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.”
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
At this point, the parodies of these people are less cartoonish than the actual people.
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
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.
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:
Brave warriors scared of needles?
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
Dying from preventable illness for a pedophile. Jesus lord what a way to go.
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.
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.
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.
So brave those warriors, scared of a little vaccine
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!
I had pegged RFK as pestilence.
Now there’s a mental image I didn’t need.
This pleases Nurgle
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
If they’re brave, why fear the shot?
