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A flu outbreak at a Texas Air Force Base is fueling debate over the Pentagon’s decision to end the military’s flu vaccine mandate. Former military health official Jose Sanchez explains the stakes.
PIEN HUANG, HOST:
More than 200 Air Force recruits at a Texas training base have come down with the flu. One of those trainees has died. Investigators are still trying to determine if influenza played a role. The outbreak comes just weeks after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ended the military’s long-standing requirement for service members to get annual flu shots and made flu vaccines optional for troops. Here’s Hegseth back in April.
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PETE HEGSETH: We’re seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war-fighting capabilities. In this case, this includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.
HUANG: Since the outbreak, the Air Force has required recruits at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, to be vaccinated, as it works to stop the virus from spreading. Dr. Jose Sanchez is former deputy chief at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. Welcome, Dr. Sanchez.
JOSE SANCHEZ: Glad to be with you.
HUANG: So far, more than 200 recruits have gotten sick at Lackland. How unusual is an outbreak of this size in the military?
SANCHEZ: Very unusual, from the sense that we were vaccinating, prior to April, you know, routinely 100% of our basic military recruits. The last time where we saw this happen in a significant way was back in 2009, 2010.
HUANG: So it hasn’t happened in 15 or 16 years at this point.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, not to this level. That’s correct. And we don’t know now whether that’s going to be the same in other training centers, Army or Navy, for example, training centers. So it could be, and it could be – it’s possible that it may happen among other populations of nonrecruits.
HUANG: Well, speaking of the recruits, we’re hearing that most of the sick troops are new recruits in basic training. Why are new trainees so vulnerable?
SANCHEZ: So great question. So we are immunologically – when we’re in our teens – 18, 19, 20 years of age, which is the age group for the recruits – they’re not immune to many things – to include influenza viruses and a bunch of other things, too – just because they haven’t lived long enough to encounter the different pathogens that are out there. So in the basic training environment, you have platoons or groups of people packed together. And they’re sleeping together at night in barracks that facilitates the transmission of respiratory pathogens. So in order to avoid that, you have to bring their level of immunity, at least during basic recruit training, by vaccinating them.
HUANG: When you see the rollback of the flu vaccine policy, what do you think that does to the U.S. military from a readiness perspective?
SANCHEZ: I think it just puts us back in time to, you know, 60, 70 years ago, where we are putting ourselves in a position where we’re making our – you know, allowing the virus to take over and have – cause significant, you know, loss of time, training time and whatnot – and in some cases, severe. But, I mean, when you have a single death, then that’s it. That’s a war stopper, right there. I don’t mean it will stop a war. I mean, that’s a matter that needs to be addressed immediately.
HUANG: That’s Dr. Jose Sanchez, formerly of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. Thank you for speaking with me.
SANCHEZ: Thanks to you, and God bless you all.
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