Military Reverses Course and Again Mandates Flu Shots for Many Military and Civilian Personnel

Back in April, Secretary Hegseth signed “Updated Guidance on Influenza Vaccination” making the annual influenza vaccine voluntary for all Department of War Active and Reserve Component Service members and civilian personnel.

Now, with the stroke of a pen, that policy has been gutted. Many of our military and Department of War civilians will once again be forced to take the annual seasonal influenza vaccine—their choice in the matter erased.

So much for medical freedom. After two months, the military has issued exceptions to policy (ETP) for the Army, Air Force, and Navy. New recruits in basic training, deploying and deployed forces, and healthcare and child‑and‑youth‑program personnel, among others, will now be required to roll up their sleeves.

Ironically, as detailed in my previous post on the flu vaccine, our troops are being commanded to take a product with highly questionable efficacy that may well leave them sicker.

It’s no surprise that Pharma’s tentacles reach into the highest echelons of the Department of War—a liability-free product with a captive customer base in uniform is exactly the kind of arrangement that thrives there. But it is no less disgraceful for being predictable.

Get a flu shot, don’t get a flu shot—that’s freedom, and everyone should be free to choose. But no one should be coerced into a medical product—least of all the men and women who volunteered to defend that very freedom.