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  "path": "/pete-hegseth-adds-new-weapon-to-american-warfighter-loadout-influenza",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-22T13:24:17.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "Blogs Of Note",
    "Politics",
    "influenza",
    "military",
    "pete hegseth",
    "public health",
    "Vaccination",
    "vaccines",
    "tweeted video",
    "the department's website"
  ],
  "textContent": "The U.S. Department of Defense will no longer mandate flu vaccination for military service members or civilian personnel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday, in a tweeted video that nothing shy of a credible imminent threat to murder my entire family could make me watch. Vaccination, according to a portion of the video quoted on the department's website, will be issued only to those who \"believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest.\" America's drunkest sweaty tryhard touts this move, in his tweet, as \"restoring freedom to our Joint Force.\"\n\nAh yes, freedom and your individual best interest, famously what military service is all about. Will Hegseth's military issue heavy packs only to those warfighters who believe carrying 65 pounds on their back is in their best interest? Will it only give high-risk orders to those soldiers who regard death at age 23 as compatible with their personal ambitions? What do you suppose will happen to the next civilian Department of Defense employee who declares loyalty-check polygraph tests inconsistent with their personal beliefs?\n\nApropos of nothing, influenza killed more than 45,000 American soldiers during the \"Spanish flu\" pandemic of 1918–20, including nearly 16,000 who were deployed to France and fighting World War I. Had the flu vaccine been available then, any American serviceperson who refused it would have had their ass booted through the roof of their mouth. Hegseth has talked a lot about maximizing the lethality of America's service members; credit him, I suppose, for taking a true yes-and approach to the challenge.",
  "title": "Pete Hegseth Adds New Weapon To American Warfighter Loadout: Influenza"
}