Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the U.S. military will no longer require all American troops to get the flu vaccine, a shift he framed around “medical autonomy” and religious freedom. In a video posted online, Hegseth said the idea that a flu vaccine should be mandatory for every service member “everywhere, in every circumstance at all times” was “overly broad” and “not rational.”
Hegseth said service members would remain able to choose vaccination, but they would not be compelled to receive it. He said American troops would not be forced “because your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable.”
The directive also allows for the military services to seek to keep the vaccine requirement in place, according to a memo that enacts the policy posted online. The memo gives the services 15 days to make those requests, according to the Associated Press report.
Hegseth’s announcement drew a line from long-running military health policy to renewed political controversy over vaccine mandates that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The AP report said more than 8,400 troops were forced out of the military after refusing to obey the 2021 mandate for the COVID-19 vaccine, while thousands of others sought religious and medical exemptions.
Congress later moved to rescind the COVID-19 mandate after the Pentagon dropped it in January 2023, the AP report said. It said roughly 99% of active-duty troops in the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps had gotten the vaccine, and about 98% in the Army had, while Guard and Reserve rates were lower but generally above 90%.
The Trump administration then spent months shaping a policy to let some service members who refused the COVID-19 vaccine reenter service with back pay. The AP report said only a small fraction have taken up the option, but Hegseth’s team spent months highlighting them, and the Pentagon said in March that 153 separated service members had been reinstated or “re-accessed.”
The AP report also placed the flu-vaccine rollback alongside broader efforts to change vaccine guidance in the Trump administration. It said health officials described a particularly severe flu season when U.S. infections surged, and that public health experts recommend that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine.
Earlier this year, the administration said it would no longer recommend flu shots and some other vaccines for all children, saying it was a decision for parents and patients to make with their doctors, the AP report said. It added that a federal judge temporarily blocked that effort as a lawsuit plays out.
A Congressional Research Service report listed eight mandatory vaccines for service members in 2021, including flu, polio and tetanus, as well as measles and hepatitis A and B. The report said service members could request to opt out of a vaccine requirement for religious reasons, and that commanders were required to seek input from medical and religious representatives and counsel service members on the potential impact on deployment.
The AP report said the Congress Research Service noted the military’s first vaccination program was instituted in 1777, when Gen. George Washington directed inoculation of the Continental Army to protect personnel from smallpox.