\n<\/p>\n
Pete Hegseth says the decision is based on the principle of \u2018medical autonomy\u2019 and criticises the mandate as \u2018overreaching\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 21 Apr 2026<\/span>21 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that the flu vaccine will no longer be obligatory for members of the country\u2019s military, the latest step under President Donald Trump to shift vaccine policy in the federal government.<\/p>\n Hegseth said in a video shared on social media on Tuesday that the decision was based on principles of \u201cmedical autonomy\u201d and religious freedom.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capabilities. In this case, this includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it,\u201d said Hegseth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member, everywhere, in every circumstance at all times is just overly broad and not rational.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration has framed vaccine refusal as a matter of personal moral and religious principle, rolling back some policies meant to safeguard against preventable diseases.<\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s directive allows various military services to request that the mandate be kept in place, giving them a window of 15 days to do so.<\/p>\n The announcement comes after what health officials described as a particularly severe flu season when infections surged in the US. Public health experts have recommended that everyone aged six months or older get an annual flu vaccine.<\/p>\n The second Trump administration has reflected some of the backlash to public health guidelines and mandates that were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Hegseth himself has called that period an \u201cera of betrayal\u201d for the country\u2019s armed forces. More than 8,400 members of the military were ejected for failure to abide by a 2021 mandate to take the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has also rolled back vaccine recommendations in other areas, announcing earlier this year that it would not recommend flu shots and other forms of vaccines for all children. A lawsuit was filed challenging that effort, and the policy was temporarily blocked by a federal judge as the legal challenge plays out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pete Hegseth says the decision is based on the principle of \u2018medical autonomy\u2019 and criticises the mandate as \u2018overreaching\u2019. Published On 21 Apr 202621 Apr 2026 United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that the flu vaccine will no longer be obligatory for members of the country\u2019s military, the latest step under President Donald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"