Shocker.
Jake Tapper is amplifying a New York Times story that attempts to tie a flu outbreak among Air Force recruits at Lackland to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to end the mandatory flu shot for troops.
Anything to keep blaming the Trump administration for any and everything that goes wrong, right?
NYT: A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas weeks after Defense Secretary Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said. https://t.co/fFIt8Mhyzg
— Jake Tapper 🦅 (@jaketapper) June 18, 2026
The piece highlights nearly 160 cases in basic training - where recruits live in tight quarters - but downplays that it’s June, well outside peak flu season, and that the previous season’s vaccine had mediocre effectiveness. In other words, the flu shot from last fall (before Hegseth removed the requirement) would still be in effect.
And well ... failing.
Joyce Alene jumped on the anti-Trump blame-Hegseth bandwagon as well:
This is not a surprise to anyone who works on military readiness. The fact that Hegseth thought that implementing a political agenda at the cost of readiness suggest that immediate impeachment would be appropriate since he won’t have the decency to resign. https://t.co/8kjGF5ZItE
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 18, 2026
Because it's political to allow people to choose whether or not they take the flu shot.
Alrighty.
Luckily, Twitchy fave Cynical Publius was more than happy to do the math and point out that it's not the BREAKING story that the Left was hoping for:
Recommended
The population of Lackland AFB is ~24,000.
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) June 19, 2026
160 is 0.6% of 24,000.
The current flu rate across the entire USA as of today is approximately the same (see below from Grok).
It's so easy to disprove these liars, they never even try to check their own facts because of their blind… https://t.co/KLW8E0v9zC pic.twitter.com/Is2BnysGft
Post continues:
... hatred of Trump and his team.
You think you hate journalists enough...
To be fair, this is all Jake Tapper really knows how to do. Hate Trump.
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Related:
SO MUCH Worse: Sharyl Attkisson Adds a WHOPPER to Tulsi Gabbard's DAMNING Lists of Fauci Receipts
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