In a sane administration, the complete and total lack of judgement that allowed vaccine mandates to go away should have led to an instant loss of confidence in sec def and anyone in the chain that didn't raise concerns about that decision. Anyone that studies even the slightest amount of military history knows that disease used to kill more people in war than bullets until -very- recently. The fact that potentially the single most effective combat enabler is not taken seriously shows the complete and utter lack of qualifications the people this administration puts into positions of power.
> The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.
Hot take but we should let reality deal the blow. There's so many things that people think is redundant and unnecessary but actually have an army of people and machination that are working tirelessly to curb it. Only to called bloat and the deep state.
Vaccines should not be given automatically, because that causes people to not think about why they need it. They think that it is something is imposed on them. But if they always have to request it (and the request is quick and always given, or super cheap at the shop) then people would have to know to get vaccinated. Parents will talk to each other about which vaccine is necessary (and its going to be all of them because they will know someone that died from it)
This is true for any crisis really. For example, lets say that you are managing someone's finances or health, you found out that they are in a horrible situation. But then, you discovered a solution that does not require their attention. So you work tirelessly behind the scene to fix their finances or develop new cure. Voila! Problem solved. Or is it? You have not fixed the fundamental problem that they are an obese with obese lifestyle.
If millions more people are obese than were obese 50 years ago, clearly something has changed systemically that has made people more sedentary and eating more. People 50 years ago were not paying more conscious attention to their health than people today, but the background environment of available food and sedentary jobs/entertainment were different.
The personal responsibility model of obesity works for individuals (including myself), but falls flat when discussing how to lower the weight of millions.
Sadly, all the time spent deferring reality ends up hurting a lot of bystanders. The debt they've run up is going to be painful, maybe moreso than the damages incurred from the anti-science and anti-transparency policies.
The debt would be less painful if the pricks that were responsible for this mess would be billed for the consequences of their poor king-making.
We can start with whomever showed up to that inauguration, and expand from there. If they could afford that bribe, they can certainly afford to pay for repairing the damage their golden boy has caused.
And/or if the debt was for something useful. There’s nothing wrong with running up massive low-interest debt if it’s invested in high-return projects. I’ll borrow every cent anyone will lend me at 2% if there’s a 4% savings account handy, and that’s the leverage the US used to enjoy.
But just cutting taxes for the rich is not that model.
Hopefully sanity prevails and we retroactively declare those tax cuts as loans, now due with interest. Yeah, not how contracts are supposed to work. So what.
The vaccine was mandatory, like in pretty much every army base of every half developed country, because not having it mandatory led to infection waves and in the army that's even worse than in genpop.
The reasons for not doing the vaccine anymore were, essentially, "the vaccine is more dangerous than the sickness" and "the vaccine is not necessary to avoid the sickness".
Both of those statement are, factually, scientifically, not true. That's reality. Which is what parent meant, no matter the deep conviction and the political innuendo, ultimately reality is you either do the vaccine and are safe for no risk or you don't and you get infection waves.
I have a close friend who is an officer nearing twenty years. He has not had a tendency to criticize his job. However, he has been adamant that vaccines are incredibly important for the military and the policy changes have really angered him, specifically because of the damage it does to readiness.
> During the 1700s, smallpox raged through the American colonies and the Continental Army. Smallpox impacted the Continental Army severely during the Revolutionary War, so much so that George Washington mandated inoculation for all Continental soldiers in 1777. Just fifty-six years earlier, in 1721, Bostonian doctors and clergy introduced the procedure to the American colonies. Without the vision and determination of these early Bostonians in normalizing inoculation, Washington may not have made the decision to mandate inoculation for the Continental Army. Though it was a controversial action, many historians credit the medical mandate with the colonists’ victory in the Revolutionary War and the creation of the United States of America.
> You are hereby required immediately to send me an exact return of your regiment, and to send all your recruits, who have had the small pox to join the Army. Those, who have not, are to be sent to Philadelphia, and put under the direction of the commanding officer there, who will have them inoculated.
If I remember correctly, the Battle of Agincourt, where the Welsh archers destroyed the French knights, was fought by archers with their pants around their ankles.
Apparently, there was a dysentery outbreak. They didn’t run, because they couldn’t. Maybe that was the thinking behind this edict.
The covid refusal also became a scam. If you refused then you couldnt be deployed. But it tool months to kick people out. So people who didnt want to deploy would refuse and then agree to get the shot at the last minute. So it kept them home for up to six months while thier buddies went overseas..
As reported by The Onion, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered all of the individuals who became ill to be dishonorably discharged.
"Our armed forces need warriors, not weak losers who can't fight off a little virus," he stated. "You should be able to do 70 pull-ups in a minute and to never succumb to the so-called flu."
This administration might be the exception, but it is actually normal for the US military to be getting more vaccines than average, even when their effectiveness is suspect (some past flu vaccines) or side effects are moderate to severe (e.g. anthrax vaccines).
