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A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu—NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/flu-outbreak-air-force-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rFA.LASy.Em3OYzAscBzB&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Why do we need to relearn the lesson that vaccines are a good thing?

Because some people are absolute [redacted].

One of my father's colleague said recently he mentioned vaccinating a child and their parent threatened them with violence, this isn't an uncommon experience in the last few years.

But it did mean Andrew Wakefield got to shag Elle Macpherson, so there’s that.

It's worse than that.

We've got a new generation, radicalised by social media, who are anti-vaxx, we'll see the damage in the UK in the next few years as herd immunity is wiped out.

And plenty of them are in Reform.

A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu—NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/flu-outbreak-air-force-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rFA.LASy.Em3OYzAscBzB&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Why do we need to relearn the lesson that vaccines are a good thing?

Because some people are absolute [redacted].

One of my father's colleague said recently he mentioned vaccinating a child and their parent threatened them with violence, this isn't an uncommon experience in the last few years.

But it did mean Andrew Wakefield got to shag Elle Macpherson, so there’s that.

It's worse than that.

We've got a new generation, radicalised by social media, who are anti-vaxx, we'll see the damage in the UK in the next few years as herd immunity is wiped out.

A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu—NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/flu-outbreak-air-force-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rFA.LASy.Em3OYzAscBzB&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Why do we need to relearn the lesson that vaccines are a good thing?

Same reason we apparently need to relearn the lesson that Nazis are a bad thing. We've had getting on for seventy years of peace and health and whatnot, and come to take it as read, rather than things that require a bit (not very much) effort on our parts.