Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said the Pentagon’s policy change to no longer require all U.S. troops to get flu shots is a “mistake,” drawing a contrast between flu vaccines and more controversial COVID-19 vaccines.

“I think it’s a mistake,” Wicker told reporters Tuesday when asked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the U.S. armed services will no longer require all troops to get flu shots.

“The notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member, everywhere, in every circumstance at all times is just overly broad and not rational,” Hegseth said in a social media post announcing the change.

Wicker said the flu vaccine has long been shown to be safe and effective while the COVID vaccine, which was developed through Operation Warp Speed during the first Trump administration, has less of a track record in public health.

“I don’t equate them with COVID shots, which were largely experimental and had not stood the test of time,” he said of flu vaccines.

“When I was on active duty and a reservist, I dutifully took my flu shot every year. And as a whole it made for a healthier” armed forces, Wicker said.

Asked if dropping the requirement for universal flu shots would affect military readiness, Wicker responded: “Marginally.”

More than 8,000 active duty and reserve service members were discharged from the military in 2021 and 2022 for refusing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Members of the military are also required to receive vaccines for Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Measles, Polio, Tetanus-Diphtheria, bacterial meningitis and chickenpox.

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