Pentagon makes flu shot optional for troops, rescinding requirement

Originally Published: 21 APR 26 12:43 ET

Updated: 21 APR 26 13:13 ET

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN

(CNN) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that the US military will no longer require the annual flu vaccine for troops.

“Our new policy is simple. If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you’re free to take it. You should,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X, adding, “But we will not force you.”

The move, which takes effect immediately, comes as the flu season has largely ended with cases on the decline, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Annual flu vaccines are available for people age six months and older and are widely recommended by doctors to reduce the risk of severe illness, hospitalization or death from the flu.

Richard Ricciardi, a veteran and a professor at the George Washington University School of Nursing, said Hegseth’s move “is a serious lapse in judgment.”

“The policy ignores warnings that more flu illness will mean more missed duty days, more hospitalizations and more preventable readiness losses,” Ricciardi said in a statement. He added: “In the military, vaccination is not political theater. It is force protection. Troops live and work in close quarters, where influenza can spread quickly and sideline otherwise healthy service members.”

In the video, Hegseth claimed “absurd, overreaching” medical mandates, like the military’s flu vaccine requirement, “only weaken our war-fighting capabilities.”

“The notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member everywhere in every circumstance at all times is just overly broad and not rational,” the defense secretary said.

The military’s first flu vaccine mandate dates back to 1945, according to a 2022 analysis of military vaccine mandates in the United States, due in part to the flu’s “historic damage and threat as a bioweapon.” It was withdrawn in 1949 but later mandated again in the early 1950s.

Hegseth in the video also criticized the Covid-19 vaccine requirement for troops put in place during the Biden administration, which was rescinded in 2023. Shortly after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reinstate, with back pay, service members, who were discharged for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

Of the nearly 9,000 service members who were pushed out of the military because they declined to get the vaccine under the prior mandate, about 150 had rejoined as of earlier this year.

Last year, the Pentagon exempted reservists from the flu vaccine requirement. In a memo obtained by the Associated Press, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg said there are only some circumstances in which the flu shot is required for all service members.

More broadly, the Trump administration, particularly Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has sought to reshape the country’s vaccine policy and cast doubt on certain vaccines.

In July, HHS adopted a recommendation to remove thimerosal from flu vaccines, although it was largely removed from most vaccines about 25 years ago. Kennedy argued that with the move, the agency is putting “safety first,” though there is no clear evidence of harm from the mercury-based preservative, which was used to prevent bacterial contamination in multidose vials.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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