US military races to vaccinate new recruits before flu shots expire | US military

The U.S. military is racing to vaccinate new soldiers after a two-month pause on mandatory flu shots; But this is a temporary reprieve, as the vaccines will soon expire and new doses may not be available for months.

Authorities will need to resort to other prevention measures to control the growing flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, experts say.

Flu vaccines currently distributed at military boot camps will expire on June 30, and new doses won’t arrive until August or later.

It’s possible that military leaders will extend the use of vaccines beyond their expiration dates, but that’s “unlikely,” said Toti Sanchez, former deputy chief of the U.S. Defense Health Agency’s armed forces health surveillance division. Vaccine stock is typically low this time of year as manufacturers begin producing next season’s doses.

“Historically, the earliest we’ve done vaccinations is late August or early September — certainly late September — but I don’t think you can count on them being ready before the fourth week of August,” Sanchez said.

“You can’t change that. The production timeline is basically set in stone,” he added.

U.S. military services, including the air force, army and navy, reimposed flu vaccine requirements for new recruits earlier this week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lifted the mandate in late April.

Even before the Lackland outbreak sickened at least 275 people and hospitalized four, military leaders had reportedly been working for weeks to reestablish vaccine authorization. One of the soldiers, Keon McDaniel, died earlier this month after experiencing a medical emergency. His death is still under investigation and it is not yet clear whether it is linked to the flu epidemic.

When Hegseth announced the mandate would expire, he said the services would be allowed to seek exceptions, essentially allowing the mandate to continue, and that decisions about reimposing the requirement were part of that process.

The military also plans to require vaccinations for troops overseas, first responders, child care workers, medical personnel, prison staff and soldiers on large-scale training exercises. reporting by ABC.

After the mandate was lifted, flu vaccination rates dropped to 40%; This is a similar rate to the general population. But “basic training is a unique environment,” said Caitlin Rivers, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a former civilian epidemiologist in the military.

Rivers said training camp is “notorious for causing outbreaks,” calling it a “very vulnerable environment” to the spread of infectious diseases. In his 2024 book, Crisis Averted, he detailed the high human cost of infectious diseases in the military and a cycle of “panic and neglect” that led military leaders to forgo vaccines and then ramp them up, often at great expense, when outbreaks inevitably occurred.

“The flu vaccine is critical to preventing outbreaks and maintaining preparedness,” Rivers said.

Conscripts are particularly at risk because they live in overcrowded, confined conditions and are pushed to their physical limits under high stress and little sleep. Young people in their late teens or early 20s are particularly susceptible to the flu because they have not yet been exposed to many variants of the flu, either through infection or vaccination.

Lackland is the air force’s only basic training site, which means it draws trainees from around the United States and the world. Rivers said it’s currently flu season in the southern hemisphere, and in the U.S. “flu spreads year-round, but it’s not as prevalent during the summer months.” “But it only takes one case added to Basic for an outbreak to start.”

Sanchez likened the conditions to a “petri dish” and said leaders are likely “exerting maximum utility to vaccinate previously unvaccinated individuals before the end of June.”

But about 700 new people arrive in Lackland each week, and flu cases are still skyrocketing.

Once the vaccine expires, officials will likely turn to other infection control practices: dividing recruits into smaller groups for eating and showering; Hand washing and hand sanitizer are emphasized. Face masks or respirators can play a role, but they are difficult to train and soldiers cannot sleep or shower with masks on.

When Sanchez heard that the mandate, first implemented in 1945, had been overturned, he thought: “Here we are, 81 years later, turning back the clock.”

He prefers to look to the future: specifically to messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines that can be quickly updated in the face of unusual outbreaks like this.

Moderna is preparing to offer the first mRNA flu vaccine for people 50 and older, but it could be expanded to other age groups, especially young adults at high risk like these recruits, Sanchez said, adding: “We could have a platform manufacturing manufacturing base that would allow us to have an updated flu vaccine using mRNA technology in a month or two instead of five to six months.”