{"id":39371,"date":"2026-06-20T11:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/?p=39371"},"modified":"2026-06-20T11:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:31:18","slug":"die-freiheit-des-einzelnen-und-der-atem-aller-hegseth-gab-die-grippeimpfung-frei-dann-kam-das-fieber-nach-lackland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/en\/die-freiheit-des-einzelnen-und-der-atem-aller-hegseth-gab-die-grippeimpfung-frei-dann-kam-das-fieber-nach-lackland\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Freedom of the Individual and the Breath of All: Hegseth Made the Flu Shot Optional, Then the Fever Came to Lackland\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Hegseth made the flu vaccine optional in April, in the name of faith and bodily self determination. Seven weeks later, a wave of influenza tore through the open sleeping bays of the recruits at Lackland. Nearly one hundred sixty fell ill, and one young soldier died.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A severe flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, sickened nearly one hundred sixty service members, at least one hundred fifty nine reported cases and two hospitalizations, less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that American troops would no longer be required to receive the flu vaccine. It moved through a training squadron of recruits, where the new arrivals sleep in open bays on bunk beds and eat together at long tables, a place built in such a way that nothing about one body remains private, least of all its breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One recruit in the sixth week of basic training, Keon McDaniel, became ill on a Friday, was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, and died. The Air Force says a comprehensive medical investigation will determine the cause and that whether his death was connected to the flu outbreak has not yet been established. His name belongs in the record before any argument does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since the policy took effect on April 21, only around forty percent of Air Force recruits chose vaccination, which had previously been mandatory for all. After the outbreak, the Air Force created an exception to its own voluntary rule and ordered every recruit at Lackland to receive the shot to stop the spread. The freedom lasted exactly as long as it took to be tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth had framed the decision as a matter of religious freedom and medical self determination. In a video in April, he said that under the disastrous Biden administration, the Department of Defense had waged an unrelenting war against its own troops, including by denying them medical self determination and the right to express their religious beliefs. He called the previous requirement an irrational and intrusive order that had weakened the nation\u2019s readiness for combat. Elsewhere he described it simply as not reasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n