Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth loosened the requirement for U.S. troops to receive an annual flu vaccine, and critics questioned his decision.
The Pentagon chief and former Fox News host announced Tuesday that the military would end its mandate requiring the vaccine, which called an “absurd, overreaching” order that serves only to “weaken our war-fighting capabilities.”
“But we will not force you, because your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable,” Hegseth said.
Social media users slammed the move as short-sighted and pointed out historical examples to show how vaccines aid the military.
“Make this make sense,” sighed global affairs analyst Olga Nesterova. “Spanish Flu. Someone should google it.”
“Nothing has killed more soldiers in the history of humanity than disease,” replied writer Adam Serwer. “While worst is a more complicated question Hegseth is absolutely the dumbest secretary of defense the United States has ever had.”
“I guess he never heard of the 1918 pandemic,” agreed Jamie Piscitelli, a former Defense Department employee. “Started amongst American soldiers at Fort Reilly, Kansas. In the end, it killed more American soldiers than the Germans had. 64K died from the flu. 53k were killed in action. Abject, imbecillic stupidity is the hallmark of this Administration.”
“Not surprising from someone who openly refuses to wash his hands because he doesn’t believe in germs,” pointed out microbiologist Sarah Beatty.
“For his next act, Pete Hegseth is manually going to chisel off every single ’employees must wash hands’ sign from every armed forces cafeteria bathroom,” cracked The Bulwark’s Jim Swift.
“I didn’t realize that not getting the flu was ‘woke,’” pondered Techdirt’s Mike Masnick.
“DOD: We’re doing away with flu vaccine requirements,” wrote MS NOW producer Adam Weinstein. “Every adversarial military’s biological warfare planners: Okay, hear us out.”
“This guy hasn’t read a single book about military history, has he?” wondered journalist Helen Kennedy. “Can we bet on how long this policy lasts?”
“Vaccination is LITERALLY key to how Washington beat the Brits in the Revolution,” noted Bluesky user Andre Green.
“NAPOLEON (returning from the dead after 200 years): You can prevent soldiers from getting WHAT????????????????” joked podcaster Aaron Kleinman.
“Reminder that Sun Tzu’s Art of War isn’t some genius-level strategy, it’s full of reminders to dumb princes like ‘make sure your troops are fed’ and ‘dig latrines away from where the soldiers sleep,’” posted Bluesky user Mo Udall Mo Problems. “And here we see why it was written in the first place.”
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