Air Force base grapples with major flu outbreak

[struggle4progress]

MS NOW
Jun 19, 2026

A Texas Air Force base is grappling with a major flu outbreak just weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dropped the military's flu vaccine requirement. MS NOW Pentagon Reporter Priya Sridhar has more

[struggle4progress]

1. Flu outbreak climbs to 222 cases at Lackland Air Force Base

by Jessica Warner
Fri, June 19, 2026 at 4:25 PM

SAN ANTONIO - In a new social media post, a U.S. Congressman is demanding answers about what led to a major flu outbreak at a military base.

On Friday, U.S. Rep Joaquin Castro of Texas's 20th congressional district updated the public on an ongoing Flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base, which has now spread to over 200 cases ...

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/flu-outbreak-climbs-to-222-cases-at-lackland-air-force-base-rep-castro-demands-answers

Our military readiness could improve quickly if Hegseth played a round or two of Russian roulette every day

[jmowreader]

9. Lackland is exactly the Air Force Base you do NOT want an epidemic at!

That's where they run basic training. Every two weeks they send about 1800 nice fresh airmen out into the world. If they're running an incubator down there because the town drunk doesn't believe in vaccination, we're all in trouble.

[louis-t]

2. Make Hegseth hang with the fellas at that base for a week.

By Tuesday he'll be

[cpamomfromtexas]

3. That base is monstrous. 200 people is nothing

[struggle4progress]

4. That must be a great consolation to the friends and family of the recruit who died

[Manatee]

5. Indeed

That is less than 0.6% of the people at that facility.

[LisaL]

7. Do you know what flu does among un-vaccinated individuals?

[Manatee]

8. I understand that it

can hit some people really hard. However, with that said, I haven't had a flu shot since high school and I never get sick. I'm 57. I can't even remember the last time I had a mild cold. I'm pretty sure the last time I called in sick for work was in 2009.

[LisaL]

6. It's not even the flu season right now.

What do you think is going to happen in the peak of flu season, with majority of the people now un-vaccianted?

[Turbineguy]

10. Readiness Hegseth style.

[Initech]

11. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes!