TL;DR, July 3 -- The Pentagon on Wednesday ordered all military branches to again mandate flu vaccinations for recruits, reversing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's April decision to make the shots optional. The reversal follows a weekslong flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, that has sickened at least 275 recruits and killed trainee Keon McDaniel, who died on June 16. The flu-shot requirement Hegseth removed had been in place since 1945. Only 40 percent of trainees opted for the vaccine once it became voluntary.

SAN ANTONIO - The day Keon McDaniel died in a military hospital in San Antonio on June 16, just days after a medical emergency put him in critical care, the flu outbreak spreading through Lackland Air F...