Defense Department Continues Ignoring Harms to Readiness by Pushing Flu Shots Contrary to Large Body of Evidence

After the tyrannical enforcement of the now-rescinded 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate, now determined to be “unlawful as implemented,” skepticism of all vaccines has clearly increased throughout the military community.

Sadly, some service members are facing punitive actions for objecting to the flu shot, having argued it is ineffective and detrimental to not only their health, but also their religious convictions. An anonymous Marine officer and Air Force Major Brennan Schilperoort share a similar moral and religious objection to the shot, while also suffering adverse effects from a previous injection. Additionally, both officers have also shown natural immunity.

Rather than recognizing their Constitutionally protected religious rights to substantiate their objection, the military has decided to separate both individuals from service. Although Maj. Schilperoort’s pay was restored by the Air Force, it must be noted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is aware of their situation, but has thus far remained silent on the issue of separation over the flu shot.

The Gateway Pundit spoke to independent journalist Jeremy Hammond, whose articles about the flu shot have elicited high praise from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

For Hammond, “The coerced vaccination of military service members is yet another unfortunate example of how the government systematically violates individuals’ right to informed consent.” He explained, “This policy exists despite scientific evidence indicating that getting an annual flu shot can actually increase the risk of influenza illness.”

A Cleveland Clinic study of their 54,402 employees during the 2024-2025 flu season found the flu shot was not effective in preventing the transmission of the respiratory illness. Results of the study can be found at MedRxiv, pronounced “med-archive,” an online platform used to share “preprints” in the medical, clinical, and health science fields.

The manuscript is a preprint, meaning it has not been peer-reviewed. Thus, “it reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice,” according to the site.

While some might question the validity and reliability of the research as a result, preprints are also known to allow for quicker dissemination of research, provide opportunities for feedback from the scientific community, or could simply be considered an early version of the research manuscript.

With these parameters in place to consider, the study found “in an analysis adjusted for age, sex, clinical nursing job, and employment location, the risk of influenza was significantly higher for the vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated state, yielding a calculated vaccine effectiveness of −26.9%” [emphasis added]. Therefore, based on this data, it can be stated vaccinated individuals were 27 percent more likely to get the flu.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health organizations continue to recommend the flu shot, the Cleveland Clinic study has given pause to many concerned about the efficacy of the shot.

For military service members who take objection to the flu shot and seek accommodation or exemption, an objective look at previously published data also supports their stance. Consider the wealth of citations included in a May 2020 letter sent to Dr. Sanjay Gupta by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

For example, Kennedy, who now serves as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), pointed out that in a 2010 systematic meta review of literature, “Cochrane researchers found ‘no evidence that [flu] vaccines prevent viral transmission or complications.’”

What’s more, he wrote, “a study from January 18, 2018, in the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PNAS, found that influenza vaccination actually increased transmission of the virus, with vaccinated individuals shedding more than six times as much aerosolized virus in their breath than unvaccinated individuals.”

He also noted that a January 2020 study by the Department of Defense “found that the flu shot INCREASES the risks from coronavirus by 36%.”

Hammond referenced multiple studies, each cited in a 2019 special report entitled “How You’re Being Lied to about the Risks of Getting a Flu Vaccine Annually.” He argued, “The 2010 Cochrane review is a good example of how the science is systematically misrepresented by the mainstream media.”

He pointed out, “The New York Times cited it to support the claim that flu shot confers ‘a big payoff in public health’, when in fact the review found that the fundamental assumptions underlying the CDC’s universal flu shot recommendation were unsupported by scientific evidence, and the review authors went so far in their criticism of the CDC’s policy as to accuse it of deliberately misrepresenting the science to support its policy.”

He asserted, “CDC policymakers refuse to consider that superior natural immunity is an opportunity cost of vaccination, which helps to explain the findings of numerous studies of an increased [emphasis added] risk of influenza illness associated with annual receipt of flu shots.” In addition, he said, “There is also the problem of ‘original antigenic sin’, where the initial priming of the immune system prejudices future responses to pathogenic challenges.”

Hammond offered a series of studies reported in PLoS Medicine in 2010, which “found an increased risk of illness due to the 2009 pandemic swine flu among those who’d received that year’s seasonal flu shot.” Additionally, he said, “A study in the Journal of Virology in 2011 found that annual influenza vaccination hampers the development of robust cell-mediated immunity that would otherwise be induced by infection.”

There are also “non-specific effects” of vaccines to consider. “Just because a vaccine is effective at reducing the risk of illness from the target pathogen does not mean that it reduces the overall risk of illness,” he shared. “Vaccinations can detrimentally affect the immune system in ways that make people more vulnerable to other diseases.” To that end, a study in Clinical Infectious Diseases in 2012 found that children who received the flu shot had an increased risk of non-influenza infections.

“Even a CDC-funded study in Clinical Infectious Diseases in 2014 found that the more that people received a flu shot each year, the less effective the protection was over time, such that ‘vaccine-induced protection was greatest for individuals not vaccinated during the prior 5 years,’” Hammond shared. “Tellingly, the CDC researchers didn’t include in their study individuals who had not received any flu shots during the observation period for comparison.” He concluded, “You can’t find what you don’t look for, so the CDC doesn’t bother looking.”

Two weeks ago, Air Force Col. (Ret.) Rob Maness welcomed Maj. Schilperoort to his show:

Shortly after, the Air Force major also appeared on the Finding Your Spone podcast with Dr. Chase Spears. Click here to listen to the podcast.

The post Defense Department Continues Ignoring Harms to Readiness by Pushing Flu Shots Contrary to Large Body of Evidence appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.