The University of Texas Medical Branch states that it has approved every employee request for an exemption from the flu vaccine since January 2024, a claim that is likely to intensify public debate over mandatory immunizations in Texas and nationwide.
In a response to a Texas Public Information Act request, UTMB reported that its Employee and Occupational Health office approved 3,309 influenza vaccine exemptions between January 1, 2024, and September 5, 2025. The Galveston-based university said zero requests were denied.
“UTMB Employee and Occupational Health advises that, in the specified time frame, 3309 influenza vaccine exemptions were approved and 0 were denied,” the institution said in a letter signed by Colin Henry, an associate legal officer.
Questions about mandatory vaccination have moved more to the forefront of the public mind in Texas and the United States in the wake of the forced COVID-19 shots during the pandemic.
The UTMB data comes as national agencies are also shifting flu vaccination policy.
On July 23, 2025, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. signed off on a federal recommendation to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from all influenza vaccines distributed in the country, an HHS press release announced. The decision followed a nearly unanimous vote by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“After more than two decades of delay, this action fulfills a long-overdue promise to protect our most vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure,” Kennedy said in the agency’s press release.
The CDC has also released vaccine distribution and effectiveness data for the current flu season.
The agency reported that 147.6 million doses were distributed by March 8, 2025, the final update for the year. Interim estimates published in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in February suggested vaccine effectiveness ranged between 32% and 60% for children in outpatient settings and between 36% and 54% for adults. Effectiveness against hospitalization was somewhat higher, reaching as much as 78% among children.
However, less than 1% of American children under the age of 5 are hospitalized due to complications from the flu every year, according to figures from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Federal health officials maintain that annual influenza vaccination remains the best tool to reduce hospitalizations and deaths. A 2024 CDC overview on flu vaccine benefits said vaccination prevents “millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths” in a typical season.
Still, skepticism about flu shots has persisted for decades.
A 2006 CBS News investigation revisited a government-backed study that found flu vaccination in the elderly did not reduce death rates, a conclusion later echoed in several international studies. The report, by journalist Sharyl Attkisson, suggested billions of dollars had been spent on a mass vaccination program without delivering expected results.
In November 2021, UTMB had previously indicated that the university health science center and hospital would comply with one of then-President Joe Biden’s COVID mandates that required most employees at institutions receiving funds from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to receive the shot.
The tension between federal recommendations, academic medical policies, and public skepticism leaves institutions like UTMB at the center of the debate.