Nearly 160 sick with flu at US air force base after Hegseth ends mandatory vaccines
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/18/lackland-air-force-base-flu-outbreak
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/18/lackland-air-force-base-flu-outbreak
43 Comments
jtrek@startrek.website · 52 pts · 55d
Hegseth is the one who allegedly doesn't wash his hands and doesn't believe in germs. He should be removed from power.
PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 11 pts · 55d
If you drink enough, the germs seem to stay away
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 55d
Lol. Wasnt sure whether to read this as 'you get so drunk you dont notice anymore' or 'you reach a bac that kills even the germs'.
PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 55d
Mm-hmm, less you think about it, more you drink about it, the more it works
[Edit: some say you can get bleach or even light into the body, for these problems, and maybe we should be doing that]
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 54d
Some of the vodka splashes on his hands.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 55d
he hasa glamour room in the pentagon to do all the makup for him, no need to do it himself.
teawrecks@sopuli.xyz · 31 pts · 55d
Also Hegseth,
He knows what he is.
lemmelemmy@feddit.org · 28 pts · 55d
I really don’t understand what could be the end game cancelling vaccines? What sort of profit they seek when they make people terminally sick? A sick person cannot make money as a healthy person?
Idk man. I’m baffled by the sheer stupidity of their decisions. Even 5 yr kid would be more reasonable.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 55d
It becomes a lot easier to comprehend them when you figure out they are just propagandandized contrarian idiots. They don't have a plan or even a definitive ideology, even the wannabe crusaders like Kegsbreath would be called vapid and empty by the most insane and deteriorated Knight of Saint Lazarus.
For those who don't know the Knights of Saint Lazarus started out as an order of lepers who figured if they were going down they were taking saracens with them.
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 55d
They believe minorities have weaker immune systems and are hoping they die in greater numbers. This goes back to RFK Jrs claim that black people don't need as many vaccines as others.
Kirp123@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 55d
They just hate people telling them what to do.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 54d
They still resent having been told to go to bed by mommy and daddy.
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 55d
They hate people telling them what to do so they tell other people what to do
Exatron@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
Specifically, they hate when people they think are socially beneath then tell then what to do.
mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 55d
Unfortunately some of these people are True Believers (Hegseth IMO) vs pure con artists (Trump)
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 54d
It is called "cutting off your nose to spite your face". They are so obsessed with looking smarter and contrarian that they are ready to hurt themselves to do it.
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 55d
Actively trying to cull the population
andrewta@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 55d
Yeah I can tell you there are a pile of pissed off airmen . Btw 160 is a small percentage of the airmen on a base. But it’s still going to piss a lot of people off.
Edit: I was told this is Lackland . The only base where new Airmen are trained. This is a good percentage of the airmen on that base who are going through training. Yeah, they’re gonna be a lot of pissed off airmen. And a lot of pissed off instructors. OK, technically you’re not an airman until you get through training because you’re a trainee at that point. But I’m old-school so I will still call them airmen
PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 55d
It's not even flu season, we can pump those numbers wayyy up this fall!
frongt@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 55d
160 is a good portion of the basic trainees. And I'm sure it's not done spreading yet.
andrewta@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
Oh shit! I didn’t realize this was Lackland. Oh hell, yeah there’s a lot of pissed off basic trainees. Thank you for the catch on that.
BlindPenguin@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 55d
On the upside: If the US ever declares war against us Europeans, we just need do the smallpox-blanket thing again.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 54d
Just cough on us.
rangber@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 55d
Kinda of interesting that not more profilic antivaxxers die from preventable diseases tbh. I wonder if they get vaccinated in secret.
scytale@piefed.zip · 12 pts · 55d
Many of them were vaccinated as kids, so they don’t suffer from their stupidity and instead inflict it upon their kids and othe people.
Kirp123@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 55d
They benefit from herd immunity. Which wouldn't exist without vaccines. Many of the older ones were also vaccinated as a kid so they are also protected. The ones that usually die from preventable diseases are their children. You can see that with the measles and whooping cough outbreaks that happened in the last few years.
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 55d
Oh cool, I feel like I've heard this story before... Something about a flu and an outbreak at a military base.
A long time ago though. Like probably just a little over a hundred years (at least for the flu).
Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org · 7 pts · 55d
wasabi_noir@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 55d
Hegseth drinks his own piss
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 55d
Imagine if someone qualified to run the DoD was actually running the DoD.
TammyTobacco@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 54d
I think you mean, Department of War (0/1)
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 54d
Nah. That's only a temp name.
Jiral@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 54d
It is almost as if Iran had written the vaccination guidelines for the US air force.
la508@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
I'm not coming to Hegseth's defence (sorry, "war") but I've had my flu jab every year for the last 30-something years, and it doesn't prevent you getting flu, it can just make it milder.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 55d
It can certainly prevent large outbreaks when we're talking close quarters contact like between people in the military.
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 53d
Same as the Covid vaccine: It makes it less likely that you'll catch it (though not bringing it down to 0%), and just as importantly, makes you less contagious if you do catch it.
The outbreak-stopping effect becomes strong when everyone is vaccinated. It doesn't prevent every individual from becoming infected, but it inhibits disease spread through the population.
la508@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 53d
No, I know - I'm just worried that people will read the headline and think it makes you completely immune. It's also based on what is calculated to likely be the most virulent strain of flu each year, but obviously there are many and they mutate. Even with 100% vaccination rates, some flu is going to be going around and some pitchfork-wielding, dribbling idiots will kick off saying that vaccination "doesn't work".
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 53d
Oh absolutely, I think it's really important that we talk about flu-vaccines as more something that works on a population level (and that makes disease milder for the individual), than something that gives full protection to the individual. We need to talk about it is such a way that when the driveling idiots talk about an outbreak, we can point out that the outbreak would have effected 10x more people (and have higher lethality) if there weren't vaccines. We should never claim that these vaccines give full protection to any individual.
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 55d
What's the name of that Curb your enthusiasm song?
Strider@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 54d
Nice
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 54d
Back to the civil war days where more soldiers died of infections in camp than in combat.
MrSulu@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 55d
He does usually have the highest grasp of clinical practice, so this is aone off blip, nothing to do with flu. No further questions!........... /s
kreskin@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 55d
The soldiers should know by now that they need to sneak off base to get proper medical care. Republican leadership of the military always ends this way. They want cuts and hate heatlth care, so military health care is an easy target.