Readiness - a matter of national security - tends to trump most concerns that, in civilian populations, might warrant greater choice and debate.
You'd think other aspects of health, like general fitness and mental well-being would be factored in too, but strangely, the only requirement they seemed to take a hard stance on previously was over-vaccination.
Almost like it was politically-motivated and it's not truthfully a "matter of national security"
> Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that the Pentagon had granted exceptions to Hegseth’s optional flu shot policy to the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Security Agency, and the Defense Health Agency.
So which ones are still exempt from the vaccines? Space Force, USMC, Coast Guard, who else?
Absolutely none of this should have happened. None.
The 1918 "Spanish flu" was cultivated in the trenches and spread through military camps and demobilization.
Hesgeth should be removed from his position ASAP.
Edit:
>Around 60% of previously unvaccinated trainees at Lackland initially declined the flu shot during the vaccine requirement’s lapse, according to the defense official.
Origins of the 1918 flu are unclear, but there is evidence that it started in Haskell County, Kansas, and spread to Camp Funston, Kansas. As a consequence, many of the trainees became non-functional.
Meanwhile, down the street, you've got RFK and POTUS making measles and polio great again.
While also lying about taking Tylenol during pregnancy causing autism. They've done more studies since that misinformation to prove once again there's no connection.
RFK should be removed along with the POTUS who put him there.
Back in 2010 the situation was already extremely grim. Yes, they did test for tuberculosis upon intake and took blood samples for many hepatitis variants and possible a few other things. However, they let severe respiratory viruses run through everyone like wildfire for weeks without the slightest effort to prevent disease. They purposely let people get extremely cold and wet and didn't give a damn if people got sick. This is NOT new.
In a sane administration, the complete and total lack of judgement that allowed vaccine mandates to go away should have led to an instant loss of confidence in sec def and anyone in the chain that didn't raise concerns about that decision. Anyone that studies even the slightest amount of military history knows that disease used to kill more people in war than bullets until -very- recently. The fact that potentially the single most effective combat enabler is not taken seriously shows the complete and utter lack of qualifications the people this administration puts into positions of power.
It turns out eventually you have to deal with reality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community
> The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.
I'm still waiting to hear that soliloquy in a movie.
The actors of the empire are dismantling said empire. It will be studied, not least by its adversaries.
> 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality‘
The American reality of stepping on rake after rake after rake. A gag that meanders repeatedly between funny and sad.
Maybe. But long before that, many other people have to deal with the consequences of a few others' disbelief in reality.
Hot take but we should let reality deal the blow. There's so many things that people think is redundant and unnecessary but actually have an army of people and machination that are working tirelessly to curb it. Only to called bloat and the deep state.
Vaccines should not be given automatically, because that causes people to not think about why they need it. They think that it is something is imposed on them. But if they always have to request it (and the request is quick and always given, or super cheap at the shop) then people would have to know to get vaccinated. Parents will talk to each other about which vaccine is necessary (and its going to be all of them because they will know someone that died from it)
This is true for any crisis really. For example, lets say that you are managing someone's finances or health, you found out that they are in a horrible situation. But then, you discovered a solution that does not require their attention. So you work tirelessly behind the scene to fix their finances or develop new cure. Voila! Problem solved. Or is it? You have not fixed the fundamental problem that they are an obese with obese lifestyle.
If millions more people are obese than were obese 50 years ago, clearly something has changed systemically that has made people more sedentary and eating more. People 50 years ago were not paying more conscious attention to their health than people today, but the background environment of available food and sedentary jobs/entertainment were different.
The personal responsibility model of obesity works for individuals (including myself), but falls flat when discussing how to lower the weight of millions.
In Soviet Russia, reality deal with you!
"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid."
"It is a well-known fact that reality has liberal bias." - Stephen Colbert
Sadly, all the time spent deferring reality ends up hurting a lot of bystanders. The debt they've run up is going to be painful, maybe moreso than the damages incurred from the anti-science and anti-transparency policies.
The debt would be less painful if the pricks that were responsible for this mess would be billed for the consequences of their poor king-making.
We can start with whomever showed up to that inauguration, and expand from there. If they could afford that bribe, they can certainly afford to pay for repairing the damage their golden boy has caused.
And/or if the debt was for something useful. There’s nothing wrong with running up massive low-interest debt if it’s invested in high-return projects. I’ll borrow every cent anyone will lend me at 2% if there’s a 4% savings account handy, and that’s the leverage the US used to enjoy.
But just cutting taxes for the rich is not that model.
Hopefully sanity prevails and we retroactively declare those tax cuts as loans, now due with interest. Yeah, not how contracts are supposed to work. So what.
What does this mean
The vaccine was mandatory, like in pretty much every army base of every half developed country, because not having it mandatory led to infection waves and in the army that's even worse than in genpop.
The reasons for not doing the vaccine anymore were, essentially, "the vaccine is more dangerous than the sickness" and "the vaccine is not necessary to avoid the sickness".
