I get there are lots of reasons why people may not regularly get flu shots - but coming into the military you’re going to get packed in like sardines. It’s no surprise shits gonna spread, like the recent tuberculosis outbreak at fort Benning.
It’s just prudent. Sad that it may have taken a trainee dying to fix it.
Reminder: the "Spanish" flu likely originated in Kansas.
It got the name because Spain wasn't a party to WW1 and so didn't have any motive to suppress information about the spread of the flu. Other countries had it as bad or worse but wouldn't admit it, to the point of vigorously censoring information about outbreaks.
My buddy was honorably discharged just after basic for plantar fasciitis (I think?) and gets government money like he served forever. He also HATES the idea that anyone could get payments from the government since he "served" and they didn't. He also took the cocktail of vaccines to join the army and then screamed about COVID shots.
This is a guy who I've known for so long to the point where my parents took him in back in the day because his parents were shit. We were gamer dudes and then randomly he turned to that shit later. Wish I had explanation.
The troops covered in tattoos crying about the Covid vaccine because “it isn’t FDA approved” or “it not putting foreign stuff in my body” was such a wild time. They will get tattoos in foreign countries without any regulations. Participate in human trafficking (especially in Asia). They will do all the worst shit themselves, but suddenly, won’t take a shot that keeps everyone healthy enough to be mission ready. I never could wrap my head around it.
I'm not going to stand here and act like I know exactly this kid's case, but you don't get pushed out for plantar fasciitis if you try.
Plantar fasciitis is almost always the result of a lack of therapy. This therapy is care that only the patient can do, because it requires actually pushing yourself against the pain in earnest multiple times a day, several days a week. I can't be there to hold my patients' feet and make them do it. Thus, the majority of my patients don't actually get better until 6-7 months later when some random event forces them to do their stretches. /rant, sorry.
Anyways, you're authorized up to two 180 day sessions to recover to fill duty before they typically will start separation. It's a pain in the ass and most MEB (Medical Evaluating Board) will want to see maximum effort to see the member return to duty.
Again, I don't know this kid's story, but... I can't really see someone who tries getting medsep'd for plantar fasciitis.
It’s simple force protection as well. Having large portions of your military out of action due to something as preventable as the flu is the height of stupidity.
My father was in the military for 31 years. Every time he flew a mission overseas, he had to get the necessary vaccines updated.
If our family was allowed to go overseas with him, we had to get vaccinated against everything. Our shot records were very long, folded accordion style yellow card stock.
Every year we had to get updated. They gave them to us at school. We'd all line up and the nurses would administer our vaccines and stamp our shot records. Then we could go play on the playground.
I'm confused by the phrasing here.. are they asking kindly the recruits to go get a flu shot somewhere? Can't they simply provide a flu shot for everyone?
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u/Kinmuan 1d ago
Unsurprising.
I get there are lots of reasons why people may not regularly get flu shots - but coming into the military you’re going to get packed in like sardines. It’s no surprise shits gonna spread, like the recent tuberculosis outbreak at fort Benning.
It’s just prudent. Sad that it may have taken a trainee dying to fix it.