The Navy is reinstating flu vaccine requirements for deploying sailors and those just joining the service, as well as some civilian employees, just three months after the Pentagon removed the mandate across the force.
The Navy policy announced Sunday, which takes effect immediately, makes a flu shot mandatory for deployed active duty sailors and trainees in “officer accession programs” like Officer Candidate School and the U.S. Naval Academy, along with officers who are directly commissioned, according to a Navy administrative notice, or NAVADMIN. The requirement also applies to Navy Reserve sailors who work in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Enhanced Response jobs, Reservists mobilized on Title 10 orders which are directed by the President, and those involved in direct or indirect patient care.
It’s unclear how many sailors will be impacted by the new policy. Units that fall under the order will have until Jan. 15 to ensure their sailors have received the vaccine.
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The move is the latest piecemeal reversal by an individual service for an April order by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that the flu vaccine would be optional for service members, ending a requirement that went back to World War II. The Pentagon began backtracking in June by requiring that all enlisted recruits in every service get the vaccine after an Air Force basic trainee died of flu-like symptoms in an outbreak at the Air Force’s San Antonio, Texas boot camp that also sickened 200 trainees. The New York Times and ABC News reported that only 40% of trainees had received the vaccine after it became optional.
“The influenza vaccine is highly encouraged to prevent outbreaks that can degrade unit readiness, disrupt training schedules, and deployment execution, which adversely impacts mission,” according to the NAVADMIN.
The NAVADMIN states that deployed sailors are required to get the vaccine “prior to entering any theater or country that has an active influenza vaccination requirement.” Navy officials did not immediately respond to inquiries about which countries do or do not apply.
The new flu vaccine mandate also applies to Navy civilian staff who run initial entry training, healthcare personnel with direct patient care, and workers at base daycares or other youth service programs.
The NAVADMIN states that individual sailors can still pursue vaccine exemptions for medical or administrative reasons, like religious accommodations.
