Making Sense of Summer Flu Outbreaks

The Real Truth About Vaccines

Some people are having a very hard time understanding how there could have been a flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. An ongoing flu outbreak that started in June!

Anti-vaccine influencers would rather think that everyone else got it wrong, rather than try to understand how the flu spreads.

A flu outbreak that has grown to 284 cases, including one death.

Making Sense of Summer Flu Outbreaks

A flu outbreak that began after Pete Hegseth discarded the mandatory flu vaccine requirement for the US military.

Flu activity is relatively low in the summer in the United States, but some cases do occur year round.

A flu outbreak that did begin when flu activity was low in the United States.

A flu outbreak that began when flu activity was already picking up in several countries in the Southern Hemisphere though!

On an Air Force Base, is it hard to believe that someone didn’t travel to the Southern Hemisphere and return home with the flu? After all, it is usually flu season somewhere!

Why is that important?

Flu season has started in Argentina and some other countries. That’s not surprising, as it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

Well, if someone from one of those countries in the Southern Hemisphere had the flu and traveled to the United States, they could easily have gotten someone else sick, right?

“Influenza viruses do not respect borders. The global spread of flu is influenced by human travel, migration patterns, and climate variations. Flu viruses circulate year-round in tropical regions but tend to peak seasonally in temperate zones during fall and winter months.”

Understanding Flu Strains: What Changes Each Year?

And that could have started an outbreak if they were all around a lot of other people who weren’t vaccinated and protected, like new recruits on an Air Force Base.

Or maybe U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro made the whole thing up and there is no flu outbreak…

What do you believe?

Oh, there is another reason all of this is important!

Since our flu vaccines have expired, until we have updated flu vaccines, it might make sense to import, grant temporary expanded access, and use already available flu vaccines for the 2026 Southern Hemisphere influenza season.

Is that what Sec. RFK, Jr and Pete Hegseth are going to do?

Bottom line - the easiest way to understand the summer flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas is to realize that it isn’t summer everywhere!

More on Understanding Flu Season

• How Next Year’s Flu Epidemic Might Affect Our Military

• Understanding Flu Season

• I’m Not Anti-Vaccine, I Just Don’t Believe in Flu Shots

• The History of Flu Vaccine Recommendations

• About Those Charts That Show 60 Years of Failing Flu Vaccines

• Flu Season Predictions

• US Rep. Castro connects Air Force trainee death to flu outbreak at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland

• PRESS RELEASE: 37th Training Wing Mourns the Loss of Basic Military Trainee

• US military races to vaccinate new recruits before flu shots expire

• WHO - Global respiratory virus weekly updates

• Global circulation patterns of seasonal influenza viruses vary with antigenic drift

• Understanding Flu Strains: What Changes Each Year?

• Recommendations announced for influenza vaccine composition for the 2026 southern hemisphere influenza season