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At least 222 trainees have gotten sick during a flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The Air Force says it has been working to contain the virus for the past three weeks.
The Air Force says medical personnel are isolating and treating sick trainees, monitoring those who may have been exposed, and administering antiviral medications to help contain the outbreak.
The number of reported illnesses has climbed to 222, according to U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio. Earlier in the week, Castro said nearly 160 members of the 37th Training Wing had gotten sick.
Castro has called for a full accounting of the outbreak and an investigation into the death of trainee Keon McDaniel, who suffered a medical emergency during the outbreak. Military officials say the cause of death remains under investigation and have not said whether influenza played a role.
In April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ended the military's long-standing influenza vaccine requirement, arguing the mandate weakened military readiness.
A Pentagon spokesperson said the policy change was intended to "maximize operational readiness, lethality, and force generation, while safeguarding at-risk populations." The spokesperson said the department remains committed to the health and readiness of service members and civilian personnel.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, who previously served as Undersecretary of the Air Force, said the outbreak was preventable.
"It's really unfortunate that we're playing politics with people's public health, and with things like vaccines," Jones told TPR's "The Source."
She also criticized what she described as growing misinformation about public health.
"Not only are we dealing with cuts to public health, but we are dealing with also the misinformation around basic concepts in public health — and there are real consequences of that, unfortunately, like our recruits have found out the hard way," she said.
Castro similarly criticized the policy change, calling it "a reckless decision that put troops in harm's way and undermined our military readiness."
Dr. Jose Sanchez, former deputy chief of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, told NPR that outbreaks of this size have become rare because recruits traditionally received influenza vaccinations before beginning basic training.
"The last time where we saw this happen in a significant way was back in 2009, 2010," Sanchez told NPR.
Sanchez said the close quarters of basic training create ideal conditions for respiratory viruses to spread and that vaccination has long been a key tool for preventing outbreaks among recruits.
