Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base

Historical context & military readiness

• Many argue the lapse in mandatory flu shots was a predictable disaster, noting that historically more soldiers died from disease than combat.
• References to the 1918 flu and Revolutionary War smallpox inoculation are used to show that vaccination has long been recognized as a core military capability.
• Commenters with service experience describe boot camp respiratory illness (“recruit flu”) as normal, reinforcing that close-quarters troops are especially vulnerable.
• Vaccination is framed as essential to deployability and readiness; disease waves can make units nonfunctional and even create exploitable weaknesses for adversaries.

Policy decisions and politicization

• Several see the decision to relax flu mandates as politically motivated rather than based on military risk, with recruitment/morale possibly used as justification.
• The subsequent reversal is viewed as reality reasserting itself after ideology-driven policy.
• Some point out that major commands and agencies reportedly obtained exceptions to the optional policy, suggesting internal resistance and leadership dysfunction.

Mandates, freedom, and public health ethics

• One camp emphasizes personal choice and distrust of government, opposing coercive vaccination policies and COVID-style mandates.
• Others counter that vaccines require high coverage to protect the vulnerable and that “pure choice” is incompatible with effective disease control in shared environments like bases.
• Debate over whether it is acceptable to “let reality teach lessons” (by withholding proactive protections) is met with arguments that this punishes bystanders and repeats historical failures.

Vaccine effectiveness debates (flu & COVID)

• A minority calls flu shots “ineffective” or a “scam,” citing seasons with low observed protection.
• Multiple replies stress:
  • Even in “bad” years, flu shots substantially reduce medically significant illness and hospital visits.
  • Group-level benefits in congregate settings can be large, even if individual protection is modest.
• On COVID vaccines, some blame aggressive promotion for fueling backlash; others emphasize strong evidence of reduced hospitalizations and deaths and dismiss “experimental” claims.

Broader societal reflections

• Thread broadens into concerns about anti-science politics, empire decline through ignorance, and “reality-based” vs “reality-creating” worldviews.
• Chesterton’s Fence is invoked: dismantling safeguards like vaccine mandates without understanding their purpose is portrayed as a recurring error.