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.”
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.