Mike the Mad Biologist

Defense Secretary Hegseth, unaware that one of the key reforms George Washington enacted while commanding the Continental Army was to institute a smallpox inoculation program, let it rip with this policy brain fart (boldface mine):

The military will no longer require U.S. troops to receive the annual flu vaccine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday, rolling back what he described as an “overly broad” mandate that had been in place for seven decades.

“We’re seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war-fighting capabilities,” Hegseth said in a video posted to his social media channels. “In this case, this includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.”

Hegseth said that under a new policy, soldiers would be able to take the vaccine if they believed it was in their best interest, billing it as an effort to “restore freedom and strength to our joint force.”

“But we will not force you, because your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable,” he said…

The U.S. military first mandated the flu vaccine in 1945, at the end of World War II — in part to hedge against the threat of biological warfare and because the great influenza pandemic of 1918 to 1920 had crippled American troop readiness during World War I, killing more than 26,000 American soldiers. The mandate was briefly withdrawn in 1949 but reinstated in the 1950s.

It is as if the entire Trump administration is full of Michael Browns (of “Heckuva job Brownie” infamy), though that is arguably unfair to Michael Brown, since he was just unqualified, not delusionally stupid. Snark aside, it is clear that the Republican Party line regarding vaccination is that, while there might be some very sick people who benefit from vaccination, everyone else is more at risk from vaccination than from the disease itself, which is foolish. Influenza is not fun, and it is not just a cold.

Meanwhile, if you think HHS is going to step in here, yesterday HHS Secretary Kennedy talked about “cleaning up the risk pool”, so eugenics is back on the menu, boys!

But there were no differences between the two parties, amirite?