Both of those statement are, factually, scientifically, not true. That's reality. Which is what parent meant, no matter the deep conviction and the political innuendo, ultimately reality is you either do the vaccine and are safe for no risk or you don't and you get infection waves.
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
See: viruses and the efficacy of vaccines thereupon.
>"The decisions were based upon thorough risk assessments..."
Both decisions? Or just the walkback one?
I have a close friend who is an officer nearing twenty years. He has not had a tendency to criticize his job. However, he has been adamant that vaccines are incredibly important for the military and the policy changes have really angered him, specifically because of the damage it does to readiness.
> However, he has been adamant that vaccines are incredibly important for the military ...
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolu...
> During the 1700s, smallpox raged through the American colonies and the Continental Army. Smallpox impacted the Continental Army severely during the Revolutionary War, so much so that George Washington mandated inoculation for all Continental soldiers in 1777. Just fifty-six years earlier, in 1721, Bostonian doctors and clergy introduced the procedure to the American colonies. Without the vision and determination of these early Bostonians in normalizing inoculation, Washington may not have made the decision to mandate inoculation for the Continental Army. Though it was a controversial action, many historians credit the medical mandate with the colonists’ victory in the Revolutionary War and the creation of the United States of America.
https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collect...
> HEAD QUARTERS MORRIS TOWN 12TH MARCH 1777
> Sir
> You are hereby required immediately to send me an exact return of your regiment, and to send all your recruits, who have had the small pox to join the Army. Those, who have not, are to be sent to Philadelphia, and put under the direction of the commanding officer there, who will have them inoculated.
If I remember correctly, the Battle of Agincourt, where the Welsh archers destroyed the French knights, was fought by archers with their pants around their ankles.
Apparently, there was a dysentery outbreak. They didn’t run, because they couldn’t. Maybe that was the thinking behind this edict.
The covid refusal also became a scam. If you refused then you couldnt be deployed. But it tool months to kick people out. So people who didnt want to deploy would refuse and then agree to get the shot at the last minute. So it kept them home for up to six months while thier buddies went overseas..
This gets downvoted every time, maybe someone doesn't like truth because it's woke or something.
Can't you just drink raw milk instead? - RFK Jr
As reported by The Onion, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered all of the individuals who became ill to be dishonorably discharged.
"Our armed forces need warriors, not weak losers who can't fight off a little virus," he stated. "You should be able to do 70 pull-ups in a minute and to never succumb to the so-called flu."
I assume you don’t know what The Onion is. I suppose I can hardly blame you as the Onion struggles to write satire as absurd as reality these days.
Or possibly the downvoters don't know what The Onion is..
Because freedom!
You've got to be able to deploy. Simple as that.
This administration might be the exception, but it is actually normal for the US military to be getting more vaccines than average, even when their effectiveness is suspect (some past flu vaccines) or side effects are moderate to severe (e.g. anthrax vaccines).
Readiness - a matter of national security - tends to trump most concerns that, in civilian populations, might warrant greater choice and debate.
It’s common sense for any congregate housing arrangement
There is (was?) a mandatory list of vaccines all military had to receive upon enlisting.
You'd think other aspects of health, like general fitness and mental well-being would be factored in too, but strangely, the only requirement they seemed to take a hard stance on previously was over-vaccination.
Almost like it was politically-motivated and it's not truthfully a "matter of national security"
> Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that the Pentagon had granted exceptions to Hegseth’s optional flu shot policy to the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Security Agency, and the Defense Health Agency.
So which ones are still exempt from the vaccines? Space Force, USMC, Coast Guard, who else?
There are a few obscure ones.
Uniformed Health Service (the reason the Surgeon General is a General), which I'm certain is vaccinated.
NOAA also has uniformed personnel.
Absolutely none of this should have happened. None.
The 1918 "Spanish flu" was cultivated in the trenches and spread through military camps and demobilization.
Hesgeth should be removed from his position ASAP.
Edit:
>Around 60% of previously unvaccinated trainees at Lackland initially declined the flu shot during the vaccine requirement’s lapse, according to the defense official.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/24/politics/flu-shot-outbrea...
Forget about Hesgeth. The USA is completely effed up.
Origins of the 1918 flu are unclear, but there is evidence that it started in Haskell County, Kansas, and spread to Camp Funston, Kansas. As a consequence, many of the trainees became non-functional.
Meanwhile, down the street, you've got RFK and POTUS making measles and polio great again.
While also lying about taking Tylenol during pregnancy causing autism. They've done more studies since that misinformation to prove once again there's no connection.
RFK should be removed along with the POTUS who put him there.
Back in 2010 the situation was already extremely grim. Yes, they did test for tuberculosis upon intake and took blood samples for many hepatitis variants and possible a few other things. However, they let severe respiratory viruses run through everyone like wildfire for weeks without the slightest effort to prevent disease. They purposely let people get extremely cold and wet and didn't give a damn if people got sick. This is NOT new.