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.”
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.
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.
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.