron has ever looked at combat readiness numbers from back before we had vaccines. More soldiers died of disease than of direct enemy contact.
This plague cult is getting real fucking old.
He has. His goal is to weaken the military for his boss
We have the sickest soldiers folks. No one has soldiers sicker than ours.
Just a reminder that George Washington forced the entire Continental Army to be inoculated for smallpox.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/washington-inoculates-army
Can't win a real war so he's trying to win a culture war.
I know you mean the social meaning of the term culture war, but he's literally fighting a culture war in the laboratory usage of the word. He's just too goddamn stupid, or drunk, or both, to have any idea of that yet.
Lest anyone forget, the first place the Great Influenza of 1918 - 1921 was identified, and where it had its initial vast spread, was on American military bases, starting with what is now known as Fort Riley, Kansas and jumping from base to base from there:
Oh boy, can't wait until the flu rips hard through a group of hundreds living in close quartets while they are enroute to do something "important."
Hegseth: "Tell our WARFIGHTERS to MOVE IN ON THE ENEMY NOW! NOW, DAMN YOU, NOW!"
Warfighters: "Kaff, cough, hack, sputtle, sniff, snortle, wheeze!"
Now I'm seeing a Starship Troopers style ad for flu medications using citizens who are doing their part.
Ahaha, love it!
Though, actually, I do feel getting my flu shot is one of those doing my part things. I don't like getting sick but I'm not super worried about getting the flu myself. But I get my shot every year because it means I'm less likely to give it to others which means, down the chain of transmission, it's less likely to infect someone for whom it does matter.
I've only caught the flu maybe twice in the past couple decades. But it seems to hit me hard when I do catch it, so I get the shot for almost purely selfish reasons. I know that getting the shot helps in all the ways you point out, but for me that's just the cherry on top.
Important = dying for a pedophile
Brave warriors scared of needles?
I know they're being disingenuous about medical autonomy, but the hypocrisy just infuriates me.
So, no flu vaccine because we care about our soldiers choice, but we'll still force them to take dozens of other vaccinations, remove wisdom teeth, shave, weekly haircuts, subject them to unknown chemicals, run them ragged and feed them government slop. The flu vaccine is the least of their worries.
This is just more using the military to push their culture war bullshit and make it seem like they're doing them a favor, when all it does is further weaken the US.
And get called "brave warriors" on the international stage.
That's something someone would've called me while getting my toddler-age shots.
Well, you see, the shaving requirement discriminates against black soldiers, while the vaccine requirement "discriminates" against antivaxxer morons. So obviously, the former is good and the latter is bad.
Kinda ironic, since it was the pre-usa revolutionary army that pioneered mass innoculation.
Washington’s decision to mandate smallpox inoculation for the Continental Army represents an early example of evidence-based public health policy in America. By overcoming widespread fears and opposition to variolation, Washington demonstrated both medical foresight and pragmatic leadership. https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/washingtons-war-against-smallpox-revolutionary-inoculation-campaign/
How times have changed.
So wait, I know Trump is the antichrist, but is Hegseth supposed to be the horseman of war or pestilence? I had pegged RFK as pestilence.
Crazy how each serve a chaos god
Got Korn, nurglet, Tzeentch, too afraid to ask about slaanesh.
Sleenesh is RFK junior for sure. I mean have you seen the shirtless video with Kid Rock?
Lol now kid rock music makes sense. Noise for the noise god!
Now there's a mental image I didn't need.
So brave those warriors, scared of a little vaccine
Dying from preventable illness for a pedophile. Jesus lord what a way to go.
This pleases Nurgle
If they're brave, why fear the shot?
So opposing armies just need to invest in germ warfare to destroy the US military?
Yes! Lets turn every bootstepper into a superspreader of every preventable disease going! Who needs artillery and AI guided bombs when every soldier is a disease vector
It is amazing to see the level of stupid sitting at the cabinet table.
Useless rear echelon motherfucker.
Future Tweet: "This is the US Government. We were planning to murder some civilians under the guise of peace or drugs or oil, or whatever, but all our WARFIGHTERS have told us they 'can't come in today' because they're 'sick'. When we find out how the Communist Marxist Anarchist Socialist Domestic Terrorist Democrats and the Pope managed to coordinate this attack on our WARFIGHTERS, rest assured, we'll be back to doing extrajudicial WARFIGHTERS shit ASAP. Thank you for your attention to this matter".
With any luck we’ll make typhoid great again
After all that doge shit, who knew this anti-science administration was looking to expand its microbiology experiments to underwater test tubes made of steel and filled with submariners?
To be honest, I don't really get why you'd get a flu shot? I never heard of these either. Is that an american thing that just passed by me all this time?
It's an international thing, very common in Australia, I also had it when living in the UK. Basically a vaccine against the current strains of the flu. Doesn't completely protect you, but if you do get the flu after having the vaccine, the resulting symptoms tend to be pretty minor. It's pretty important for people who have a tendency for dying when they get the flu, like old people.
Crazy, I've never heard of that. I just looked it up and yeah, it's as you say, mostly for vulnerable people like old people or pregnant women. TIL I guess.
I tend to get it every year, my company offers it for free to all employees. In Aus it's typically free for the elderly but you need to pay for it if you get it at a chemist. Every large employer I've worked for has offered it for free to employees. Is a simple low cost solution for lowering sick leave across the workforce without setting up a toxic culture of working when you're sick.
In Russia, flu vaccination is highly promoted everywhere.
Before the anticipated flu season, vaccination opens in clinics, schools, universities, workplaces, medical vans are positioned in key places so that everyone could easily get a shot wherever they are. In schools, flu vaccination is opt-out, not opt-in. All vaccination, flu or not, is free of charge.
Never knew it's so much different somewhere else. TIL, too.
Everyone working in public health has to get the shot yearly here. Yearly, because it's about 200 or so types and they mutate quickly.
I got my first one in France this year and I'm so happy about it. Last year my flu was hardcore, in bed for 3 days and this year absolutely nothing. Worth every cent.